London LOOP Section 16-Elstree to Cockfosters 24th October 2011
It has been 3 months since our last Loop walk from Hamsey Green to Coulsden and we are a bit out of the habit. We’ve walked quite a bit, including 2 weeks in the Lake District but the Loop is a different mindset. Where shall we go? What time should we set off? How will we get to the start and return from the finish? Looping involves much more than just walking from A to B.
The section we choose is the Elstree to Cockfosters section. When we last did the northern part of the Loop it was back in early Spring and the ground was very muddy underfoot. None of that problem this time. Summer seems to be reaching right into late October, with the ground parched and brown.
This section of the Loop is easy to get to from East London, involving only 1hr 30 mins from our home in Romford to Elstree. Since my 17 year old son Will is staying with us we corral him into coming for a walk. It is only when we got to Elstree that he thinks to ask us how far we would be walking. His eyes almost pop out of his head when I read the directions to him and he discovers that this is the longest section of the whole Loop, at 10 miles. Still too late to turn back and it is a lovely day.
The station at Elstree and Boreham Wood is a pleasant start point for a journey, with the added interest of the studio association. Like something out of Hollywood, the forecourt is decorated with a liberal sprinkling of the names of famous actors including Harrison Ford, Patrick McGee and Reg Varney (you know – “On the Buses” – not quite Hollywood perhaps, but interesting).
The first mile or so of the walk is a bit lacking in ambiance, involving a suburban street followed by the busy A411 Barnet Lane. Some sections of the Loop show that the local contributors have thought hard about the route. This one was somewhat lacking in imagination. Perhaps 2 weeks in the Lake District had spoiled us, but the traffic noise was pretty intolerable.
Eventually we find the sanctuary of a small path between the opulent housing lining the main road. Why do people with sufficient wealth to buy one of these ostentatious piles, not choose to live somewhere quieter, if a little smaller? Nonetheless, those of us blessed with abodes away from such thundering traffic still have to come to terms with traffic noise on a few occasions when walking any one of the Loops 26 Sections.
Once into the calming sanctuary of this quiet path, we are momentarily regaled by one of peripheral London’s other blights – fly tipping. Fly tippers appear to go to extraordinary lengths to find places to dump their rubbish. Perhaps X is renovating a flat. A friend tells him he knows of Y who has a van who will take the rubbish off his hands. Y drives out of town in the dead of night and somehow finds a farm track down which he drives for 400 metres until he finds a suitably quiet space on Z’s land and dumps his collection of bathroom porcelain, old toys and rubble. Has Y combed the whole of the London periphery to find this choice spot? Does he have several such prospective dumps? One assumes it is all worth the effort instead of taking it to a legitimate recycling centre?
Before long we are in one of those little gems of the Loop – Scratchwood Nature Reserve. It is probably pure chance that this area of Oak Woodland survived until the 20th Century. However, current planning laws have since protected these potentially valuable chunks of development land from total obliteration. Without them a walk around the London Loop would be of limited interest.
In the middle of the woodland we stumble across a small group of Roman soldiers and complimentary barbarians. A small film company is filming in the open meadow area. The Romans are currently doing their scene, whilst the barbarian hordes are sitting with their skin-clad legs up on plastic tables, reading magazines and drinking coffee from the portable café shipped in for the shoot. We move on quickly before they can burst into a chorus of Monty Python’s “Spam”.
Eventually the ‘barbarian’ solitude of the oak woodlands gives way to the roar of traffic along the A1(M). Unwelcome as this noise is, it is somehow less invasive than the traffic noise experienced earlier. There now follows a 1km trudge heading alongside the roaring A1(M), crossing via an underpass and then the return journey up the other side. This section would benefit from a detour that avoided the A1(M) by perhaps as little as 100 metres. Perhaps through the adjacent golf course or the grounds of Mill Hill County High School? Some negotiations may be in order. A footbridge over the A1 could be a good contender for Lottery Funding. The Loop directions advise “Buses to Edgware can be caught here” . Edgware suddenly sounds very tempting! Temptation overcome, we grit teeth and continue with our walk.
Once this intrusion is passed we plunge into Moat Mount Open Space and immediately make an error of judgement. Errors of judgement are not uncommon on the Loop. The hornbeam grove we enter is so charming that we inevitably follow the beckoning route between these lovely trees up the hill to a pond. It is only then that we realise we have missed our turn off to the left and have to return.
The challenge for Loop walkers is the juggling of directions and map, spotting the waymarks on the ground (some of which may have been removed) and the distractions of the scenery around you. A more detailed map would help, as the one printed off the web site is very limited in its usefulness. It is at this point that you realise investment in the local 1:25,000 scale OS map would be wise.
We find the required steps and follow the brook uphill. Alas October 2011 has been one of the driest on record, following several other dry months, and the brook is but a dry slash through the woods.
The next section is a vast improvement following track ways and footpaths through farmland for perhaps a kilometre, before a further road section gives way to several kilometres of nature reserve and farmland. Eventually the route picks its way across short cropped public open space with the occasional dog walker and a couple of unwelcome youths on a motor scooter. In these times of financial pressure one has to wonder why the local authority pay for regular mowing of such a large area of open space. Hardly anyone is using it, despite it being a sunny and warm half term day. Ironically the only children we come across are diving into the natural vegetation at the edge of this open space.
This is perhaps one of the less salubrious parts of London suburbia where clear mown open grassland feels safer than areas of long grass and scrub invasion. Either way we are none of us impressed by this section of the Loop and are relieved to reach the A110 at Barnett Hill. We stop briefly for a £1 cup of tea at the Old Red Lion pub, before continuing along the route up Potters Lane.
A small area of grassland is followed by a snatch of suburban street before climbing up through King Georges Field to Hadley Green. The directions tell us that this is a “…. refreshing hillside of open fields….”. The area is enjoyable, with some pleasant views south across the Thames Valley. However, once again one is quickly thrown out onto a busy suburban road at Hadley Green. The grand houses here are most attractive, with some interesting historical features to be found along Hadley Green Road and Hadley Wood Road. However, once again you are regaled by excessive noise from the large numbers of cars that seem to be using Hadley Wood Road as a rat-run to somewhere else. I don’t really understand why the creators of this section of the Loop didn’t take us away from this road and through Monkden Hadley Common. I suppose we would have missed the grand old houses. Perhaps the walker should be given the option of historic houses alongside a busy road, or quiet solitude over the common?
Finally we are off the rat-run and enjoy the quiet of a mile or so through Hadley Wood before a short stretch of suburban roads to Cockfosters tube station.
From Cockfosters we have an easy return to Romford, picking our way ‘cross-country’ to Stratford in an attempt to avoid the Monday evening rush hour traffic. Well it’s all part of the Loop experience!
As I write this I have time to reflect on the day’s walk. I apologise if my account is a tad negative, but despite one of the best walking days (weather wise) so far experienced on the Loop, this has to have been the least enjoyable route that we have so far followed. Hopefully the next section will be an improvement.