Sunday Walk – The Wandle Trail from Waddon to Colliers Wood

Extra Walk 273a – Waddon to Colliers Wood
Length: 13¾ km (8.5 miles). Toughness: 1/10

10:32 Epsom Downs train from Victoria (Battersea Park 10:36, Clapham Jct 10:40, etc), arriving Waddon (TfL Zone 5) at 11:07.

At the end of the walk Colliers Wood is on the Northern line (Zone 3). The directions point out stations and tram stops along the route if you want to drop out earlier. Alternatively, you could extend the walk by around 6 km to the end of the Wandle Trail (see [•] below).

The main version of this south London walk starts at Mitcham Junction, but a permissive path from there to Carshalton has been closed for ages while development work is taking place. So the walk instructions now include an alternative start from Waddon, a rather urban route but taking in more of the waymarked Wandle Trail itself. The afternoon section has some particularly attractive riverside stretches through parkland and nature reserves, and someone helpfully reported that the National Trust have at last re-opened one of these, Watermeads.

The most convenient lunch stop is The Sun in Carshalton, but others sing the praises of The Hope, a fine community pub; there are other eateries too, so take your pick. There's a nice tea place in Morden Hall Park, the National Trust's Potting Shed café.

You'll need to bring the walk directions from the Mitcham Junction to Colliers Wood walk page.

[•] Directions for the extension to Wandsworth (and Putney Bridge, if you want to continue along the Thames Path) can be found on this Colliers Wood to Putney Bridge walk page. There are ongoing improvement works on this stretch of the Wandle Trail and a new riverside section has recently been opened at Earlsfield. T=swc.273.a