Eastern Spring.

The curse of Theydon Bois! Would it strike again? Did we, like Caesar, need to beware of the Ides of March? Two years, Pam, Katie, Mo, and myself made a first attempt at this walk which ended with me sliding in the mud near one of Epping Forest's ponds and recovering only to look like I'd seen active service in Passchendaele. The walk, perhaps wisely, was postponed. But it was never cancelled. 

Yesterday, we finally returned. My main concern had been the weather. It hadn't rained much during the week but it had rained and Epping Forest, from personal experience, does seem to stay muddy for longer than most places. As it happened, the mud was not our main concern. That was the vagaries of TfL to begin with and then, later, our knees, ankles, and feet. I didn't walk as many steps as I did a week ago on the Thames Path (or a fortnight ago when three game TADS yomped from Bletchley to Leighton Buzzard) but my feet were stinging a bit by the end.

I wasn't the only one. As ever, I'd been up bright and early and was just about to head down to Honor Oak Park to take three short tube rides up to Theydon Bois when I got a WhatsApp from Rodney letting me know there were bus replacement services in action - and, it turned out, lots of them.

So I took the P4 bus to Brixton and the Victoria Line up to Walthamstow where I had to take two separate replacement buses to Theydon Bois. Except, at first, I couldn't work out where I actually had to catch the first of those omnibuses. Both desks had signs up reading Position Closed. As I took a photo of this example of 'broken Britain' a very friendly member of staff appeared and directed me towards the number twenty bus. I met Sharon and Jason in the queue and the three of us hopped on a bus to Loughton. Rodney somewhere ahead of us, Pam somewhere behind us.

At Loughton, we changed for another bus to Theydon Bois. Driver aside, it was just the three of us on it but in keeping with the day's unannounced travel chaos there was a road closed so we had to make yet another diversion. At least it gave us a good look at parts of Epping Forest which didn't look too muddy. Hopefully, a positive sign!

On arriving in Theydon Bois, we noticed our planned brunch stop, The Brick Lane Bagel Co., only had outdoor seating. It was a bit chilly and The Queen Victoria was advertising breakfast (and Pam's car was already parked outside :-)) so we decided to give that a try. A sign informed us that the breakfast offer would not start until April. The friendly bar staff said we could order off the main menu but that seemed a bit indulgent/decadent/expensive so we decided to grab hot drinks and sit in the warm while we awaited Pam's arrival.

I had a hot chocolate while Rodney flicked through his Dictionary of Pub Names and launched into the first of the day's truly terrible jokes! That's one train that's never late. When Pam arrived we headed back for those Brick Lane Bagels. Pam had a very breakfasty looking one, Rodney had two meaty ones (still not enough for him, he's a growing lad, it was his birthday this week), and I had a cream cheese bagel (an old favourite I'd not had for a while) and a Twix. They were delicious and though I fancied another it was time to set off for the actual walk.

We were only about ninety minutes later than planned. Time would be against us as the day went on. We cut through Theydon Bois Green on a diagonal path and headed down Loughton Lane/The Avenue of Trees, TB's most iconic landmark, apparently. It's a row of oak trees planted in the 1830s to celebrate Queen Victoria taking the throne. Slightly underwhelming, not least because many have since died and been replanted.

Loughton Lane becomes Debden Lane. It's a busy stretch but at least it has a footpath. Not so fortunate was the driver we met whose car had broken down and was unintentionally causing all sorts of traffic situations. It looked like a pretty unfortunate, and potentially dangerous, place to break down but the driver seemed in fairly good spirits considering.

There's a nice monkey puzzle tree nearby and Debden House (a conference centre cum camping venue) looked pleasant on a sunny, if not particularly warm, day. Dating back to the early 19c, Debden House has been owned by a local magistrate (John Williams), an ink manufacturer (Joseph Thomas Palmer), and various others before it found its now, unusual, occupation.

From here it's a short path into Epping Forest proper and we soon picked up a path known as the 'Main Path'. The path namers must have had a day off when they chose that name. Confusingly, it's one of many Main Paths in Epping Forest but, fortunately, we didn't get lost for more than a few seconds at any point in the day. Equally fortunately it was nowhere near as muddy as our last attempt. In fact, in places the forest looked absolutely beautiful.

 

We followed that Main Path for a while, crossing Golding's Hill, observing knobbly trees and less knobbly trees with denuded branches. We passed Golding's Hill Pond and, with great satisfaction to me, Baldwin's Pond. That's where I came a cropper last time (dog barking at me and everything) and where our last attempt came to an end. It was muddy this time (but nothing compared to two years back) so we stepped gingerly and slowly and all made it through that little section in one piece.

 

Then we hit probably the prettiest section of the day as we followed the winding route of the shallow Loughton Brook south. The brook lies in a little canyon (okay, ditch - but doesn't canyon sound better?) and it twists and turns (which meant we did too) incredibly scenically towards the slightly less picturesque Staples Road Flood Storage Reservoir where we left the Loughton Brook behind.

 

The brook would eventually flow into the River Roding (and then, of course, the Thames) but we would cross another road, and then follow a more interestingly named path, the Slippery Snake. It wasn't that slippery and nobody saw any snakes but it took us to a wide bridleway called Green Ride where Sharon and I talked about Dick Turpin (he was only 33 when he was executed for two charges of horse theft in York) which took us across Cuckoo Brook (now there's a name) and past Strawberry Hill Ponds and eventually to Ranger's Road on the edge of Chingford. Some us had been here (twice) before on our London LOOP adventure.

 

People were ready for a pub stop but we passed both The Butler's Retreat and The Royal Forest as I had another pub in mind. We'd been in The Royal Forest before and not been massively impressed although I have to say it looked quite inviting yesterday. The highlight of this little architectural set piece is Queen Elizabeth's Hunting Lodge (that's Liz I, not Liz II) although sadly some if it was boarded up yesterday.

 

It was commissioned in 1542 by Henry VIII so he could watch the deer chase. Then called The Great Standing, it was renovated for Good Queen Bess in 1589. It's one of Chingford's architectural treasures but as we were to find out later not the only one. For now though we followed Ranger's Road to Station Road and on Station Road found ourselves a table in The Rusty Bike pub.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

It wasn't bikes (or cycling) they were showing though. It was rugby. There were A LOT of screens up showing England spanking Wales 68-14 (England would go on to finish second in this year's Six Nations, behind France) and the only spare table was right in front of one so it was very loud. We shouted at each other across the table but it was still a very amenable, and well earned, pub stop.

Nobody had a Rusty Bike lager though Jason did have a lager, Sharon half a cider, Pam a pale ale, Rodney a Guinness 0.0%, and me a blackcurrant'n'lemonade. It was too loud to do the Chingford spiel (I did it later) but there was a bit of history I'd prepared.

Chingford (previously Chingestone and Chingetun(e)) may either mean the king's (ching's) river or possibly refer to a shingly ford and its notables include a lot of very famous footballers. Both David Beckham and Harry Kane attended Chingford Foundation School (there's a Harry Kane statue in Walthamstow where he was born, alas we never saw it) and Andros Townsend and Teddy Sheringham are also listed as having links with the town.

Away from the beautiful game, Chingford is linked with Michael Nyman, Peter Greenaway, Alan Davies, Leslie Phillips, Jonathan Ive, the Kray twins, Iain Duncan Smith (their current MP thanks to a split between the Labour candidate and Faiza Shaheen who Keir Starmer unwisely booted out of the party just before the election), and Paul Di'Anno who was Iron Maiden vocalist before Bruce Dickinson (though still their third singer).

We left the pub and continued down Station Road and on to Kings Road towards the course of the river Ching. En route, we passed a shop selling an extraordinary large amount of very pretty buttons, some rather splendid road names (The Four Wents, British Legion Road, with Sky Peals Way and Hollywood Road yet to come - wonder if there's a Chingford road in Hollywood), and some splendid Art Deco and mock Tudor architecture. As well as the St Peter and St Paul church (1844, Grade II listed, architect:Lewis Vuillamy).

 

 

 

Our first sighting of the Ching was none too impressive. It looked like a ditch into which people lob their empty beer cans, plastic bags, and shopping trolleys. But once we dropped off the road and started following the path on its eastern side things soon improved. In fact this stretch, even with the light fading fast, was nearly as scenic as Loughton Brook had been.

It was quite uppy and downy though, and there were lots of trees that had fallen down to block our path. They were easy enough to either go round or over but it all adds to the strain of the day and it slowed us down so much that by the time we reached Highams Park and Highams Park's lovely looking lake we had to make a slight change to our plan.

Originally, I'd intended us to keep plodding through Hatch Forest but being in a forest when it's dark is neither clever nor fun so, making our route longer rather than shorter, we peeled off where the toads like to cross (sadly we didn't see any) and took a few residential streets to our final destination, Walthamstow. Sharon, who was having some problems with her foot, and Jason hopped on a bus and Pam, Rodney, and myself arranged to reconvene with them in The Bell pub later. Hmmm.

 

 

 

Before that, though, there were the architectural delights of Walthamstow to look at. Waltham Forest College is a pleasant, classical, looking building but Waltham Forest Town Hall is perhaps even more striking. Built in 1942, in the 'stripped classical style', by Philip Dalton Hepworth it's lit impressively at night. The style it was built in never really caught on in the UK but was very popular in Nazi Germany, Fascist Italy, the USSR, and New Deal America. Bucharest's Victoria Palace is another example.

At least it was open though. Which was more than can be said for The Bell pub. On reaching I laughed about it maybe being closed. It was - even if the Internet insists differently. I checked my phone. As I suspected Jason had sent a WhatsApp. Him and Sharon weren't waiting in a pub though. They were in Tabaq chicken shop and they'd even bought some chicken and chips.

 

 

 

Chicken shops were of no interest to me or Pam so me, her, and Rodney made our way to The Rose & Crown further down Hoe Street where we grabbed more drinks (my second blackcurrant'n'lemonade - though after that second stretch I was tempted by a beer) and supped up on some chairs that were either too comfy to get out of or too hard for my poor bum while a rock band soundchecked and we waited for Sharon and Jason who were there pretty quick.

We threw a few food options around and ultimately decided on Dhaka Tandoori, an Indian just three minutes walk away. The short distance definitely being a factor, we were getting tired. It was a good call. Staff were friendly, we chatted to some fellow diners who had been visiting for three decades, and I had a paneer tikka masala (which came with pulao rice) and a paratha and washed it down with a mango lassi as we chatted about the price of beer when we first started drinking, what we were doing the next day (lots of lying in), work, Diana Ross, and various other hot topics.

Of course, I did some Walthamstow spiel. Formerly named both Wilcumestowe and Wilcumestou, the town is described in The Domesday Book as a manor owned by an Anglo-Saxon noble called Earl Walthe of Huntingdon and Northumbria. This was before the Norman Conquest. The Earl was executed in 1076 after joining the Revolt of the Earls against William I. Some claim him as a martyr and it is said when they removed the lid of his coffin his decapitated head had reattached to his body. Healing miracles have been reported in the vicinity of his tomb so if your head gets chopped up, don't despair, just jump on the tube to Walthamstow.

William Morris was born in Walthamstow in 1834 (you can now visit the William Morris Gallery in the rather lovely - and nearby - Lloyd Park), in 1892 the first ever British motor car was built in the town by Frederick Bremer (you can see it in E17's Vestry House Museum), and the current MP with 76.1% of the vote is Labour's Stella Creasy. Famously, a big Wedding Present fan.

Blur's Parklife album features photos taken at the local dog track, Lethal Bizzle and (of course) East 17 hail from Walthamstow and in the seventies Small Wonder Records operated from near where we were dining. They put out music by The Cure, Bauhaus, Crass, and The Cockney Rejects. Other E17 notables include Clement Attlee (MP for Walthamstow when PM), Peter Blake, Darren Hayman, Fabrice Muamba, Grayson Perry (has a studio in E17, calls the place Awesomestow), Fred Pontin, Ken Russell, Ian Dury, Benjamin Disraeli, June Sarpong, Daniella Westbrook, and Vivian Stanshall, as well as - save the best until last - Adam 'Ian Beale' Woodyatt.

We followed the footsteps of these giants back to Walthamstow tube (some of us more gingerly than others, all of us looking forward to our beds) and hopped on the Victoria line for a service so regulated we could only assume Warren G (ft. the ghost of Nate Dogg) was driving. Rodney got off at Green Park, Sharon and Jason at Vauxhall, and Pam and I went all the way to Brixton where we waited for our buses on opposite sides of the road. I took the P4 home and arrived back at about quarter past midnight. It had been a long day, but it had been a good one. I went straight to bed.

Thanks to Sharon, Jason, Rodney, and Pam for another great, if exhausting, LbF day out (and for many of the photos used in this blog). Next time, next month, we're walking from Kingston to Southall and rounding things out in one of Southall's famous desi pubs. Before that TADS are back on the road on April 5th. Balcombe to Haywards Heath taking in the river Ouse, the village of Cuckfield, Ardingly Reservoir, and the 'elegant' Ouse Valley Viaduct. Come join us. Your feet might hurt at the end but it's 'good pain'. Pain that tells you you've got out and done some exercise, taken in some fresh air, and hopefully had a few laughs along the way. Here's some wallies having fun.