October 30, 1993 South Kenton to Golders Green
Day two began for us at this stop on the Bakerloo Line.
Over half a year after completing an April walk in Cornwall I returned to the trail, if so it can be called, for a short day’s stroll on the Green London Way. In fact I was testing a sore right heel that had bothered me since the spring walk and also taking a chance that a back strain that I had incurred bending over my sock drawer the day before the walk would not be too debilitating. I was also dreadfully tired – since the walk took place only the day after the Halloween dance at the school (which I had chaperoned) on an evening in which the Greek tenants from the top floor flat had marched up the stairs in dispute at 3:10 in the morning.
Toby, wearing a new purple harness, was also testing a spinal injury that had surfaced in the summer, but there was no sign of any problem as he bounded into the park on a cold and gloomy Saturday morning, barking with excitement as he saw his entire family gathering for an expedition. We made our way through the park and arrived at 9:00 at the Maida Vale tube stop, where Mary and David Otto (my department chairperson and my financial advisor respectively) soon joined us.
It seemed strange to wander over to the northbound platform, where we were soon whisked to Queen’s Park. Here we waited for a train that would continue even farther north on the Bakerloo Line – and thus we were able to arrive at 9:33 at South Kenton. Tosh was standing on the platform directly outside our door – no Harold today.
I had chosen a suburban walk because I did not know how long members of this party (including myself) were prepared to walk, and I knew there would be several escape routes if we undertook a second day on the route worked out by Bob Gilbert as the Green London Way. Tosh had xeroxed the relevant pages of this day’s march and I had added xeroxes of the relevant pages of the London A-Z.
I kept these pieces of paper in the pouch of my blue UCLA sweatshirt, which was my only outer garment. I was a bit chilled most of the day but I disdained my rain jacket. Most of the rest of the group wore jackets and some of the ladies were in mittens. We had been promised sunny intervals but the skies remained uniformly grey throughout the day. When the wind picked up it was not too pleasant but most of the day was fair walking weather and all of it was dry.
I had to keep my eyes down as I read off the directions to David, who was usually a few feet ahead. We exited South Kenton Station next to the Windermere pub and Tosh ducked into a newsagent to buy some liquid. Then we were off onto a series of eastward trending suburban working class streets lined with bungalows. The farther east we got the posher the neighborhoods became but all of this morning’s regions seemed to possess a mixture of black, Asian, Oriental, and Jewish residents. After a few minutes we reached busy Preston Road – where a shop offered a translation service to this mixed population. I was surprised when no one wanted to stop at a coffee shop.
When we reached another tube stop we crossed the street at a pelican crossing and continued east on Uxendon Crescent. At the bottom of a hill we crossed under a railway viaduct and began a gentle climb on Uxendon Hill. Toby was quite distressed that his flock were not all walking on the same side of the street so we urged everyone to kept to the left as we looked for a break in the houses, one that would lead to a field path paralleling the railway line. In open countryside at last, we were able to let Toby loose for the climb up to the woodland that crowned Barn Hill. Toby insisted on running back and forth between Tosh, who had stayed behind for a quiet pee, and the rest of us.
One of the few real ascents of the day brought us up to a pond, where Toby met some other dogs and we each had a candy bar provided by Tosh. Fortunately the dog didn’t see the water (I had just given him a drink from his chrome bowl) and he was still reasonably dry when we reached the triangulation pillar at the summit and turned to the left, following an instruction to head for some Lombardy poplars. I wasn’t entirely confident that I was following Gilbert’s instructions precisely on our descent from the hill – since there were so many paths to choose from – but at the bottom we arrived at a busy main road, which I took to be Freyant Way, and after a perilous crossing, it soon appeared that I had guessed right.
We crossed several fields and joined a paddock fence at a stable. Dorothy put Toby back on lead as we neared the horses themselves, just inside the Slough Lane entrance to Freyant Way Country Park. Here we were back in suburbia for a bit, passing over two recreation grounds full of kids playing Saturday football and their dogs – having a go at this sport as well. After walking down Townsend Lane a bit we stopped while Dorothy and Mary used loos in the changing rooms while I checked our progress on the map and Toby raced back and forth between the two halves of his party.
We cut diagonally across the playing field and turned right along a hedgerow to reach Cool Oak Lane. Here we turned right and I began to look for a short drive that would lead down to a path to the Welsh Harp reservoir. David turned a few inches too soon (down another short drive) and our group ended up in the grounds of a private shooting club, where we directed to return – and try again on the opposite side of the fence. Again I wasn’t too sure of Gilbert’s directions but before long we were standing at the shore of the reservoir (Toby, for some reason, was standing in it). The Ottos were classifying sailing boat types while the rest of us munched Braeburn apples. There was some talk of using this as a lunch site but we couldn’t agree on such a strategy – so we continued east, along the shore of the reservoir, and soon joined Cool Oak Lane again.
After squeezing over a narrow road bridge I found a slit in the fence behind a crash barrier and we were able to continue behind houses along the water’s edge. A small dog, seeing Toby, charged forward furiously to attack his own back fence. Kayakers were practicing in the foreground and swans were swooping over the water in the rear. I didn’t realize it at the time, but at just about this spot I reached mile 2300 in my British walking career.
As we walked along dwindling paths in the woods more and more requests were heard for lunch, but there wasn’t an appropriate place to stop. The ground was wet and when we at last emerged at a weir the site was foul with industrial waste. People began to look at me longingly, as though I could control the environment, but the best I could offer was the oasis of the Brent Cross Shopping Center, still some minutes ahead of us.
The next few moments must provide the least idyllic setting for any mile of walking on British footpaths – for the way forward, under highway ramps and railway bridges, up skywalks and onto traffic islands, held as its focus that great knot of perpetual motion, the origins of the M1 motorway. We passed a car wash that offered a special on “Five Minute Hand Jobs.”
David and I lead the procession with Toby in tow, while the grumbling ladies exchanged food parcels somewhere behind us. We descended at last to the parking lot of the shopping center and, opposite John Lewis, I found a sloping bit of grass that might serve as a desperation picnic site.
The girls were a long time catching up because my wife, celebrating the tenth anniversary of her crashing fall on the North Downs Way, had stumbled on a curb and fallen on her chin, bruising arm and neck and smashing (yet again) the temples of her glasses. For a while it seemed that she had lost a gold bracelet as well – but this turned up on the bathroom floor several days later. She seemed in remarkably good spirits after such a shock and she was soon dispensing sandwiches to the rest of the hungry walkers. Toby ate a hard boiled egg and I ate half a package of tropical trail mix.
Shoppers and drivers paused to look quizzically at our group but we were not in any mood to linger anyway– because each of us wrinklies was beginning to stiffen up on the damp ground. My heel had been performing pretty well but it was tender again as we started off and headed over to the mall.
Naturally Tosh lead a crusade for coffee but I couldn’t take Toby inside and Dorothy and I sat on a bench while the others made their purchases inside. I had expected all but Tosh to head for home at this point but by the time I had explained the travel options they all chose to continue on to Golders Green, some four miles further on. Of course I didn’t tell them that.
It wasn’t easy crossing Prince Charles Drive against the Saturday traffic but we were at last able to leave the motorways behind us and continue along Renters Avenue and into Hendon Park. At the far end we took Shirehall Lane to the east. Gilbert actually encourages a brief detour from this route to bring walkers past the Load of Hay pub, a suggestion that was welcomed readily by our group. Toby was “most welcome” and we were soon sitting in a quiet corner with David, Dorothy and I drinking double whiskeys. David discovered that bargain rates were available for those hopeful souls who wanted to buy a packet of five condoms from the gents but when I paid this place a visit I discovered that another selection offered mint-flavored rubbers.
At about 1:30 we began our walk again, once more plodding along pavements in the cold gray afternoon. We continued south on Brent Street until just before the North Circular Road – where a path to the east took us down beside the River Brent. There was a nice stroll along autumnal paths in parkland for several minutes and when we emerged near the Mutton Bridge a continuation on the other side of the road allowed us to resume our waterside meanderings. Eventually we were directed under a viaduct and along the Mutton Brook subsidiary, which we followed for quite some distance while a man with two muzzled greyhounds eyed a loose Toby nervously.
We had to cross the Finchley Road at one point in order to continue along the brook. Just as we left this scene behind Tosh found a piece of anti-Semitic trash stuck to a bush. (There were many Jewish families in their shabbos best strolling the streets this afternoon.) We left the brook at Addison Road and traveled through a lovely neighborhood on our way to two pieces of woodland, Little Wood and Big Wood. Once again there were many dogs being exercised.
Our climb out of Big Wood put us into Hampstead Garden Suburb. Our goal, however, was the dramatic Central Square, with its two churches, the Free Church and St. Judes, and Lutyen’s Educational Institute on our left. The whole area was so quiet that we didn’t bother putting Toby on lead until we crossed Meadway and continued south on Heathgate right up to the Hampstead Heath Extension. We passed some expensive mansions on the way.
A rugby game was in progress off to our left as we began our march across the playing fields at the bottom of the extension. There were also lots of dogs for Toby to sniff here. I let the others get ahead of me a bit because I was pouring over my xeroxed A-Z pages, lining up our position exactly. When I caught up with the others at a pavilion I suggested that we should now leave the Green London Way to make our way to transportation at Golders Green. So we turned right to reach Hampstead Way, where we turned uphill for several blocks, using Wellgarth Road to reach North End Road, where we turned right. Soon we could see the bright lights of the busy corner at Finchley Road ahead of us. We had covered nine miles today.
The Ottos dashed off to catch a 159 bus and Tosh disappeared into the loos before taking the tube. Dorothy and I had only a short wait for a number 28 bus, which deposited us only a few blocks from home. When I got up to leave the bus both my sore right heel and my stiff lower back complained bitterly. We shuffled home, where I had a bath and a few hours later we returned to the Tin Hong restaurant on Malvern for a lovely meal with the Ottos – who had clearly enjoyed their first walking adventure.
To continue with the next stage of our walk you need: