Taking A Look At The Beverley Brook.

Beverley Brook! That's not some girl I used to go to school with. No, it's a river (or brook) that runs for just short of nine miles from Worcester Park to the Thames at Barn Elms, the Thames 31st longest tributary (sandwiched between the Wandle - 30th - and the Crane - 32nd). Yesterday, having postponed LbF's Epping Forest Revisited walk until next year, Pam and I decided we'd finally take it on. Pam had grown up in New Malden (close to the start) and was familiar with that part of the river while my only experiences have been passing the end of it on Thames walks and seeing the small section that flows through Richmond Park.

 

So, on perhaps the sunniest day of the year so far I headed off from Honor Oak Park to London Bridge and then the Jubilee line to Green Park and the Piccadilly to Hammersmith where I headed down Fulham Palace Road (under the brutally beautiful A4/Hammersmith Flyover) to find Pam already tucking into a hearty veggie breakfast in the friendly Half Moon Cafe.

I had chips, beans, bread'n'butter and a cup of tea (I was so enjoying the food and the chat I nearly didn't notice they hadn't brought the tea out until I was nearly done) and very good it was too. Once done, we headed to the side of the Thames and made our way to Hammersmith Bridge, for my money the most beautiful of London's river crossings.

Down by the riverside, there's a statue based on a ship's figurehead by the sculptor Rick Kirby and another of Lancelot 'Capability' Brown by Larry Dizengremel, teams of rowers glide by both upstream and downstream, Fulham's Craven Cottage stadium stands proud in the distance (later that afternoon they'd put a dent in Tottenham's Champions League hopes by spanking them 3-0), people relaxed and took coffee and snacks on the banks of the river, and, overseeing it all, the majestic Hammersmith Bridge. Designed by Joseph Bazalgette, opened in 1887, and painted in a fetching shade of green.

Even the fact they are, as ever, carrying out work on it doesn't distract (much) from its beauty. On the other side of the Thames we got a very good look at the Harrod's Furniture Depository building. Now luxury flats, of course, the salmon pink terracotta building (architect - WG Hunt) dates from 1914, operates as a key marker in the annual Boat Race, and appears in the video to The Verve's Lucky Man.

We passed the monument to Steve Fairbairn, an Australian rower and rowing coach who founded the Head Of The River Race in 1925, and off the Putney Towpath, took a right to start our trip along the Beverley Brook itself.

We followed it through Smoky Wood and at the A306/Rocks Lane, I attempted to squeeze through a gap in the fence which my frame was far too large to get through so instead we headed through the actual gate like normal people and followed Rocks Lane to the entrance of Barnes Common and passed through that instead.

We saw memorial benches, including Tony Welsh's - inscribed with that deathless favourite "I told you I was ill", and near the Beverley Works, a former forge, we came off the waterway and followed some snickets (known as the Beverley Path, Bev is everywhere) which took us to the Vine Road Recreation Ground and we crossed under the train line (between Barnes and Mortlake stations) and followed Vine Road to the busy A205/Upper Richmond Road, the South Circular.

Suddenly, in front of us, stood a Gothic pile. I knew it wasn't Sir Horace Walpole's Strawberry Hill but it was, very much, in that style. It took a while to click that it was the Priory hospital in Roehampton. A place we'd passed on walks before but know we were coming at it from a different angle and it, initially, confused me.

Following the long and straight Priory Lane down to Richmond Park, we passed the Lawn Tennis Association Operations centre to our right, alongside a golf course we eventually came out in Richmond Park but, unlike previous walks - and even runs, we only saw a small corner of the park as the Beverley Brook, picturesque in this area, flows pretty much along the huge park's eastern perimeter. Which meant we didn't see any deer - possibly a first for a visit to Richmond Park. We saw jackdaws though.

Crossing the A3/Roehampton Vale and some playing fields, we entered into Wimbledon Common (sadly no Wombles around) which was far muddier than Richmond Park though more manageable than one eager dog walker had suggested it would be. Wimbledon Common is pretty, it even had some kind of natural podium which would have done me well for some spiel had this walk been affiliated to either TADS or LbF, and the runners and dog walkers passed all seemed friendly. People always do seem friendlier when the sun comes out. Especially if it's one of the first sunny days of the year.

They go a bit mad in heatwaves though, at least some of them, but that wasn't a worry in the middle of March in London! By the Beverley Meads Recreation Ground, we took a bridge across the star waterway of the day (stopping, briefly, to watch Colliers Wood Utd v Camberley Town in the Combined Countries Premier League Division South, the home team went on to win 2-1 although they're still bottom of a league currently topped by Farnham Town and a league that features my hometown team, Tadley Calleva - they're ninth) and then followed a footpath alongside of the busy A3/Kingston Bypass until we reached an underpass that took us under that road and on to a footpath through a wooded area that led us to Cambridge Avenue and the outskirts of New Malden, Pam's old stomping ground, Pam's childhood home.

We turned into Roseberry Avenue, then into Alric Avenue, and that took us to New Malden's High Street. Remarkably, we'd not had a pub stop at all - we'd barely seen a pub for the last few miles - but The Glasshouse looked very inviting. Pam took a Gamma Ray and I had a lemonade and charged my phone up as we sat putting the world to rights and getting to grips with the Guardian's crosswords and quizzes. If it's Pam and I together you can guarantee it's never long before the crossword appears!

The Glasshouse was a nice pub so we repeated our order and that took us up to food time. But first, Pam gave me a brief tour of the sights of New Malden. There's a couple of tower blocks that are known, by locals, as the twin towers but most interesting of all was a trip down Dukes Avenue and on to Howard Road to see the house that Pam grew up and lived in for her entire childhood.

I've bored her with stories of my own youth in Tadley more than enough times so it was nice to learn a bit more, and see a bit more, of her earlier life. When it's just the two of us on a walk, we don't feel so beholden to the tradition of ending a walk with a curry and Pam had suggested there was a nice Italian place in New Malden, Al Forno, so we decided to give that a go.

We didn't regret it. Pam had a pizza fiorentina and a glass of house red and I had penne arrabiatta with a cranberry juice. It was bloody delicious and as we'd not had starters, I had room for a gelato misti afterwards - served in a glass too. I went for vanilla and chocolate. The vanilla was good, the chocolate was incredible. Italians don't tend to fuck up ice cream. Pam had an Irish coffee.

I was tempted to order a second ice cream but sense took over and we paid up and headed back to the station. We took the train to Clapham Junction together where we parted. I took the train to Honor Oak Park and I was home early enough to watch both the News and Friday's edition of The Last Leg (special guests:Mel B & Rob Beckett). I'd had a bit of a tough time the last few weeks and this walk, as well as a trip back to my parents and a great Greenwich Skeptics night, was just the tonic I needed. I'm off to Wales next weekend so things are definitely looking up. Thanks to Pam (whose snaps came in after I'd written this blog so I've added them on to the end - they're great by the way) for joining me yesterday and thanks too for being such a great friend. I've got a feeling we'll be back on the Beverley Brook before long.