Length: 14¾ km (9.2 miles). Toughness: 4/10
Take the Thameslink train (destination Three Bridges; St Pancras 10:10…London Bridge 10:25, Norwood Jct 10:37, East Croydon 10:42 etc), arriving Coulsdon South at 10:51. All the stations on this walk are in TfL Zone 6.
Return from Upper Warlingham to Victoria at xx:08 & xx:38, or Whyteleafe to London Bridge at xx:10 & xx:40; both via East Croydon.
To commemorate “The Hardest Day” in the Battle of Britain a Spitfire and a Hurricane are due to fly over Kenley Airfield at around 2.20pm† on Sunday, as described in this Inside Croydon article. On this walk you should be able to time your arrival at the airfield for the best possible view of this memorial flypast.
† The timing is approximate and the flypast might even have to be cancelled in the event of bad weather.
This variation of the Whyteleafe Circular starts by reversing the familiar ending of the Book 2 walk, along Farthing Downs and Happy Valley to the famous doom mural in Chaldon church. The walk then loops back to Coulsdon Common for a pub lunch. The most conveniently placed is The Fox but they often claim to be fully booked, so I'd be tempted to make the short detour (described in the directions) to investigate The Boundary on the Green (01883-818087) in the Caterham Barracks development. After lunch it's about 30 minutes from the Boundary to Kenley Airfield (20 mins from the Fox), if you want to time your arrival for the flypast.
There are various drop-out points after that but the full walk loops out towards Kenley and returns via Riddlesdown to Whyteleafe. If it's a nice day the park café should still be open for tea'n'cake, otherwise there's a couple of pubs on the High Street.
You'll need to bring the directions from the L=swc.363.b page.
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The rival attractions of a sporting event on the telly might have kept some people indoors on a w=warm-sunny Sunday, but seven non-footballers assembled at Coulsdon South. In the morning we enjoyed the plentiful green spaces provided by the Corporation of London and dutifully admired the wall painting in Chaldon church.
As suggested we diverted to The Boundary on the Green for lunch and found a well-organised pub with plenty of staff and good food promptly served; well worth recommending for future walks. A few peeped at their phones for the footie but the muted groans coming from the crowd clustered around the TV told us the news.
As scheduled we arrived at Kenley Airfield soon after 2pm and found hundreds of other spectators lined up around the perimeter fence, plus two more walkers so now we were n=9. After 15 minutes anxiously scanning the sky one of the distant black dots did indeed turn out to be a Hurricane (though not accompanied by a Spitfire, alas). It treated us to three low-level passes before waggling its wings and heading back to the south-east (Eastbourne, somebody told us).
We all completed the walk to Whyteleafe and most stopped for refreshments at the Recreation Ground's café. Five then squeezed into the Radius Arms where we bumped into a group of Capital Walkers who'd done a similar walk past the airfield. The pub was encouraging customers to polish off its stock of beer before its annual holiday and one or two trains were missed. The rest of the evening is a blur. An eventful day!
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