10.00 train from London Bridge (9.37 Finsbury Park, 9.45 St Pancras Thameslink, 9.49 Farringdon, 9.54 Blackfriars, 10.17 East Croydon) to Merstham arriving 10.31.
Merstham is annoyingly just outside zone six, so you need an extension to that. If you don't have a travel pass, you can use Oyster (or contactless) at Merstham. Otherwise all stations on this walk are within zone six (apart from Epsom....see below).
Being a bit jaded by packed trains to the coast, I thought it would be nice to have a walk closer to London this week. This one often gets done in winter, but when I posted it in late August a couple of years ago, I made a note in the walk report that the ideal time to schedule it from a wildflower point of view would be late July/early August. So let's see, shall we?
The walk climbs up to a lovely ridge of the North Downs, with gobsmacking views in its later stages (it is also a good butterfly site...). At the start of the ridge section, on Reigate Hill, there is a really nice kiosk cafe. Otherwise the obvious lunch pub is the Sportsman in Mogador 5 miles into the walk, a little while after you leave the downs ridge and head "inland".
In the afternoon you cross (hopefully flowery...) fields, passing through Walton-on-the-Hill, where the Blue Ball pub or Village Cafe (open to 4pm) might make late lunch or early tea options. You are also only a stone's throw from Tadworth station if you want to end the walk early.
The main walk continues across gentle hill country to the impressively vast Epsom racecourse, where there are a couple of interesting pubs. Follow the full route for a fine view of London from the Epsom Downs.
You can finish here by taking trains from Tattenham Corner (15 and 45 past).
Or if you want a slightly longer walk, you can descend to Epsom (the 11.3 mile option) with frequent trains to Victoria, Waterloo and London Bridge (but again you need an extension to zone six here if you have a pass, or you can use Oyster or contactless), or a slightly shorter extension to Epsom Downs (trains at 08 and 38 past to Victoria), which is in zone six.
2 comments:
Wow. No subtle way to say this. A whopping 35 on the platform at Merstham, four waiting in the car park and at least three acquired later, so N=42 on this walk. Quite like the old days! I could think of lots of regular SWCers who were NOT there, so we clearly still have a good reservoir of active walkers.
The weather? Disappointing. Could try harder. Despite BBC Weather burbling about sunshine all week, it turned out to be w=cloudy. Not ideal conditions for lepidoptera (he means butterflies - Ed): practically none were seen. The flowery meadows after lunch were also not as good as my two years ago self thought they might be at this time of year (maybe mid July would be better…?), but they were not bad. I am sure no one else noticed any deficiency.
And there were other attractions. Passing Reigate Fort mid morning we found the army in occupation. We popped in for a look and heard some fascinating snippets about WW2. We got to handle improvised Home Guard battons and bayoneted sticks (they don’t like it up ‘em…), and hold a very heavy grenade. A child (not in our group) was allowed to handle a rifle. Where else can they do that outside the USA?
It would have been nice to linger longer, to be honest, but lunch beckoned. You might think that 40 people descending on the Sportsman would spark mass panic, but credit to this pub which handled us efficiently and without fuss. The menu ain’t cordon bleu but I think all managed to find something to their taste.
There was still a group of about 20 of us together after lunch, but then six (seven?) of us stopped for tea at the Village Cafe in Walton and we lost the rest of the group. Did I hear that some/many went to the pub there? Maybe they would like to file their own report. (I often say this and no one ever does, but I am genuinely curious.)
Of the tea party, two (including the walk author) decided to end at Tadworth, The other five of us carried on to Epsom Downs. Through inattention to the walk directions we ended up doing a short cut and missed the Centenary Wood. But someone who messaged us said it was good.
By this time we were on the terrace of the (slightly snooty) Rubbing House, with its fine view of the Epsom Racecourse. I persuaded the other four to continue on the route onto Epsom Downs, with its stunning view of Canary Wharf, the City and another cluster of towers to the left of the City which we decided must be Nine Elms.
One then went on to Epsom Downs station, three to Tattenham Corner and, the sun having finally come out, I lingered to see some butterflies (four species, but all very few in number: a definite feeling that the season is coming to an end). I am penning these lines over a second tea at the kiosk in front of the Tattenham Corner pub, enjoying the sun we didn’t have earlier.
Thank you to everyone for a great walk today. As an Aussie tourist who found your website before I left Australia I think the whole concept is fantastic. Thoroughly enjoyed my day - special thanks to the ladies I did the second half of the walk with.
Hopefully I’ll be able to join you on another walk while I’m in the UK.
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