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B tags

A) Apple Day at Thames Chase Visitor Centre

It's been a great year for fruit. Heavily laden boughs, baskets of bounty, and more apples than your average supermarket knows what to do with. So it's great that independent producers get together every October and hold Apple Days across the country to celebrate nature's harvest. There are several across London (Time Out's managed to find four), and one of these was at Thames Chase Visitor Centre near Upminster. An entire car-park-ful of visitors turned up, making the most of the glorious sunny weather, and piled into the triangular-shaped building for treats and goodies. All the apple-y merchandisers were in the 17th century barn nextdoor, a lofty wood-beamed space, selling juice and pies and (obviously) apples. Trays of the things, in proper historic varieties like Tyderman's Late Orange and Eregmont Russet, with samples available before you buy. Some of the sellers looked a little glum, probably because they'd much rather have been outside, but bags of the stuff were being taken away to make crumbles and fill lunchboxes elsewhere. Further Apple Days are scheduled next weekend in Camden, Bexley and Borough Market, should you want to partake. And not an iPhone-buying queue in sight.B) Beyond the M25

Very little of London falls outside the M25, but the far end of Havering is an exception. Thames Chase Forest Centre straddles the motorway, with most of its land within but a thin sliver without. The Forestry Commission moved in 20 years ago, charged with turning 140 acres of roadside land into community woodland, and they've almost succeeded in screening out the passing traffic. Not the noise, admittedly, but a million extra trees certainly help with the view. Access to the outer reserve is via a low concrete underpass beneath the traffic, shared by a dribbling brook, where if you're taller than six foot you'll have to crouch. A long path then runs back alongside the motorway, climbing slowly to ascend twenty metres up Clay Tye Hill. The trees are still young, and it shows, but large enough for early autumn colours to create an appealing display. Nobody other than me, not a single one of the Centre's hundreds of visitors, had bothered to made the effort to cross so I had the entire dead-end triangle of land to myself. And so I stood alone on the grassy slopes, looking down over the easternmost curve of the M25 as it swept out from the neighbouring cutting and snaked off across the fen [photo]. A desecrating imposition on the landscape, for sure, yet still somehow artificially attractive. There is a London beyond the M25, and I bet you've never visited it.C) Thames Chase Community Market

On the third Sunday of every month, people with talent make their way to Pike Lane, Cranham, to share their skills and sell their wares. Sometimes they get the barn, but when that's full of apples they get the compact annexe round the back, and make do. A man who paints Essex scenes is here, even though this isn't Essex, with greetings cards and calendars at damned reasonable prices. Two straw workers encourage visitors to make their own Essex corn dolly, even though this isn't Essex, and do a marvellous job of keeping youngsters busy and entertained. The Essex Beekeepers are here, even though this isn't Essex, on the never-ending hunt for honey-buyers and any pre-retired soul they might entice into hive ownership. Most visitors have taken root outside, however, where there's food and somewhere to sit down. The Giggly Pig are selling saddleback sausages, but I ignore them to buy lunch from exactly the same artisan bread stall I frequented in Letchworth the day before. All this plus Hornchurch's very own morris dancers at their final event of 2011 - experts of all ages smashing sticks together with merry abandon. Next month it's the Christmas Fair, presumably with more craft-friendly gifts and fewer jangly gaiters, and then every third Sunday forthwith.D) The Chase

I'm not good with dogs. That's especially when I'm out walking and they're off-leash, even though most have no interest in me whatsoever. I'm learning, slowly, that if I walk straight past a dog it'll probably ignore me, but a small proportion seem to want to get to know me better. Most are only intent on being friendly, which I wish they wouldn't, but a directing a look of despair into the owner's eyes usually sees any errant hound brought under control. It's only very occasional that a dog takes an avid dislike to me, and my bones turn to jelly, and all my "coping with dogs" strategy falls apart. So I was feeling fairly confident as I strode down a quiet wooded path at Thames Chase that surely the approaching dog would be no problem. But then it stopped and stared at me, before advancing somewhat faster with a barking growl. This might have been a show of strength, but was possibly something nastier... jellybones. I walked bravely on, then past, while the lady owner shouted "Dexter! Dexter!" in vain at her angry beast. But still Dexter followed, and followed, and no amount of Dextering would change its mind. And then the owner ran away, which scared me rigid for a split second until I realised the dog was now intent on chasing after her. No harm done, just a fairly stupid-feeling bloke left behind, and my not-very-goodness with dogs still firmly intact. Until next time.How to get to Thames Chase Forest Centre

The man who built Letchworth was Sir Ebenezer Howard. He wanted to create a new kind of settlement, one with all the benefits of town and country, where people could live and work in beautiful proximity. A company called "First Garden City Ltd" was created, and in 1903 they bought up a chunk of land between Hitchin and Baldock for the realisation of Ebenezer's dream. A series of new homes were built, some on grand tree-lined avenues, others in affordable cottages, and Letchworth Garden City slowly grew.So, this roundabout. It first appeared on the drawing board of the town's architects, Barry Parker and Raymond Unwin, partway through the development of the new town. The estates had a junction where three roads crossed - Sollershotts East and West, Broadway, and Spring Road - so they decided on what was, for the time, a unique solution. Britain's first roundabout was a low circle of greenery, with a lamppost at the centre and a pavement around the edge. It wasn't created for motorists, more for the benefit of pedestrians to permit safe passage across the junction. There's no confirmed opening date. Indeed the only official records are two maps of 1908 and 1910, one with the roundabout and one without, hence the approximate opening year somewhere inbetween. Motorists, such as there were, didn't necessarily realise that progress around the roundabout was supposed to be clockwise, so in 1932 a "Keep Left" sign went up. The central circle also dramatically shrank in size, with road markings added to help marshal drivers in the right direction.Today, a hundred and a bit years on, the roundabout takes its fame seriously [photo]. "UK's First Roundabout" says the sign, then adds "built circa 1909" (whereas "built round about 1909" would have been hugely funnier). The central circle's grown again, back to approximately its original size, now with carefully pruned shrubbery for decoration. The 1930s lamppost survives but the pavement's long gone, so only adventurous (or history-seeking) pedestrians now venture onto this hallowed turf [photo]. None of the roads are especially busy, at least not on a Saturday afternoon, this being the slightly posh side of town. Almost all of Letchworth's homes are lovely, having been built in that golden age of Arts and Crafts, and there's barely a duff note struck along any of the six exit roads. Letchworth's road system still works well, with allegedly only one set of traffic lights in the town (near the station). This groundbreaking Garden City brought many other innovations to Britain - Green Belt, town planning, affordable homes, front gardens. Indeed I got the feeling while walking around that my suburban childhood home in Metroland owed more than a nod to Ebenezer Howard's pioneering utopian community. Jonathan Meades describes Letchworth as "a template for Britain", with its "legacy of cosy sub-urbanism", and "where modern England began". All that, and the art of driving in circles, kicked off round about here.And also, in Letchworth...

• First Garden City Heritage Museum

• Letchworth Museum

• Broadway Gardens

• Black squirrels

• The Settlement

• The Spirella Building

• David's Bookshop

• The streets of Letchworth

  CAPITAL RING

  Highgate to Stoke Newington

This section of the Capital Ring is essentially in two parts - a railway that isn't a railway, followed by a river that isn't a river. Intrigued?A railway that isn't a railway: The Parkland Walk

Had things gone differently, Northern line trains would run between Highgate and Finsbury Park via the heights of Haringey [more details]. Plans were afoot in the 1930s to take an underused branch line and incorporate it into London's tube network, but World War Two interrupted and the extension never happened [more details]. Instead the tracks were relegated for freight, then closed altogether, and in 1990 were reborn as a footpath-cum-nature reserve [more details]. Today the Parkland Walk is a delight, weaving between the rooftops and gardens of Haringey, providing a welcome breath of green for pedestrians and cyclists alike [more details]. But you can't walk the first bit of the line from Highgate because that ran through tunnels beneath Shepherd Hill, and those have long been sealed off, so an above ground detour is called for. It takes a deliberate effort to view the eastern portals, wandering off the main drag to an overgrown cul-de-sac where ivy tumbles down across the mouth to two dark caverns [photo]. I always deviate this way, whereas most continue along the path proper on the woodland stroll towards Finsbury Park.At two and a quarter miles the Parkland Walk is very doable, whether you're a toddler or a dogwalker or a petulant teenager. It's a little narrow at this western end, at least compared to further on, and there always seems to be a muddy patch even when it hasn't rained for days. Pause here a moment while a stream of bikes passes through... probably with Dad leading Mum and the kids, with the littlest one on stabilisers. Sometimes the path runs along an embankment, with brief views from bridges into the suburban roadways beyond. Other times it runs through a cutting, hemmed in by trees and undergrowth sealed off in an eco-bubble from ordinary London outside [photo]. Crouch End station still exists, sort of, with a cafe in the ticket hall upstairs and two decaying platforms as alternative parallel routes [photo]. It's best seen in winter, either from the track or from the footbridge, but most atmospheric when draped with a blanket of green.It's taken me three attempts, but this time through I finally spotted the sculpted figure hidden in one of the arches past the station [photo]. He's a spriggan, a mischievous forest-dwelling fairy, and features in the only horror story Stephen King ever wrote about Crouch End. There's a lot of colourful graffiti on the walls along here, some of it sprayed by the tall bloke in a bandanna who I passed out walking his wolfhound. "Yeah, I did that stuff in the tunnel," he said to the woman on his arm, presumably as a chat-up line, as a bag of aerosols dangled from his wrist. The path meanders on, past crunchy leaves and chimneypots, with a particularly good view of Stroud Green and its Overground cutting below. One last verdant curve, and the Parkland Walk comes to a grinding halt at a long railway bridge across the East Coast mainline.Interlude: Finsbury ParkThat's the park itself, not the railway station. I passed through on that unfeasibly hot October weekend (you remember) to find the entire park packed out with sunbathing locals. Tropical slopes, with a fallen brown carpet - a most rare combination. By the overflowing playground I spotted a sour-faced clown making balloon animals for an audience of one - a small Hassidic boy with drooping sidecurls - which would have made a bloody marvellous photograph except also a grossly unwise one. Moving on.A river that isn't a river: The New River

U tags

CAPITAL RING

I tags

On Sunday I went somewhere obscure, somewhere you'll probably never go, and today I'm going to tell you all about it. Sorry, I know you find this sort of thing irrelevant and tedious. So I'm going to attempt to write about my visit to Thames Chase Forest Centre in four completely different ways, in the hope that I can make the edge of London (nr Upminster) sound slightly more interesting.

A)

It's been a great year for fruit. Heavily laden boughs, baskets of bounty, and more apples than your average supermarket knows what to do with. So it's great that independent producers get together every October and hold Apple Days across the country to celebrate nature's harvest. There are several across London (Time Out's managed to find four), and one of these was at Thames Chase Visitor Centre near Upminster. An entire car-park-ful of visitors turned up, making the most of the glorious sunny weather, and piled into the triangular-shaped building for treats and goodies. All the apple-y merchandisers were in the 17th century barn nextdoor, a lofty wood-beamed space, selling juice and pies and (obviously) apples. Trays of the things, in proper historic varieties like Tyderman's Late Orange and Eregmont Russet, with samples available before you buy. Some of the sellers looked a little glum, probably because they'd much rather have been outside, but bags of the stuff were being taken away to make crumbles and fill lunchboxes elsewhere. Further Apple Days are scheduled next weekend in Camden, Bexley and Borough Market, should you want to partake. And not an iPhone-buying queue in sight.B)

[photo]

C)

On the third Sunday of every month, people with talent make their way to Pike Lane, Cranham, to share their skills and sell their wares. Sometimes they get the barn, but when that's full of apples they get the compact annexe round the back, and make do. A man who paints Essex scenes is here, even though this isn't Essex, with greetings cards and calendars at damned reasonable prices. Two straw workers encourage visitors to make their own Essex corn dolly, even though this isn't Essex, and do a marvellous job of keeping youngsters busy and entertained. The Essex Beekeepers are here, even though this isn't Essex, on the never-ending hunt for honey-buyers and any pre-retired soul they might entice into hive ownership. Most visitors have taken root outside, however, where there's food and somewhere to sit down. The Giggly Pig are selling saddleback sausages, but I ignore them to buy lunch from exactly the same artisan bread stall I frequented in Letchworth the day before. All this plus Hornchurch's very own morris dancers at their final event of 2011 - experts of all ages smashing sticks together with merry abandon. Next month it's the Christmas Fair, presumably with more craft-friendly gifts and fewer jangly gaiters, and then every third Sunday forthwith.D)

How to get to Thames Chase Forest Centre

The man who built Letchworth was Sir Ebenezer Howard. He wanted to create a new kind of settlement, one with all the benefits of town and country, where people could live and work in beautiful proximity. A company called "First Garden City Ltd" was created, and in 1903 they bought up a chunk of land between Hitchin and Baldock for the realisation of Ebenezer's dream. A series of new homes were built, some on grand tree-lined avenues, others in affordable cottages, and Letchworth Garden City slowly grew.So, this roundabout. It first appeared on the drawing board of the town's architects, Barry Parker and Raymond Unwin, partway through the development of the new town. The estates had a junction where three roads crossed - Sollershotts East and West, Broadway, and Spring Road - so they decided on what was, for the time, a unique solution. Britain's first roundabout was a low circle of greenery, with a lamppost at the centre and a pavement around the edge. It wasn't created for motorists, more for the benefit of pedestrians to permit safe passage across the junction. There's no confirmed opening date. Indeed the only official records are two maps of 1908 and 1910, one with the roundabout and one without, hence the approximate opening year somewhere inbetween. Motorists, such as there were, didn't necessarily realise that progress around the roundabout was supposed to be clockwise, so in 1932 a "Keep Left" sign went up. The central circle also dramatically shrank in size, with road markings added to help marshal drivers in the right direction.Today, a hundred and a bit years on, the roundabout takes its fame seriously [photo]

• First Garden City Heritage Museum:

Letchworth Museum:

Broadway Gardens:

[pretty photo]

Black squirrels:

The Settlement:

[characterful photo]

The Spirella Building:

David's Bookshop:

The streets of Letchworth:

  Walk London  CAPITAL RING

[section 12]

(5 miles)

This section of the Capital Ring is essentially in two parts - a railway that isn't a railway, followed by a river that isn't a river. Intrigued?

A railway that isn't a railway:

[more details]

At two and a quarter miles the Parkland Walk is very doable, whether you're a toddler or a dogwalker or a petulant teenager. It's a little narrow at this western end, at least compared to further on, and there always seems to be a muddy patch even when it hasn't rained for days. Pause here a moment while a stream of bikes passes through... probably with Dad leading Mum and the kids, with the littlest one on stabilisers. Sometimes the path runs along an embankment, with brief views from bridges into the suburban roadways beyond. Other times it runs through a cutting, hemmed in by trees and undergrowth sealed off in an eco-bubble from ordinary London outside [photo]

It's taken me three attempts, but this time through I finally spotted the sculpted figure hidden in one of the arches past the station [photo]

Interlude: Finsbury ParkThat's the park itself, not the railway station. I passed through on that unfeasibly hot October weekend (you remember) to find the entire park packed out with sunbathing locals. Tropical slopes, with a fallen brown carpet - a most rare combination. By the overflowing playground I spotted a sour-faced clown making balloon animals for an audience of one - a small Hassidic boy with drooping sidecurls - which would have made a bloody marvellous photograph except also a grossly unwise one. Moving on.

A river that isn't a river:

After three quarters of a mile the New River bends back on itself to pass (and fill) two reservoirs, one East, one West. The East is better hidden, starting beside an old brick pumping house above the river, and leading up to the dividing line along Lordship Lane. The West is more scenic, more blue, and home to the yachts and kayaks of the West Reservoir Sailing Centre [photo]

Epilogue: Stoke NewingtonRight at the very end of this five mile walk comes an on-road section. But Stoke Newington Church Street is a lovely road - a sinuous historic high street unsullied by major chain stores. Eating well and drinking hard are easy round here, ditto nipping into an independent boutique for something quirky but unnecessary. Near the far end a gate leads into Abney Park Cemetery, one of Victorian London's Magnificent Seven. William Booth is buried just inside, in a large tomb beneath a gold-etched scroll [photo]

Capital Ring section 12:

Who else has walked it?

A message to PR types and branding gurusMy blog does not promote products and services sent to me by email.Please don't waste your time, and mine, with unsolicited advertising.

Hey DG, hope you are well...Thought I would drop you a line about our coming launch in London. The events are going to be pretty unique, with the customer having to pay nothing. Anyway let us know if you want to follow up with me on this?Best, aaron

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