London LOOP Section 8 – Ewell West to Kingston 30th November 2011
It is the last day in November, the sun is warm, skies are clear and we both have a Wednesday off. What else could we do other than head west and do another 7 mile section of the London Loop? Leaving Romford at 10am we arrive at Ewell West Station about 2 hours later and commence the next section.
Our train from Waterloo
A brief visit to the toilets and museum at Bourne Park and then we pick up the route where we left off last week.
Bourne Park Museum
Some artefacts from the Museum
This time the park is open and we get to see the headwaters of the Hogsmill River, a lake full of waterfowl, before striding off in a north westerly direction in search of the river.
At Ewell it is but a small stream, bubbling down its small valley, which cuts between residential housing areas. Either side of the river is a mix of woodland and grassland representing an important recreational focus for the thousands of children and adults living within a short distance of it.
There are indications that the river has created flooding problems in the past that man has had to deal with through a variety of engineering solutions. Channel straightening is the most obvious, smoothing of the channel using brick walls is another and what appears to be a flood storage structure. The absence of any housing within 100 metres of the channel is perhaps the most obvious indication that this stream is not to be trusted at times of heavy rainfall. This is however a bonus, as it has ensured that the river for most of its length provides a ‘ribbon of blue’ for wildlife to thrive amongst suburbia.
The Loop directions suggest that Sir John Everett Milais used the Hogsmill River as his inspiration for his famous painting of a drowned Ophelia. I have seen the picture in question and find it hard to believe that anyone would find it deep enough to attempt to drown themselves in it. But then again, perhaps this is more evidence of how fast and dangerous the river was when in full spate?
The boardwalk under the railway from Ewell West to Stoneleigh is an excellent example of how public money and ingenious thinking can be combined to great effect for the public good. The opening up of London to walkers must have presented walks designers with many such problems around our capital. Taking the path along an elevated boardwalk, suspended in midstream as it pierces this tunnel is a unique solution in my experience. Hopefully, public money permitting, the entire length of the Hogsmill can be opened up for walkers by such ingenuity and drive.
As we negotiate one of the numerous river crossings along the Hogsmill we hear a familiar sound from the trees. A parakeet is making that distinctive squawking sound we have heard so often on the Loop south of the river. A second and then a third bird pipes up and we see the distinctive colour and flight of these birds hoping from tree to tree. Recent articles in the press suggest a potential culling of these birds, which are reported as ranging from 5,000 to 100,000 in number in the London area. Readers responses to the cull suggestion are interesting. Some want them culled, for the sake of our indigenous bird species, others see them as a welcome visitor. They certainly catch the eye (and ear), although I have yet to experience them in Romford and may feel differently about these interesting characters once they do arrive in large numbers in my back garden. Their greatest benefit is that they make people aware of wildlife in the UK and stimulate healthy debate about it.
The pleasant walk continues alongside the Hogsmill until the peace and quiet of the walk is shattered by a brief encounter with the internal combustion engine as the route crosses the A240. Crossing is only a 2 minute affair but the impact is quite significant. Interestingly enough, escaping back into the wild restores tranquillity within just a few metres of leaving the road.
One interesting fact I had not noticed until now is that we have been walking in Surrey since leaving Ewell and only now are we back into London proper.
The Loop is obviously still a work in progress. Some parts of it could be improved considerably, the next section is just such a one. Downstream of the Kart Track at Tolworth we are forced away from the line of the river and have to take a rather tedious walk around suburban Old Malden. Hopefully the Loop creators will be able to negotiate a riverside walk before too long and make this a more acceptable section for walking.
Just before we return to the Hogsmill, after our detour, we stop for lunch at the St John the Baptist church, Old Malden. No this is not a new eating house, but has a very nice bench in the churchyard. Here we are able to take a brief respite and fill our stomachs. It is the last such chance we will get before reaching Kingston as the ambiance deteriorates considerably as we approach the town. Before leaving St John’s it is worth a walk around the graves, some of which make interesting reading. One notably large plot is occupied by someone very grand, with the initials TW (or WT) engraved on his stone. I also note that in one part of the church yard there was a fashion for celtic crosses during the early 20th century. Fashion lives, even after death it seems.
St John the Baptist church, Old Malden
(Writer’s note: Two years on and it is only now I realise the significance of Malden to Betty. Her Great Grandfather was a famous Victorian Artist, John Sargeant Noble. He spent his final years painting at New Malden, not 2 miles from here and may well be buried in this very churchyard – we shall have to go back and check sometime soon)
As noted earlier, the walk is less interesting beyond Old Malden, taking us through a relatively uninspiring stretch of parkland, across the busy A3 Malden Way. We are well and truly into London suburbia now.
Beyond berry Hill we walk through an area of light industry including a sewage treatment works and a monumental stone masons. It is healthy to see such employment available in this area, where most of the inhabitants commute into the city. However, what is less healthy is the rapid increase in the number of flies encountered. I suspect the sewage farm has a part to play in this.
The alarming number of flies continues as we walk into Kingston along Lower Marsh Road. The name suggests this may have been an area infested with flies on hot summer days in times gone by, but it is an unexpected and unwanted experience in late November in the 21st Century. At first I suspect it is just a few following us, but it soon becomes apparent that they fill the air as we pick our way alongside the Hogsmill once again before. The LOOP directions advise us that the Duke of Buckingham was killed at the nearby Battle of Surbiton, so perhaps they are the descendants of flies that benefited from his rotting corpse!
Once we get to central Kingston the fly problem eases and we pause to enjoy the sight of trout swimming in the clear waters of the Hogsmill below. At County Hall we take in the key tourist sight here, the Chair of Majesty upon which Saxon kings were crowned. This tradition would have been one of many consigned to history by the Norman Invasion in 1066.
As we approach the River Thames we catch sight of a Kingfisher streaking along the stream course. This sighting and the earlier trout remind us that despite the expansion of urban London, there is still plenty of nature to be found in our capital. Across the Thames awaits Bushy Park and nature aplenty. We however, decide that we have walked enough for one day. The pre-Christmas crowds are flocking into all manner of shops and we decide to join them as we make our way up through John Lewis to the top floor café and enjoy a well earned cuppa as darkness descends.
