Saturday Walk - Epping Forest Centenary Walk: Manor Park to Epping via Chingford (half-length options available)

Length: 24.2 km (15.0 mi) [shorter options available; see below] 

Ascent/Descent: 266/193m

Net Walking Time: 5 ½ hours 

Toughness: 5 out of 10 

 

Take the 09.26 Crossrail train (aka the Elizabeth Line) from Liverpool Street (Whitechapel 09.28, Stratford 09.34), arrives Manor Park 09.41. [A Shenfield train from Paddington (09.15) via all Central London stations.] 

Return:

 -     Central Line from Buckhurst Hill and Epping: frequent (with journey times of 24 mins or 37 mins respectively, to Liv Street). 

-      Overground from Chingford: every 15 mins on xx.10 etc, with 26 mins journey time to Liv Street. All possible start and end points are within Travelcard Zones 1-6.

 

Epping Forest stretches for 19 km from Manor Park in East London north to Epping, with the main body of the Forest being north of Chingford. It is never more than 4 kilometres wide, but is London's largest Open Space at 2,400 hectares. It lies on a low ridge between the Lea and Roding Valleys and is an area of ancient woodland which has been protected since the 12^th century as a Royal Hunting Forest, though more recently it has been managed by The City of London after the passing of the Epping Forest Act of 1878.

The Epping Forest Centenary Walk runs the length of Epping Forest and it is the 100^th anniversary of the Epping Forest Act that the Centenary Walk was devised to celebrate. An annual organised walk along the route - in September - keeps attracting well over 100 people, though many of those only join for parts of the route from alternative start points along. The Centenary Walk has never been waymarked but its (approximate) line has been shown on OS maps.
The Centenary Walk (now: the Big Walk) in the southern parts crosses some commons and public parks and travels along a few residential roads as well as going through woodland, but north of Chingford goes mostly through ancient woodland. The woods in the southern half of the route are well frequented and the paths here will be very muddy after prolonged wet weather, but the northern part of the walk is mainly on well-made gravel forest trails which despite some heavy usage by cyclists do not tend to get exceptionally muddy.

Due to the annual Centenary Walk/Big Walk attracting a very large group, it often choses wide gravel or tarmac tracks over more interesting lesser paths nearby and for the same reason choses to pass cafés and pubs with facilities even if that requires some road walking. These considerations are not that relevant for the SWC, so our route differs in places from both the Centenary Walk and the Big Walk. The route of the Big Walk is shown on our route map though and also available as a gpx (note: it finishes at a bus stop on the very busy High Street and away from any tea options).

Shorter walk: Walks of about half the length can be obtained by finishing or starting at either Chingford Overground (500m off route along a road) or Buckhurst Hill Underground (2.5 km off route, map-led). See the webpage and the route map for details.

Lunch & Tea: Lots of choice for elevenses, lunch, late lunch and tea, on or just off the route in cafés, bistros, a seafood bar and even a gastro pub, and a normal pub and more on a diversion into Epping. Check the webpage for details and the route map for their locations.

For walk directions, a map, height profile, photos and gpx/kml files click here . T=swc.259