Ascent: 150m
Net
Walking Time: 1 ½ hour
Meet at South Kenton station at 19.05.
Either take the 18.37 Watford
Junction London Overground train from Euston (calling, amongst others, at South Hampstead, Queens Park, Kensal Green,
Willesden Junction, Wembley Central), arriving South Kenton at 19.03, or the Bakerloo Line (takes 35 minutes from Oxford Street, for
example).
Alternatively,
start from Northwick Park (Metropolitan Line) at the same time, the routes converge after a few minutes.
Return
trains: frequent
and fast trains and tubes (Chiltern Trains services to Marylebone in about
15 minutes; Met Line to Baker Street in about 17 minutes, then on to Algate).
This is a short excursion in Northwest
London through a park and then the playing fields of Harrow School, one of the country's leading ‘public’, i.e.
fee-paying independent schools, up onto
the hill that’s dominated by the school buildings, its chapel and Harrow’s
church. You walk down from the hill through
the hanging cemetery and skirt around the hill to re-ascend through
residential streets to the High Street,
lined by historic school buildings and tea options. The walk finishes with
a descent along a wood and across a grassy open space down to ‘modern’ Harrow
and its busy station.
For
walk directions, map, height profile, and gpx/kml files
click here.
Tea:
plenty
of options en-route in Harrow, but no good ones near the station, see the walk
directions for details. T=short.40
4 comments:
Interesting to see that after crossing the A404 the GPS route takes a zig-zag route across Harrow School's sports pitches, rather than the direct line of the public footpath shown on the OS Map. There's been a well-publicised 14-year dispute about the school's application to move this right of way and "South-East Walker" issue #98 (June 2017, distributed with the Ramblers magazine) reported that an inspector had sided with objectors and ruled against the school. Unless this decision has been reversed on appeal (which would be disappointing) you'd be entitled to walk straight across the sports field.
Indeed. I have decided to use the also signposted and waymarked route as shown, which is less mud prone and does not go straight through the sports fields. The main dispute was/is over another nearby footpath which the school have built a tennis court on (see the photos on the walk's webpage). This is off the route of this walk.
5 started the walk, 1 other (on transfer from the daywalk) was delayed, so n=6 in w=very-overcast weather. Near the end of the loop through Harrow, 5 of us descended back down to The Castle pub for dinner, so we finished the walk in darkness.
1 of the group had grown up in Harrow. On the hill. He was able to give us some interesting local 'colour': history, memories, anecdotes...
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