greenford Archives - the lost byway

A walk along sections 7, 8, and part of Walk 9 of London’s Capital Ring

This glorious walk feels a long time ago now. It was early March and looking for ideas for a walk I found the leaflets for the Capital Ring I’d picked up in Islington Libraries about 20 years ago. I was feeling a bit under the weather, so the walks being divided into roughly 5-mile sections was handy. In the end I walked Sections 7, 8 and the first half of Walk 9 which took me to the top of Horsenden Hill for a Glorious sunset.

Walk 7 – Richmond Bridge to Osterley Lock. This route takes us along the Thames Path to Isleworth, then through Syon Park to Brentford Bridge where we pick up the Grand Union Canal to Osterley Lock.

Walk 8 – Osterley Lock to Greenford. Continuing along the Grand Union Canal we then follow the River Brent beneath the Wharncliffe Viaduct at Hanwell and on to Greenford.

Walk 9 – Horsenden Hill and Sudbury Hill. With the light fading I continued to the summit of Horsenden Hill before continuing in the gloom to Sudbury Hill.

West London for me reeks of uncanniness, a sense of something slightly out of the ordinary that you can feel humming in the brickwork, radiating off the too green parkland grass, and nestling behind the net curtains. The garden suburbs at Hanger Hill Garden Estate and the Brentham Estate almost belong to a suburban version of the Hobbit shire, more than railway fueled urban expansion into the Middlesex countryside. The fairy princess said to be slumbering under the bus stop at Ealing (Ealine’s) Haven adds to the mystery, along with the Saxon Warriors excavated still wearing their cloaks in Hanwell, and the glorious legend of Horsenden Hill and Horsa’s mighty ghostly steed roaming the fields of Greenford at night. All of this and more swirled through my mind as I wandered from West Acton Station through Perivale and Greenford to Northolt on Easter Saturday.

River Brent

I could basically park hop the whole way – Hanger Hill Park, Pitshanger Park, Perivale Park, Northala Fields, and Belvue Park. The Northala Hills should be added to that list of the uncanny – giant mounds of Wembley Stadium and White City rubble, burial mounds of c20th grand spectacle. A magnificient sight – climb to the top and drink in the expansive views.

I could have pushed on, but I’d been led out here by the memory of a walk from Easter 2014 along the Grand Union Canal that ended across Belvue Park and into The Crown pub. So that is where my homing instincts dragged each weary foot.