Latest walk reports Sunday 26th June 2022

SSW5 Stratford to Finsbury Park, Wednesday 22nd June 2022

8 walkers, 8.2 miles - leader Pete Colley 

Another splendid summer's evening, another splendid group of LDWA members strolled across and out of the Olympic Park into the hipster hamlet of Hackney Wick. An ascent (and descent) of the A12 footbridge brought us to Victoria Park, the first of seven green spaces packed with Londoners basking in the evening sun; on to Well Street Common and the quiet Victorian terraced streets of 'Omerton and 'Ackney.

Past St John's Church and across Clapton Square to Hackney Downs – passing the memorial tree for the 13 young people who lost their lives in the New Cross fire in 1981. North to Stoke Newington Common, passing the traveller site at Abbey Close and a wonderful mural on the corner of Benthal and Evering Roads.

Into Abney Park Cemetery where a closed exit meant coming out the way we came in - a veritable "dead end". The long walk down Church St to Clissold Park was even longer as a result. Next up was the Castle Climbing Centre, formerly a Victorian pumping station to improve the quality of the water from the New River and the adjacent Woodberry reservoirs. To Manor House and into Finsbury Park, where we strolled through the last green space of the evening to the station and then home. 

A big thank you to those who joined the walk. Looking forward to seeing you (and others) on the next instalment.

Photographs by Gavin Fuller

Anniversary Epilogue: West from Richmond, Sunday 26th June 2022

4 walkers, 25 miles - leader Jerome Ripp

Exactly 2 years ago I lead my first post Covid lockdown walk with a group of just 2. Today’s group of 4 for walk 90 in the post Covid set was thus a 100% increase in walker numbers. This walk complemented the prologue of 2 weeks ago to give us the 50 miles for the LDWA 50. Using sections of the Thames Oath, Capital Ring, London Loop and Grand Union Canal completed the first urban part of the walk to West Drayton. The rural Chiltern Section had parts of the Beeches Way, Colne Valley Way and Shakespeare Way through the delightful Temple Gardens in Langley Park and the tree lined avenues in  Black Park, the villages of Fulmer and Hedgerley to Bulstrode Park and finished at Gerrards Cross. As promised there was plenty of adventure when a blocked path in Osterley Park necessitated a creative solution through corn fields with seed heads which stuck to our socks and boots and a military assault to reach the bridge over the M4. Later we had paths inundated with nettles and brambles and a non-existent path in Bulstode Park to add to the fun. 

Photographs by Mari Espinar and Jerome Ripp