Sunday Walk – Wimbledon to Putney

SWC Walk 391 – Wimbledon to Putney

Length: 15½ km (9.6 miles). Toughness: 2/10

Meet up for an 10:45 start in the ticket hall of Wimbledon station (in TfL Zone 3). It's the terminus of one of the branches of the District line and also has frequent suburban services from Waterloo; if coming this way, take a train no later than the 10:27 to Hampton Court, arriving at 10:43.

Note that because of engineering works there are no services on the Thameslink line from Blackfriars, or trams from Croydon.

You can return from either Putney mainline station (Zones 2/3; six trains an hour to Waterloo) or Putney Bridge (Zone 2), on the Wimbledon branch of the District line.

For a shorter walk you would normally be able to drop out at Barnes Bridge station (after 11½ km), but this has a bus replacement service. However, you could use the map to divert to Barnes station (Zone 3), which has three trains an hour to Waterloo.

Because of the low numbers on Sunday walks there's been a suggestion that we have just one club walk, at least during winter. [Feel free to post a comment about this.] We might try this on some Sundays as an experiment, but as the one already posted is some way out of London with an early train, I've picked this south-west London walk as an alternative.

There's some road walking at the start and in Barnes, but much of it is through parks and commons with stretches alongside Beverley Brook and the River Thames. Although suburban walks aren't usually too muddy, be prepared for a gloopy stretch alongside the brook in Wimbledon Common.

The route goes past several pubs in Barnes (after 11–12 km) but you might prefer to break earlier at the Roehampton Gate café in Richmond Park, where there are also lots of picnic tables. At journey's end there are several refreshment places near Putney Bridge, with a Wetherspoon's on the riverfront being the favoured watering-hole on other SWC walks ending there.

Please bring the directions from the L=swc.391 page.