Planes, Palaces and Prehistory: Capital Ring Part II

WOOLWICH TO CRYSTAL PALACE

Another bank holiday, another go at the Capital Ring with S. This is the second part to that which actually corresponds to sections 1-3 of the official route. I have mapped our own movements but I'll not go into great detail here as the true walk is well-described elsewhere. S's legs seized up after lunch and an optimistic 'Let's push on to Streatham' turned into awkward effort around Crystal Palace Park to see the misshapen dinosaurs. This was a perfectly adequate finish to a tour of other palacial residences and preserved parkland.

A travelcard is an economic option from Burgess Hill. This will get you to Woolwich Arsenal via London Bridge and a return from Crystal Palace via Clapham Junction and Gatwick. This is a wooded corner of the whole route, with not exactly a carpet but a smattering of bluebells. Throughout, the parakeets were a noisy presence but if it had been a more settled and dry day, I am sure the butterflies would have been as abundant as the dogs.

From Woolwich Arsenal Station we worked our way back through the market to the entrance to the Woolwich Foot Tunnel. The path then follows the banks of the Thames, past the Woolwich Dockyard, old closed docks and gun batteries.

At Warspite Road you will turn off alongside the old Faraday Works where Siemens made underwater telegraph cables. At the end of the road, you will enter Moore Park near the Thames Barrier. You could, of course, go to the visitor centre at a cost but you might also be lucky to see it in action during the monthly testing.

Going south now over the A206 and enter Maryon Park. This surprisingly hilly and woody space is derived from a Charlton sandpit which makes it make sense. The other pit became Charlton Athletic's stadium. Both were in an area formerly known as Hanging Woods and the wooded slopes were a favourite hangout for highwaymen. Maryon-Wilson Park, nestled within this area, surprises you with animals including deer, pigs, chickens and a vocal turkey. It it also somewhat surprising that, so close to central London, you will be rising up along very tree-heavy sections 5, 6, 8 and 10 of what is also known as the Green Chain Walk. The Maryon-Wilson family hold the baronetcy of Eastbourne in Sussex. We took a little wrong turn near the toilets but reversed to regain our walker's dignity.

Skipping over the road and into Charlton Park, promenading down one side and then the other, somewhat unnecessarily, you will see before you Charlton House. This Jacobean residence can be visited for free and looks good for it. In a moment, you will be walking along Inigo Jones Road to Hornfair Park, the home of Charlton Lido. The summer house at Charlton is attributed to this architect. Once Charlton Playing fields, the space was renamed in 1948. The Fair itself was cancelled in 1874 because of riotous and drunken behaviour. Even Daniel Defoe had something to say about the event on St Luke's feast day.

On to Woolwich Common, an area preserved from enclosure. It has a long history of use by the military and naturally a target for bombing in WWII. The other side of Shooters Hill is Eltham Common and a real high point with eventual views towards the City. The hill in ancient Oxleas Wood is topped by Severndroog Castle, commemorating a battle fought by Sir William James in Suvarnadurg, India. While colonialisation in India by the British is distinctly shady, the saving of the tower isn't and the castle may be climbed by the general public on Sundays. The tea room at the bottom is open bank holidays and Thursday to Sundays and so we were able to take advantage of it. Vegan cake is available. It was a shame not to climb the tower as this point, as the folly was also used for mapping by William Roy. Ramsden's theodolite was installed here in around 1791, taking advantage of the 360 degree views forming the basis of the Ordnance Survey. Coincidentally, North Seat at Fairlight was also used for Roy's initial surveys in the 1780s and can be visited on this walk.

There is a cafe in Oxleas Meadows, before Jack Wood, Sheperdleas Wood and Eltham Park, either side of the A2. A lea is a grassy or arable field and I like to think of cattle roaming this area since prehistory.

Just before Southend Crescent is a relic of medieval waterworks for supply to Eltham Palace, in the shape of Eltham Conduit Head. Someone has done a rather wonderful 3D model here. Towards the palace itself you walk alongside an excellent brick boundary wall from the 16th century on Tilt Yard Approach. The jousting itself would have gone on beyond the gate you pass.

The Great Hall is the old bit and childhood haunt of Henry VIII and the house and gardens date from the 1930s. No time for a visit we pushed on to King John's Walk. We doubted whether he did. You get to see some donkeys before crossing the railway and Sidcup Road. You are well fenced in alongside Eltham College, do some roads and then cross the railtrack at Grove Park and its Nature Reserve. The Railway Children's Walk here is named after author E. Nesbit who lived at one time in Eltham.

After a bit of Lewisham housing you take a Downham Woodland Walk to Beckenham Place. Here you cross the Ravensbourne and enter the park. Another river in this catchment is the Quaggy and we passed it earlier in a concrete channel at the end of College playing fields. Beckenham Park is home to Beckenham Place. John Cator's Estate was a golf course for a time but now a very recent story of restoration. We had lunch at the repaired Georgian Stables, called Homestead Cafe. It was very busy but excellent. It was probably here that stopping allowed some seizing up to happen.  We suffered a burst of rain on what had turned out to be an alternately warm and chilly day, with the threat of showers. The timber merchant's Georgian Beckenham Place was once known as Stump's Hill. It also houses a bar and cafe with various events within. The portico was not original and added from another property after Cator's death.

What follows is probably the most roady section of the walk and psychologically tough for achy legs. Cator Park seems superfluous in this context, the path leaving Lennard Road and rejoining it on two occasions. You do Alexandra Sports Grounds and Park before a final push over the railway at Penge East, under the track and into Crystal Palace Park at Penge Gate. 

The last Palace is no more. It's life began at Hyde Park for the Great Exhibition of 1851. It was intended as a temporary structure but found a permanent home on Sydenham Ridge. The dinosaurs were created in the same year of 1854. Having suffered a number of fires, the palace was finally destroyed by that in 1936. The surviving subway hidden under the park has had recent restoration and is now open for special events. I knew nothing about it.

With some relief we took Crystal Palace Station to Clapham Junction, Gatwick then home.