"I was dressed for success but success it never comes" - Here, Pavement.
When choosing the final Pavement song title for the final Capital Ring walk (three entire legs of it from Stoke Newington to Woolwich where it all began back in January last year) I couldn't make my mind up so I simply chose a favourite song. One whose sentiment, in fact, was inauthentic when considering that success in completing the Capital Ring, to go with the London LOOP, had been achieved.
It had taken a lot longer than we had planned but then we hadn't factored in a global pandemic or two very long lockdowns in which we'd not be able to meet, let alone eat curry and visit pubs. But, we did it. We finally did it. Even if Saturday's walk did see me notch up a 2021 record of 40,690 steps (Pam managed 45,583 but her legs are shorter than mine).
I didn't even feel too knackered at the end so despite my advancing years, expanding waistline, and terrible diet the walking must be doing some good. I'd set off early on Saturday, we were due to meet at 10am, and taken the Overground from Honor Oak Park to Canonbury before walking up to The New River Cafe on the edge of Clissold Park in Stoke Newington to be served a not very photogenic plate of cheese on toast, a can of Coke, and a cup of tea from a lady in a pink Minnie Mouse sweatshirt who had clearly got out of bed the wrong side.
A pink Minnie Mouse sweatshirt is, of course, what you wear when you're in a bad mood. The cheese on toast tasted better than it looked (just) and both Shep and Pam seemed happy with their breakfasts. When Kathy joined us we were ready to get moving and headed along Stoke Newington Church Street, past a plaque for Edgar Allan Poe and several pleasant looking eateries and bars, before dipping into Abney Park Cemetery. A location that had been a feature of my Magnificent Seven trilogy of walks but one worth revisiting.
Almost immediately we were greeted by the tomb of William Booth (1829-1912), the founder of the Salvation Army, and his wife Christine as well as many other minor Booths and Salvation Army luminaries. A short walk took us to a derelict chapel and many more spectacular ornate tombs until we left the cemetery and arrived in the London Borough of Hackney.
We admired the retro font of EGG STORES and the Bosnian charity shop as well as the plane trees that flanked Cazenove Road and stopped, briefly, to take in the Stamford Hill Masjid-e-Quba. A mosque named after the first one built by the Prophet Mohammed that has been converted from several Victorian terrace houses.
A short residential stretch took us into the pretty Springfield Park, with views across the Lea Valley to Walthamstow, and from there we picked up the Lee Navigation (the river Lee, or Lea, being another former location of one of my London by Foot walks - read about it here).
We crossed Horseshoe Bridge into the London Borough of Waltham Forest and we observed many boats carrying the legend STOP THE BOAT CULL (referring, apparently, to plans to lower the number of boats on the Lea so that posh rowers can enjoy the water instead). To our right the water, to our left an expanse of picturesque marshes.
Under a viaduct which serves the trains heading to Stansted Aiport and past the bubble of the Lee Valley Ice Centre, we soon reach the Princess of Wales pub on Lea Bridge Road. I'd visited once before, some years ago, with my friend Chris and his dog Floyd and found it to be a most agreeable hostelry but we were running so early it hadn't even opened yet!
We saw a small hen party rowing a canoe down the river and, after some graffiti that almost spelt out the name of one of our walking groups, TADS (TADZ), we reached the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park. Pam and I had been on a guided tour of the area some years ago but this time our priority was to join the young and beautful people (one in a golden kimono, another lady in (though nearly out of) a quite eye catching dress.
We pulled up to a riverside bar and had a drink each. It was lovely sitting there and taking in the atmosphere and we were sorely tempted to have another but we knew we had some serious miles to cover yet so we soon moved on. Even if Shep joked that he'd like to sit there for another thirty-six hours and watch the final of the Euros there!
The Lea splits up into multiple rivers here and regularly rejoins itself. It's tricky to get a grip on. We passed the entrance of the Hertford Union Canal (which once featured on a TADS walk) which is also known as Duckett's Cut after the promoter, Sir George Duckett, who got it completed in 1830.
We passed Old Ford where a teenage Pam once fell in the river. She had better luck than Queen Maud, the wife of Henry I, who was 'unceremoniously' ducked into the river here back in the early 12c. We also got a look at the Northern Outfall Sewage Embankment (NOSE, above) which runs for nearly six miles from Hackney to Beckton and is said to contain Britain's biggest sewage flow. Nice.
Soon we left the Lea and tried to pick up the Greenway. I say tried because Crossrail work here is so extensive we had to take several lengthy diversions and, at times, nearly lost the path completely.
We passed some Snoozeboxes, light industrial units you can use for an afternoon nap. Kathy, quite correctly I feel, renamed them Fuckboxes. We saw a couple going in one. I guess it can get tiring walking along a canal and sometimes you just need a lie down in an industrial unit with no windows.
Soon it all went a bit tits up. At least for a bit. We skirted the edge of the Abbey Mills Pumping Station (described as looking like an oriental palace, the Grade II listed building was opened in 1868 as part of Sir Joseph Bazalgette's immense scheme for ridding London of its sewage) and then got a bit lost looking for West Ham station.
We corrected ourselves and eventually found ourselves on the long, straight, and mostly uneventful Greenway walk. More popular with cyclists than with walkers we followed it for some miles and then overshot our turning. With time now against us we conceived an alternative route of roughly the same length and passed down, eventually, to Cyprus DLR station.
Here, after we'd checked out phones for nearby pubs and train times, Kathy left us and Shep, Pam, and I continued to the edge of the vast Royal Albert Dock where the impressive new buildings of the Docklands Campus of the University of East London look across to the jets of City Airport. When the site first opened in 1999 it was the first new campus built in London for over five decades.
The Royal Albert Dock is over a mile long and has an Olympic standard rowing course (so why are they so concerned about using the Lea?) on which are staged regular regattas. We dipped under Sir Steve Redgrave Bridge (an apt name all things considered) and found ourselves outside Galyon's bar.
Well, it would be rude not to, now we're nearly done, have a drink or even two. Galyon's was a pleasant spot to sit outside as Ashleigh Barty beat Karolina Pliskova in the Wimbledon ladies final on the screen. We talked shit and we smiled in safe knowledge we had broken the back of this walk.
Or had we? As soon as we came out of Galyon's, and we weren't that refreshed, we did a roughly half mile loop that brought us back to exactly where we'd started. Avoiding the temptation to give up and go in for another pint we crossed over Redgrave's bridge and down into Fishguard Way (making some rude jokes about what part of the human anatomy Grimsby Grove could be a euphemism for).
This took us a to a quaint residential street and that took us, finally, back to the Thames. We admired the pigeons and we admired the views and we debated if we should take the free ferry back across to Woolwich or the foot tunnel. The foot tunnel, of course, won.
Back in Woolwich, we replicated the photo at the start (now end) of the walk taken all those months ago and repaired to Dial Arch for one last beer before struggling to find an Indian eaterie in Woolwich. The two the Internet directed us to proved to be a Wetherspoons pub (no) and a chicken joint (again, no).
As with the LOOP, the final leg of the Ring presented us with disappointing food options so, as with the LOOP, we jumped on a train. This time to Hullaballo in Greenwich where I had dall makhani, naan bread, pulao rice and a couple of Cobras.
Then we all headed home. We'd done it. All seventy-eight miles (and no doubt many more) of the Capital Ring. It wasn't as long as the LOOP but it was just as much fun and the next project, probably, will be walking the length of the Thames. For Shep, for the second time. Thanks to Pam and Shep for joining me on this adventure (and Pam for all the photos I've used) and thanks to our guests along the way. Kathy, Clare, Ian, and Mike. From Woolwich to Woolwich in just under eighteen months. Sounds like a lot of work to end up in exactly the same place. But it wasn't. It was a lot of fun.
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