Saturday Walk – Hampton Court and two Royal Parks

Extra Walk 240 – Hampton Court Circular
Length: 12½ km (7.8 miles). Toughness: 1/10

10:36 Hampton Court train from Waterloo (Vauxhall 10:40, Clapham Jct 10:45, etc), arriving at 11:12. If you just miss this at Waterloo, the 10:42 to Basingstoke overtakes it on its non-stop journey to Surbiton (arr 10:59, dep 11:05). Hampton Court is in TfL Zone 6.

Trains back from Hampton Court are half-hourly at xx:24 & xx:54.

As February has been officially declared as the wettest month since the dinosaurs died out, here's a short walk in a couple of Royal Parks to escape from the sodden countryside. Although the walk author will no doubt have done his best to devise a muddy route, there'll be more chance of diverting onto paved paths and other firm surfaces if the conditions warrant it.

The suggested lunch stop is the Pheasantry café in Bushy Park's Woodland Gardens, which you'll reach at around 12:30pm (and again an hour or so later if you'd prefer to press on). There are plenty of tea places towards the end of the walk, eg. the Tiltyard café in the grounds of Hampton Court Palace. You'll need a king's ransom if you want to visit the palace and formal gardens, but the café and refreshment kiosks are in the (free) ‘informal gardens’: these usually have a good display of early spring flowers and blossom.

You'll need to bring the directions from the Hampton Court Circular walk page. For those willing to go off-piste the written directions include some suggested detours off the (fairly straightforward) GPS route, eg. in the Woodland Gardens. T=swc.240