Distance: Approximately 5 miles or 8 km for those more metrically minded
Difficulty: 1 out of 10
Meet: Banstead Train Station (meet arriving train at 18:56)
Train: Take the 18:00 Epsom Downs train from London Victoria OR take the 18:11 Epsom train (changing Sutton onto earlier train -- arriving 18:43; departing 18:49), arriving Banstead 18:56
Return: Regular return trains from Woodmansterne Station at 25 and 55 minutes past the hour until 22:55 or slightly more frequent service from Coulsdon South until 22:50.
This walk has a surprisingly rural feel for being a short distance from London. It passes through Banstead Down with views to London and follows the London Loop for a spell before passing through the Mayfield Lavender Farms. Last year, we did this walk in mid-August and the lavender was past its best….hopefully….we can catch it closer to its prime this week…..refreshed with the recent showers……
A slightly longer ending to the walk takes you along Coulsdon High Street past the Pembroke Pub for post-walk refreshies on route to Coulsdon South station….
More information about the route can be found here. As there are limited instructions for this walk, I would suggest also printing out the map page from the OS Map tab.
Enjoy the walk!
4 comments:
Given the the rather poor public houses in Coulsdon at the end of this walk, J and J would be delighted to invite you for a glass of chilled white wine (kindly provided by SWC walkers at an event earlier in the year) at 28 Southwood Ave.
Hi guys!
I’m new to this group and would like to join for the walk. Anyone I could contact so that I know I’m in the right place?
Cheers
Another Thursday night fail! Stupidly i tried to travel via Wimbledon and Sutton; after 40 sweltering minutes on Wimbledon station platform I decided to go home and watch the cricket highlights. Hope you had a good walk, that Saransh found the group and you enjoyed the lavender and chilled wine.
With some predictable travel disruption on London's less-than-resilient railway network, only three walkers alighted from the specified train at Banstead. While standing outside scratching their heads at the paltry directions two more arrived from a little pre-walk. Later still one more joined at Oaks Park, so we can just about claim n=6 on a w=warm-evening.
This stretch of the London Loop isn't the most exciting (a golf course and a busy main road to cross, followed by a gloomy bridleway alongside prison walls), but Oaks Park and the right of way across the Mayfield Lavender farm make it worthwhile. Most of the lavender hadn't been harvested but the flowers had shrivelled in the heatwave and the field wasn't the intense purple of previous years. Two then sloped off back to their cars but everyone found their way to J&J's garden in Coulsdon for some very welcome post-walk refreshment, for which many thanks.
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