Posts
Laurie, Andrew, Nigel and myself. We start.(Ignore The Danger of Death sign)
Homo Sapiens emerged from Africa, so the
most recent theories speculate, about 200, 000 years ago. They were a group
that took over from and replaced other hominids such as the Neanderthals. There
they were and here we are, Nigel, Andrew, Laurie and myself, large brained,
standing erect on two feet, arms, hands, ears and eyes, four prime examples of
Homo Sapiens that set out on a walk the other day from Crystal Palace train
station and headed by foot across south London to Wandsworth. We and our bodies
were doing what all hominids should do and that is move ourselves.
Laurie trying to remember how to walk. Practicing on Crystal Palace Station platform.
The four of us were walking section four,
of The Capital Ring Walk, Crystal Palace to Streatham Common, about 4 miles and
also continuing by walking section five, Streatham Common to Wimbledon Park,
about five miles. I know all these places. I’ve driven through them and past
them and taken the train through their various train stations up to Waterloo
and out to south London destinations. Walking through them, at a pace not much
more than two or three miles an hour, is a different experience altogether. The
Capital Ring Walk is one of a series of seven different walks you can find
described on the Transport for London website. Each walk comes with maps and
descriptions of sites encountered and the historical background of various
places along the way. The purpose written on the Transport for London Website
describes the walk.
” The Capital Ring Walk offers you the
chance to see some of London's finest scenery. Divided into 15, easy-to-walk
sections, it covers 78 miles (126KM) of open space, nature reserves, Sites of
Specific Scientific Interest and more.”
It also
suggests it is a healthy thing to do, a way to get fit in an enjoyable way. I
would rather get fit in this way, getting out and experiencing the world rather
than be numbingly bored on the fitness machines in an enclosed gym.
Crystal Palace Station. Echos of the the great Crystal Palace itself which was located in the park nearby.
Andrew lives in
North London, Nigel lives in Greenwich and Laurie and I live close to each
other in Motspur Park, SW20. We decided on a time, 10am, to meet at the café in
Crystal Palace train station foyer. The café at Crystal Palace station is
small. The station and railway is run by Southern Rail but a group of young
enthusiastic ladies appear to be making a vibrant going concern of the cafe.
Home made cakes, freshly made sandwiches and a good selection of coffees and
teas are sold. The tables and chairs are crammed into the small homely café.
Mirrors and a nice selection of prints are on the wall. We were lucky to get a
table to sit at. Andrew had arrived first and grabbed a table and four chairs
to himself fighting off all comers until myself and Laurie arrived and finally
Nigel. The only drawback was wanting to use the loo. The café did not have a
toilet. They had an arrangement with Southern Rail though. A bright young lady
behind the counter gave me a pass card to get through the electronic barriers
onto the train platform to use the Southern Rail toilet facilities. This meant negotiating
not only the ticket barrier but also a steep flight of steps onto the
platform. But nothing is perfect.
The cafe at Crystal Palace Station, our meeting place.
We set off from
the station, after taking a group selfie making us look like four manic
teenagers rather than the four aging hippies we actually are. We set off westwards
along Station Road and then turned into Anerley Hill Road and continued along Belvedere Road. Many of
the houses are substantial in size,Victorian and Edwardian villas. We passed
number number 22 Beleveder Road with a blue plaque positioned on its front.
This plaque commemorated Benjamin Waterhouse Hawkins. (1807-1889) who designed
and had made the dinosaurs in Crystal Palace Park nearby. They have been a
delight to children and adults for generations. Andrew made the point that they
are not anatomically correct. This is an issue for paleontologists over the
centuries. What does a dinosaur look like just from a few fossilized bones? We
are much better at interpreting dinosaurs nowadays with sophisticated
technology and analytical devises but what Dinosaurs were really like is something
scientists will always explore. Andrew is one among many to speculate.
This is the house where Benjamin Waterhouse Hawkins (1807-1889) lived, designer of concrete dinosaurs. They can be found in Crystal Palace Park.
We arrived at
Norwood Grove, a pleasant park land set around a hill with a large white
Victorian mansion surmounting the central hill with extensive views over South
London and Surrey.
Norwood Grove House.
The house and park have a rich history, including being the
site of a hunting lodge used by Charles II and from the 1840s, the time from
which the present house dates, being owned by Arthur Anderson the founder of
the P&O, the Pacific and Orient shipping company. Of course it also has a
mention in the Domesday Book. The Normans were nothing if not thorough. We
stopped and sat on a park bench for a while next to the house taking in the
views and discussing the varied planting of shrubs and trees in the park. It’s
amazing the knowledge you acquire by the age of your early 60s.
Phil and Rosa's bench.
The park and
the house are now owned by Croydon Council. It is used as an education
facility. While we were there a toddlers play scheme was underway with tots on
the verge of falling over and rolling down the hill at any moment to get lost
in the shrubbery borders. The playschool assistants appeared vigilant. The
bench we sat on commemorated “Phil and Rosa,” who had enjoyed a friendship and
many happy hours together, presumably on this spot. I wonder if there will be a
park bench commemorating us four one day?
Caged!! The entrance to Norwood Grove.
One particular
place we walked through bordered by Biggin Hill Road and Gibson Way was Biggin
Wood. It is only a small wood hidden behind 1930s housing. It has a plaque
displayed providing information about the flaura and fauna. It appears to be
used by local schools for nature study. What fascinated me about this small
wood though was that it is a tiny remnant of the Great North Wood from which
Norwood, gets its name. The earliest records of the woods go back to 1272. It
originally covered about three and half square kilometres and reached Lambeth,
Southwark, Croydon and Bromley. Many oak trees were taken from the forest for
ship building at Deptford and also charcoal burning was carried out in the
forest. By this time, and it might be something to do with the allure of trees,
Andrew, Nigel, Laurie and myself were having bladder problems. We were getting,
“desperate,” not to put a fine point on it. We each found our own personal tree and
disappeared behind it. Bladders are a bugger at our age. When we all emerged,
which seemed simultaneously, we looked at each other and broke out laughing.
Biggin Wood, a small remaining part of the ancient North Wood.
We walked on to
The Rookery Gardens. Nigel told me how he had brought his children here when
they were young, to play. It is situated on a hill with wide views and has well
laid out shrubs and bushes creating a beautiful garden. It is on the site of
Streatham Spa. Queen Victoria visited Streatham Spa for the waters and stayed
in a house on the site of The Rookery Gardens. There were three springs
discovered at Streatham Spa in 1659. Walking on we passed the flamboyantly
styled Streatham Common Pumping Station in Conyers Road. It was built in 1888
to a Moorish design. Laurie and I stopped to look at this building. We couldn’t
decide what it was at first. We thought it was a Mosque.
Streatham Common Pumping Station.
It was good to be able to have time to talk to
Nigel. I have not been able to see much of him in recent years. He now lives in
Greenwich but he used to be a neighbour of mine in Motspur Park. We talked about education. He is a Professor
of Law and I am retired junior school teacher. We had a discussion about creating practical learning
experiences. Nigel told me how he had developed a course using practical
situations as a learning experience. It
was good to catch up on each other’s lives and our respective families.
I first got to
know Andrew, many years ago, when the two us, in company with Laurie, took a
fishing trip out of St Malo harbour in
Brittany. The sea was a little choppy that day and I proceeded to be violently
seasick for the whole time out there. We were out there for hours. Andrew and I, as we walked along had a
discussion about a TV programme that he had seen recently about a group of
retirees who took on the challenge of working on a Tuscany vineyard with the
prospect of buying it and running it as a going concern. I thought it was too
much hard work and an overly steep learning curve. Andrew was much more positive than me about it. He
obviously is more adventurous than I am and prepared to take a chance on that
sort of thing. Am I too cautious?
As we passed
Streatham Common we noticed that a fun fair was being set up. Funfairs are
great experiences. I love them. However, I can’t go on the rides these days and
candy floss makes me sick. I’m no good at hoopla and I don’t really want to win
a giant cuddly toy. The Ghost train is a clanking booing bore. My distance
sight is a little blurry and doesn’t allow me to shoot straight on the shooting
gallery. It must be the allure of garish colours, shrieks of laughter and the sour smell of fried onions that attracts me. Maybe this walk was revealing something to me about myself?
There is a very moving war memorial at the junction of Streatham Common North and Streatham High Road. It is set back amongst copper beaches and horse chestnuts on a piece of grassed land separate from the main part of the common called Streatham Memorial Garden. A bronze statue of a young soldier of the first world war is standing, head bowed ,holding his reversed rifle like a supporting crutch in front of himself. The attitude and pose is contemplative, prayerful and quite moving. I took a picture of Nigel standing in front of the memorial.
There is a very moving war memorial at the junction of Streatham Common North and Streatham High Road. It is set back amongst copper beaches and horse chestnuts on a piece of grassed land separate from the main part of the common called Streatham Memorial Garden. A bronze statue of a young soldier of the first world war is standing, head bowed ,holding his reversed rifle like a supporting crutch in front of himself. The attitude and pose is contemplative, prayerful and quite moving. I took a picture of Nigel standing in front of the memorial.
Nigel beside the war memorial at Streatham Common Memorial Garden.
Tooting Common
was next. Tooting Common has a couple of associations. A good friend, Gabriel
Mesh and his lovely daughter, Ellen, organize and run the Tooting Blues and
Folk Festival on Tooting Common every summer at the beginning of August. The
site of the festival , a short walk from Tooting Bec underground station is
located near Dr Johnson Road. And here is the second association. In the 18th
century Mr and Mrs Thrale owned Streatham House. The site was just off Tooting
Bec Road and there is a road called Thrale Road in the vicinity. Mr Thrale made
his money in the brewing industry. The famous Dr Johnson , creator of the first
English Dictionary, got to know and befriended Mr Thrale. Dr Johnson visited
the Thrales in Tooting and became much enamoured of Mrs Thrale. They had a platonic
relationship by all accounts. Dr Johnson
moved in with the Thrales and lived with them. He attracted other writers, artists
and musicians to come to Tooting such as Fanny Burney and her composer father,
Charles Burney, Joshua Reynolds, Edmund Burke and David Garrick. Hester Thrale
became an important hostess, promoting the arts. Her painting can be found in the National
Portrait Gallery just off Trafalgar Square. Dr Johnson had a word for our endeavours of course;
" Ambulation.n.s. [ambulatio, Lat.] The act of walking.
" Ambulation.n.s. [ambulatio, Lat.] The act of walking.
From the occult and invisible motion of the muscles in station, proceed more offensive lassitudes, than from ambulation. Brown's Vulgar Errours, b. iii. c. 1." (The 1777 edition)
Tooting Bec Lido.
Laurie had been given orders by Pat, to visit
Tooting Bec Lido. Pat was brought up in Tooting and often spent her Summer
holidays at the Lido. However, we were getting tired and the day had been long
so Laurie felt he had done his duty with a few posed photographs next to the
Tooting Bec Lido sign.
Tooting Bec Lido is one of
Britain's oldest open air pools — it opened to the public on Saturday 28 July
1906 as the Tooting Bathing-Lake. Digging the lake had been proposed by the
Reverend John Henry Anderson, Rector of Tooting, as a project to provide work for unemployed
local men. It holds one million gallons (4,500 m3) of water.
It is the largest swimming pool by surface area in the United Kingdom
being 100 yards (91.44 m) long and 33 yards (30.18 m) wide.
We walked on to
Wandsworth Common and found a park bench to eat our packed lunches. We sat on a
bench in a shaded green area surrounded by trees and lovely Victorian houses.
Wandsworth Railway station was to our left. As we sat quietly munching away on
our sandwiches and contemplating life ,as you do, a young couple with a dog
appeared on the opposite side of this piece of greensward. The young lady sat down
on a bench with the dog tethered to a long lead. The young man proceeded to do
energetic press ups on the ground in front of his admiring lady. We felt
exhausted just watching him and, if I am truthful, a little bemused. What was
THAT all about?
Wandsworth
Common took us past the playing fields of Emmanuel School. At a distance we
could see some of the boys playing a cricket match. The main line to Waterloo
from the south goes past Wandsworth Common and Emmanuel School. On the morning
of the 12th December 1988, on the line just outside of Clapham
Junction station and located at the bottom of the railway embankment below Emmanuel School a crowded passenger
train crashed into the back of another train that had stopped at a red light. Thirty-five
people were killed and over four hundred people were injured. Sixth form boys
from Emmanuel School scrambled down the embankment to help carry stretchers and
help injured people on the train. As you travel on the train up to Waterloo, if
you look up on the embankment as you approach Calpham Junction, there is a
small memorial garden with a stone monument placed near the top of the
embankment commemorating this terrible disaster. I remember it vividly because
Marilyn taught in Lambeth at that time and took the train on this line. She
didn’t get home until midnight on that day. All transport systems were stopped.
I couldn’t get hold of her either so I was worried that she was safe. In fact
she had got on the train that left just before the crash.
From Wandsworth
Common we walked towards the prison.
A terraced cottage in Alma Terrace leading up to Wandsworth Prison.
The road leading to the prison has some
lovely Victorian terraced workmen’s cottages fronted by well-kept gardens with tended
rose bushes, hydrangeas and other hardy shrubs. When you get to the end of this
road it is quite a shock to be confronted by the high prison walls and austere,
foreboding entrance of Wandsworth Prison. Andrew and myself searched the sky to
see if we could see any drones. It has become general knowledge that criminal
gangs have been getting drugs and other illegal items into prisons by way of
remote controlled drones, but of course we saw none. In 1965 Ronnie Biggs, the
Great Train robber escaped from Wandsworth and travelled to Brazil. Oscar Wilde
was imprisoned here briefly before he was sent to Reading Gaol where he wrote the
famous Ballad of Reading Gaol. Rather sadly, in 1953, Derek Bentley was executed
here. His crime occurred when he was escaping from a robbery over some factory
roofs in Croydon. A policeman appeared. Bentley was reported to have shouted to
his accomplice, “Let him have it!” His accomplice, who was a minor at the time, shot the policeman dead.
Bentley was accused of his murder and so executed. But the evidence was hearsay
and Bentley had quite severe learning difficulties.
The entrance to Wandsworth Prison.
Andrew, Laurie,
Nigel and myself walked on. We decided to stop at the Halfway House pub next to
Earlsfield Station in Garret Lane. It was my idea. Laurie told me off and has
reminded me of my misdemeanor ever since.
Keen to have a beer.
Nigel, Andrew and Lauire had walked some of
the Capital Ring Walk already, before I interloped on this day. They had made a
policy of not going into pubs and drinking. It was my influence that made them
buy pints and sit down, in a very convivial atmosphere, to have a
drink or two. Well, I don’t think it took much persuading but there you are.
And so we ended our walk. We will continue with some more of the Capital Ring
sections another time I am sure.
As you can
probably tell, it is good to walk. Very good.
Reference:
https://tfl.gov.uk/modes/walking/top-walking-routes
https://tfl.gov.uk/modes/walking/top-walking-routes
