Against the Flow: London Loop III
PURFLEET TO HAROLD WOOD VIA RAINHAM, INGREBOURNE VALLEY, UPMINSTER AND HAVERING A bank holiday Monday allowed for an excursion with S to continue our greater capital epic . This is the third of our anticlockwise takes on the London Loop and begins on the other side of the Thames, at the point where the official walk would end. We are glad to cover this stretch now, not because there is nothing to see or understand but because the Capital Ring walk taught us that parts of east London can be both tedious and pungent. This has been true for a few hundred years and understood by the wealthier property owners, safely positioned away from the industrious Thames and its malodorous advertisement on the prevailing wind. While the real workings and working histories of Londoners is exposed here unashamedly and in honesty, it will be pleasant to finish the complete adventure in a bucolic setting. Purfleet on Thames is reached by rail via London Bridge and the Jubilee Line. From Westham the C2C w...
