Common Histories: Capital Ring Part III
This is the third in a series of walks on the Capital Ring. It represents sections 4 to most of section 7 of the official route but with some diversions for points of common interest, eating and bit of local variation.
The route takes you from the Crystal Palace Park and its station, through the parks of Norwood, the Commons of Tooting, Wandsworth and Wimbledon, Putney Heath and the Royal Parkland of Richmond, Syon and the Thames. There are views to be had looking further south and particularly from the heights of Richmond Park but the ambiance is one formed of humble domestic architecture, from art deco, mid and post war that opens back out to grand riverside hunting grounds. You are reminded that much of the area passed through early on the walk would have formed what was known as the Great North Wood, a vital pre-industrial bustling heart of the economic landscape. Industrialisation, council estate development and war have subsequently transformed this part of the city into homes and fragmented greenery. The story is one of rich landowners, battles against development and enclosure and for the preservation of land for the benefit of the many.
The travelcard from Burgess Hill Station is the way to go. You can change at East Croydon and Norwood Junction for a train to Crystal Palace but there are a number of ways to do this in about 90 minutes. Return from Brentford Station can be done via Clapham Junction. You're going surprisingly far for a Bobby Moore.
The route is well-described elsewhere but I'll give you the general feel.
Ignore the Green Link signs as we've already done this leg. Begin by very swiftly leaving Crystal Palace Park and turning left, assuming you have already seen the wonky dinosaurs. Get your eye in on the Capital Ring signage - sometimes a sign, sometimes just a sticker. Very quickly I became aware of the hilly nature of the area at the beginning of this walk. Crossing the A212 gives you a view of Crystal Palace TV Transmitting Tower and you enter Westow Park. Given the transmitter's location in top of a 109-metre (358 ft) hill, it is the highest structure above sea level in London.
Westow was originally the grounds of a couple of big old houses and there are a few chestnuts from this time. Some land was recovered from 'pre-fab' housing and it was from housing such at this that my grandparents had been accommodated after WWII bombings. From the western corner you jump Harold Road into Upper Norwood Recreation Ground. The park was opened in 1890. The river Effra is culverted underground from here.
It was then that we made a diversion to the Bloomfield Estate and to my Nan, Grandad and Mum's old home. Many a car journey from Suffolk would be made here, the change in rhythm of the roads resulting in the exhaustion of childhood car sickness and the relief of exiting onto the square. What I hadn't realised is that much of my Nan's family lived on this same estate. Bloomfield Estate was originally built in a cottage style in 1927 on land once occupied by Bloomfield Hall. You can feel some small-scale 'garden city' vibes in the greens. The housing committee spent £270 on trees here and the development proved expensive to build and for residents. Time passed and the area suffered heavily with the flying-bombs of WWII but much of it was rebuilt in the same style. I remember a front room of spanish souvenirs from the costas, flamenco dolls, Herb Albert and Engelbert Humperdinck recordings. They loved dancing.
Back to the Park, make you way to Biggin Hill. Views can be seen towards Croydon and Ikea. The chimneys were part of the Croydon B power station which dated from 1896. We missed our turning but entered Biggin Wood via the gate on Covington Way, a remnant of that Great North Wood. The road continues to Norwood Grove and we have Mr Covington and his committee to thank for preserving what was once part of Streatham Common from runaway development in the 20th century.
After Norwood Grove House, you descend Streatham Common to cross the Streatham High Road. Once over the railway, you parallel another branch for a long way before crossing it into Tooting Common. A distinction can be made between Tooting Graveney and Tooting Bec Common which make up what we might call the collective Common. Historically, these were separate parcels of land with origins with the owners, the de Graveneys and Tooting Bec Priory. To compound things, Tooting Common has also been referred to as Balham and Streatham.
At Balham we stopped for coffee and cake. Just opposite is the Art Deco Du Cane Court. The 1930s building was envisaged as one enormous self-contained apartment block with landscaped gardens, a club, pharmacy and roof-top sun-bathing. It is said the Luftwaffe used it for navigation and it survived the war unscathed when other parts of Balham suffered. The suggestion has been made that Hitler wanted it as his headquarters.
When you're through with this, quite an amount of road-walking follows before you reach Wandworth Common. Again we benefit from the Metropolitan Board of Works and a long line of protestors going back. The commons have alway come under threat from development and enclosure and this time, it is a John Charles Buckmaster who saves the day.
Continuing over Trinity Road, you are confronted first by the distinctive mock Tudor County Arms. A closer look determines that the faux timber is in fact flint-facing. Wandworth Prison is a contemporary, design from 1851. A pan-opticon featuring a central rotunda with wings radiating outwards. The architect here was Daniel Rowlinson Hill, who designed a number of institutions including Lewes prison. Just round the corner on Magdalen Road is Wandsworth Cemetery. We stopped for a little at the resting place of S's family members. He'd found it by chance a few years ago, knowing the grave was here but not where. On entering he'd braced himself for a long search but he came upon it in moments. The grave furniture is a bit dishevelled and there is a loose stone with a reference to the Royal Rifles that doesn't seem to fit.
At the end of the graveyard is Earlsfield and the station. Just after this, you cross the River Wandle. You are in the Wandle Regional Park who have developed a trail from East Croydon to Wandsworth. After Durnsford Park, Arthur Road leads you to Wimbledon Station and its Park. Descend the steps and pass some tennis courts to the lake. This is capability Browne 'Serpentine landscape', employed by the first Earl Spencer for better views. The lake is his doing and the result of damming the Bigden and Margin Brooks and not very serpentine at all. It seems the extravagant Spencers accumulated a lot of debt and annoyed many commoners with enclosure, largely for the sole benefit of the gentry. Beaumont took much of the estate off the Spencer's hands and developed the land for posh villas, the railways and later, in the west, for the middling classes. The parkland is much reduced as a result.
As you head down Wimbledon Park Road on the other side of the golf course, you will come across a boundary marker on the pavement with benchmark for Wandsworth, marked 1884. I can find nothing about it. On westward to Wimbledon and Putney Commons and we find a Henry W Peek worked against the machinations of Earl Spencer who had argued that “The land was boggy and noxious mists and fogs arose from it and great nuisance was caused by gypsies whose encampments and activities he had insufficient power to control”. Many agreed but Peek chaired the committee with the object of “the preservation of the whole of Wimbledon Common and Putney Heath unenclosed, for the benefit of the neighbourhood and the public.” The curious upshot was that an agreement was made to compensate the Spencers to this day via a 'special levy'. If you live within three quarters of a mile of the perimeter of Wimbledon Common, measured by the most direct route along roads or footpaths, or within the old Parish of Putney as it was in 1871 (which now includes much of Roehampton), your property will be subject to an additional Levy on top of any Council Tax.
We took a little short cut from Queensmere directly into the Common and on to the Windmill. It was open and houses a little museum. The unusually-designed hollow-post mill was converted to housing after its conventional purpose ceased in 1864. It stands on the site where Spencer had intended enclosure for the construction of his new manor house. The parliamentary proceedings saw an end to this plan but required the sale of the commoners' windmill and conversion to homes, less the mill workings.
You cross the Beverley Brook, which speaks of long extinct beaver meadows and then traverse the A3 into Richmond Park, at Robin Hood Gate. Charles I brought his court to nearby Richmond Palace to escape the plague sweeping through London. He turned this landscape into a hunting park, filled with red and fallow deer. Stick to the Capital Ring as it ascends the hill. Do this rather than following the tarmac with streams of Strava cyclists. The trail then takes you between Pen Ponds to just short of the top of the hill. The deer were casually resting under the trees just metres from the path and unfazed by the popular walk. The trail then steers through some particularly gnarly old trees, around Pembroke Lodge and then descends an excellent hill with views into Richmond.
Over the A307 and opposite, a path takes you round the back of St Peter's Church graveyard, through Petersham Meadows and on to the Thames towpath going north. The route was busy with strollers despite the rain. We then headed in to Richmond to find food. We settled on a pub next to The Green before rejoining the river on Cholmondeley Walk. You will pass the Twickenham Bridge, the 1933 concrete structure with Art Deco bronze embellishments. On to Richmond Lock, where you will cross.
We missed that you can continue alongside the western bank but took the diversion on to Lion Wharf Road, where you can return. You have crossed the River Crane and now you walk aside the Duke of Northumberland's River. After the historic All Saints Church at Isleworth, now largely from the 1970s, you reach Syon Park where Henry VIII's bloated corpse exploded en route to Windsor.
The Duke of Northumberland had Capability Brown and Robert Adam roped in to redesign the house and grounds in 1750. A final push is made out of the park and on to the River Brent via London Road. We crossed via the red-surfaced Cornelius footbridge to make it to Brentford Station. The black cat got lots of loves.
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