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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 24 December 2016

Christmas Eve walk - A riverside walk with lots of pubs

SWC Walk 45 - West Byfleet to Hampton Court
Length: 17.2km (10.5 miles)
Toughness: 1 out of 10 - dead flat!

9.42 train from Waterloo (9.54 Clapham Junction, 10.00 Wimbledon) to West Byfleet, arriving 10.23

Buy a day return to West Byfleet. This covers all but the short Hampton Court to Surbiton part of your return journey, for which you can use Oyster or contactless if necessary.

For walk directions click here.

This is a very pleasant and easy walk along first the pretty Basingstoke Canal, then the River Wey and finally the Thames up to Hampton Court. It is surprisingly rural given that it is inside the M25 (mostly - you pass under the motorway early in the walk).

Apart from its proximity to London, I chose it today for its large number of possible lunch pubs. I hope at least some of them will be doing lunch, though whether one will need to book or not I do not know. Perhaps try calling the pub of your choice at the start of the walk. Just before the road bridge at Walton-on-Thames there is also a substantial cafe-kiosk offering hot meals, though again, if it will be open today I do not know. In extremis a diversion into Weybridge town centre should yield some takeaway options.

At the end of the walk, the environs of Hampton Court station has a cafe or two, though they may close early. You might even make it to the Tiltyard Cafe in Hampton Court palace grounds if you are speedy (it closes at 4.30pm). Otherwise, there should be a pub open.

Trains back from Hampton Court are at 28 and 58 to 18.58, then 19.58, 20.58. Journey times are slightly extended by 16 minutes today by the need to change at Surbiton for a connecting train to Waterloo.

T=3.45

1 comment:

Walker said...

N=15 on this walk. Weather = w=hazy-sunshine (which was a nice surprise). There was general agreement that this made an ideal Christmas Eve outing, with easy riverside paths, minimal navigation needed, and no mud. The section around Weybridge was particularly pretty. All pubs and tea rooms plus the food kiosk by Walton Bridge were open: about ten of us opted for the "recommended" Crown, the first pub we came to. We had a friendly welcome here but several were disappointed with the quality of the food. The sandwichers powered on ahead but we caught them towards the end, which shows the benefit of a Proper Lunch.

A hasty tea for some of us as we headed off on the 15.28 for our evening celebrations, but at least two expressed the intention to go to Hampton Court to see the ice rink. We parted on the train with many expressions of heartfelt sentiment, looking forward to our next far-off meeting (in two day's time).