I have always wanted to walk the London Capital ring but always kept putting it off. Mostly due to not having anyone to walk it with.
Anyway, one day last year, I came across a Meetup Group that was planning on doing the walk and I thought, why not? So I signed up, headed over to Woolwich Arsenal at the very beginning of Section 1 and as they say, the rest is history.
It is almost a year since we started walking the London Capital Ring and we completed Section 9 last weekend (24/07/2016). Section 9 starts at Greenford and finishes at South Kenton with a distance on 5.5 miles (8.8km). Each section is unique and there quite a few sights that can be seen at each section.
Much to the chagrin of one of the walkers, Pokemon Go had just recently been released and some of us were going to try and catch some. I forgot to verify my email address when I signed up so it was a no go for me. However, as I write this, it seems that the novelty has worn off and the media outlets no longer report on it. Pokemon Go feels like the unpolished version of Ingress but that is a topic of another day.
We started off at Greenford and everything was going OK on the walk until we reached a bridge. As there was no sign, we thought we would carry on. However, we soon had to turn back as we were heading in the wrong direction. In hindsight, this was probably a sign as we hod to do this a few times to retrace our steps. This section was probably one of the worst with regards to signs. There were parts where there were no signs at all and other parts where we counted 6 for a road crossing! There is also a Gruffalo trail at the top of Horsenden Hill. That was a nice little surprise.
Horsenden Hill is quite steep but once at the top, the views are wonderful. Again, there was a slight confusion in which direction we needed to head as there were no signs. In the end we ended up taking the wrong path but eventually worked our way back to the main path.
We also missed the turning after Sudbury Hill Harrow train station and had to backtrack again. No Capital Ring sign here.
After this it was pretty much plain sailing. My favourite bit was Harrow On the Hill. It is very picturesque, the building from another era but very well maintained. There was a small market on Sunday selling various foodstuffs. I got myself and Mushroom and Cheese pasty. It was absolutely wonderful.
Next, through Harrow School. Again, absolutely wonderful. You have to see it. They had a field as far as the eye could see. Just before we came to the end of the field, there was a little wooden plaque with some letters and numbers. A code perhaps? Will post some pictures up when I fix my Media Uploader. It seems to have broken completely.
Next, onto Northwick Park walking past Northwick Park Hospital and onto the main part of the part a left turn and we arrived at South Kenton. Near South Kenton there is a pub called the The Windermere Pub (http://windermerepub.com/). On the day we visited, the were doing some filming. Think it was something to do with Art as there were a large number of paintings and staff from the Barbican were there.
For this section, some sights that we came across included the following:
- The Grand Union Canal
- Horsenden Hill
- Harrow School
We shall be attempting Section 10 pretty soon. Pictures to follow once I fix the uploader.
Section 9 info: https://tfl.gov.uk/modes/walking/greenford-to-south-kenton
More info on the Capital Ring can be found on the TFL website: https://tfl.gov.uk/modes/walking/capital-ring