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This Week's Walks - Archive

Please see the Saturday Walker's Club This Week's Walks page.

This is an archive of walks done by the Saturday Walker's Club. You should only need to use this page if the SWC website is down.

Saturday 23 December 2017

Saturday Walk – A Wandle wander (Mitcham Junction to Colliers Wood)

Extra Walk 273 – Mitcham Junction to Colliers Wood
Length: Up to 14¾ km (9.2 miles). Toughness: 1/10

10:47 Epsom train from Victoria (Clapham Jct 10:54, Balham 11:00), arriving Mitcham Junction (TfL Zone 4) at 11:09. The alternative Thameslink service from central London isn't running but you could arrive by tram (every few minutes on Route 3, taking 12 minutes from Wimbledon or 15 minutes from East Croydon); however, be aware that although tram journeys are covered by a Travelcard, you have to pay extra on Oyster.

I'm not sure how much demand there will be for walks this weekend, but this shortish London one does at least give you plenty of drop-out points along the way if you need to finish early. In the morning you head south past a large area being transformed into a new nature reserve, then loop through Beddington Park to a lunch stop in Carshalton. The most convenient pub is The Sun but real ale fans won't want to miss a visit to The Hope. The afternoon leg follows the Wandle Trail, a riverside path taking in some attractive parkland and more local nature reserves, with tea available at the National Trust's Potting Shed café in Morden Hall Park. You can either finish here or complete the full walk past Merton Abbey Mills to Colliers Wood tube station (on the Northern line, in Zone 3).

You'll need to print the walk directions and maps from the Mitcham Junction to Colliers Wood Walk page.
T=swc.273

4 comments:

Chris L said...

The Hope is a community-owned pub that is the CAMRA Greater London Pub of the Year 2017, and is definitely worth visiting for its extensive range of real ales: http://www.yourround.co.uk/BeerCam/Carshalton/The-Hope/SM5-2PR.aspx.

Anonymous said...

Yes, the Hope is great. The Sun is more yuppie with some good ales. The Race Course is worth a visit. The Greyhound overlooks the ponds being one of the sources of the Wandle, and does good food and Young's (non-existent ales as they do not brew any more) ales.
And near Colliers Wood is the Trafalgar in High Path,
http://www.thetraf.co.uk
the sister pub to the Hope, with six real ciders or perries, and up to six ales. Nelson used to live nearby (Merton Place-demolished) and there is a plaque in Merton High Street/Doel Close, on one of the newer builds. https://www.londonremembers.com/memorials/merton-place
Gavin

Sean said...

Just five walkers at the start, so perhaps a third walk wasn't really needed two days before Christmas. We briefly caught up with one who'd started earlier and another joined us in mid-afternoon, so perhaps we can claim N=7 on a W=mild-and-overcast day. It was disappointing to find that one of the walk's nicest stretches (through Watermeads) was still closed off because of the National Trust's tardiness in fixing an undermined bridge, or was it an underbridged mine? We were also mildly inconvenienced by a garden restoration project in Beddington Park, which apparently requires fencing off a vast area.

Despite the pleas for us to visit The Hope we had lunch in The Sun, which has a good selection of interesting beers and a nice ambience. Their kitchen was busy with a large Christmas party so our food took a little while coming; it was deemed OK but nothing special. Tea at the Morden Hall Park café, after which a gang of four completed the final leg to Colliers Wood in the twilight.

MG said...

I was another walker who started early and encountered 1 person who was also ahead of the group and another one who was doing the walk backwards but anyway want to say that it was perfect for the time of year and I really appreciated the posting. MG