After a part-suburban, part-rural walk from Hayes station through West Wickham, this Outer London route follows the River Beck from its sources in woodlands on high ground in Spring Park to Beckenham’s Town Centre as closely as sensible. In the upper reaches, the Beck forms the Borough Boundary between Bromley and Croydon (i.e. formerly Kent and Surrey), and the very most of the route runs through Bromley.
The route through the Beck Corridor itself is a healthy mixture of mature and younger woodlands where the river meanders naturally and some landscaped parks with lakes dammed from the river, featuring a couple of ‘waterfalls’, mainly linked-up by quiet residential roads, but not without about 1 kilometre of busy roads to walk along. The Beck is crossed many a times, including once on stepping stones.
Beckenham’s town centre features the ‘Cathedral of North West Kent’ with England’s oldest lychgate.
Eat/Drink: more than a handful of options each in Coney Hall and in Hayes. See the walk directions for more detail.
For walk directions, map, photos and gpx/kml files click here. T=short.62
#2026-07-03T18:12
1 comment:
N=4 on a w=sunny-evening-with-a-breeze
Despite the dry weather, there was still some water flow in The Beck, even at the very top. The flower beds in the parks and the various woods were in a very good state and all went to plan until we reached Coney Hall Recreation Ground. We saw a bunch of youth on the roof of the park nursery building, clearly with break-in intent. One of us called the police, and she and the other non diner then stayed behind until the cops arrived (the youth had done a runner by then).
The 2 diners walked on and had a meal at Thara Thai, then a drink at The Ale Way.
22 13 train
Post a Comment