This walk over Long Mynd is my most walked "boots on" ramble. It's the one I loved from the first time walked. It's the one where Country Walking Magazine ran a feature on Geocaching. It's the one I used for training when my son had an interest in walking Snowdon. Cost me children's boots, rucksack, socks and a penknife. He didn't like rambling.
We are staying in the wilds of Shropshire on our latest dog sit. A first, as it is 3 dogs. Never have more dogs than you have hands. Or children. It looks close to Church Stretton on the map but with the roads not taking the most direct route, it's a 40 mile round trip.
I found a new route on Komoot. We park in our (not so) secret free car park in Cunnery Road but instead of heading to Little Stretton and Round Hill, we head up Townbrook Valley. This will shave a couple of miles off and test out our dog handling skills.
All the views from the highest point, Pole Bank, and the slightly more dramatic hands-on-rock descent of Light Hollow Spout are present.
The top of Townbrook Valley
Old Boy Punch left snoozing - the two flat coats are up for it
The real wild ponies are in the far distance
Light Hollow Spout
Heading down Carding Mill Valley - for coffee and cake at the NT Cafe
Investigation required for the Part 3 of Travels with Pevsner. Jonathan Meades does a fine job of describing an impressive looking home, but fails to tell the viewer where it is. Thank the lord for Google Image Search, which informs me it is Wyke Manor, Wick.
Pevsner states;
This eminently picturesque large house just NW of the church is in fact entirely an evocation. It has all the motifs of genuine Worcestershire timber-framing and groups them suggestively, It was done in 1923 round a Georgian core.
1923 Wyke Manor, Wick
There's more to the story than Pevsner lets on. The house is privately owned by the Hudsons. During WWI, Aubrey Hudson wanted to marry a young local girl. His parents didn't approve and asked his CO to transfer him away. So they sent him to the front. He lasted two weeks.
The house contains and is a shrine to him.
My chosen walk appeared in a recent Country Walking Magazine. A figure of 8 loop with the focus point at the Pershore Bridges Picnic area.
20th Century meets 15th Century
The first loop to the hamlet of Pensham. All agricultural fields in the shadow of Bredon Hill.
First half walking
Bredon Hill
Then into Wick, where there is more to discover than just the manor house. A signed, and notice-boarded History Trail tells you all about Viking raids up the Avon and how to build cruck houses.
Alas, the FYI Geocaches are lost
Walk Details
Distance - 5 miles
Geocaches - 2
Walk Inspiration - Travels with Pevsner and Country Walking Magazine, June 2026, Walk 9
My second walk from the Joolz Rather Splendid London Pub Walks. The YouTube video for an overview on the area, where he gets rather too excited about coal holes and stink pipes.
Attempting a pub crawl on a Monday is a challenge. My advance ticket means I need to be at Euston for the cancelled 3.26pm. The first handful of the pubs don't open until 3 or 4pm. So part of this crawl is virtual. Use you imagination. I did.
Royal Inn on the Park - next to Victoria Park.
Kenton Arms - gorgeous.
The Gun, less gorgeous
And the Chesham Arms
Saved time from boozing provides more time for investigation. Of a personal kind. I worked for Great Universal Stores - which also contained Burberry before it was requisitioned by the underclass. I found myself at Chatham Place, the former head office. Where as a teenager database programmer I used to (attempt to) eat watermelon in the Director's restaurant.
A factory outlet now.... and flats
For a full appreciation of Umit and Sons, watch the video. A most unusual shop, with the tiniest of cinemas contained within. This week showing "The Good, the Bad and the Ugly".
A real one-off
If you have watched the video, you will know that Joolz likes to cosplay as an Edwardian Dandy. I am amazed that he escaped with his teeth/life (delete as applicable) in his choice of boozer. The Crown - and the mobile shop they have extended into next door - the half crown. The veteran pub tickers on Pubsgalore claim it to be faux-Irish - even if they do have a sign saying I love fecking Ireland and sell Tayto crisps.
Crown and Half Crown
There's no denying it's a drinkers' pub. It's only been open 10 minutes and already busy with quite frankly, ill-looking men, some of whom are already double loading on the Stella. Friendly enough if you can handle banter but I am unsure how they would have taken to our Joolz.
Proper boozers out of shot. No real ale, so (a decent and cheap) Guinness
The Cock is an unexpected surprise. I noticed the Good Beer Guide 2026 sticker on the door of this shabby-chic ex-Trumans pub. The beer and cider range is comprehensive enough and of sufficient quality to justify its regular appearance.
The Cock
A lot to admire - my Howling Hops Upper Crust Red IPA was delicious and only just over £4. Remember, I am in London. The barman/owner gave off Black Books vibes, trying desperately to plough through a huge novel, whilst thirsty punters interrupted his reading flow.
And who could fail to be impressed with the speed of the pickled egg eaters?
Some serious attention to timings there - Jack holding his own against the Simons
And I end at the unusually named Cat and Mutton on the other side of London Fields. Over the years, this ex-Charrington house has had many names, usually a combination of cat, cattle, shoulder and mutton.
More pubby handsomeness
It's decent enough, in a gentrified kind of way. All exposed wood, cat-related artworks and decent music played at a reasonable level. But I am reminded I am in London.
Five Points XPA for £7.50.
Take me to the cock.
Pub and Dining Room
Walk Details
Distance - 3.75 miles
Walk Inspiration - Joolz Splendid Pub Walks, Walk 15
Second "Hidden Walk" in an attempt to reacquaint myself with Central London. This time it is Fitzrovia and Bloomsbury - the land of the Bohemians. I have so much future inspiration from this walk, I can hear my other projects weep. It's not every area of London that is named after a pub. I am rather enjoying reading "The Fitzroy: An autobiography of a London Pub". To the extent that I have a 1950s-themed pub crawl planned for another day.
An overview of the area;
Fitzrovia and Bloomsbury form a historic swathe of central London immediately north of Mayfair and Soho, with a character that is noticeably more literary, bohemian and intellectual. Fitzrovia developed as a mixed residential and commercial district, becoming particularly associated with artists, writers and musicians, including George Orwell, Dylan Thomas and Augustus John, while its pubs, workshops and small streets retain something of that unconventional past. Bloomsbury, by contrast, was largely shaped by the Russell family from the 17th century onwards and is renowned for its garden squares, grand terraces and intellectual associations, particularly with the British Museum, University College London and the Bloomsbury Group. Together, the two neighbourhoods offer a fascinating mixture of Georgian town planning, literary history, medicine, academia, pubs and bohemian London, stretching from Oxford Street north towards Roughly bounded by Great Portland Street to the west and Gray's Inn Road to the east.
A uniform layout of streets and impressive squares, mainly Georgian and early Victorian. The Post Office Tower dominates the skyline.
From the Euston Road
This is a morning walk, so too early for watering holes. The Fitzroy is important to comment upon, responsible for the naming of the area in its bohemian glory years of the 1920s to the 1940s. I am part way through the previously mentioned book, reaching the start of the decline in 1955. A court case for running a house of ill-repute, when homosexual men were observed "fingering sailor's buttocks" by undercover detectives. The people and their other haunts have provided much future reading material and a new pub crawl for me to follow.
The next big source of inspiration is Hawksmoor. St George's, one of his six London churches, is on route. The distinctive tower featuring in the background of Hogarth's Gin Lane.
Looking forward to exploring in September
Don't miss the more upbeat "Beer Street".
Google Maps suggests the church is open daily from 9am. It appears that the church opening times are as inconsistently vague as pub opening hours. Gates are padlocked and access to the Hawksmoor (and suffragette) exhibitions are out of reach. Further research into the potential satanic layout of the six churches, via Iain Sinclair and Peter Ackroyd, will be required – and another walking route will be born.
Hawksmoor - St George's
Charles II in Roman Garb, atop Hogarth's Tower
For the quirky - again, I am too early for the most famous (how many are there?) of London's Umbrella shops - James Smith and Sons. It saved me from myself. I fancied a heavy-topped walking stick to fight off phone thieves.
Summer of 2026 - Worst trading conditions ever
And inside University College - one of the most bizarre sights in London. The corpse of Jeremy Bentham on display in a glass cupboard in the reception area. He died in 1832 and his will requested that his dressed body should be put on display as a "self-statue". Of course, the medical students have been messing around with it over the years. The head now a wax replacement.
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That's plenty for a blog - more photos of pubs, squares, Coram Fields, St George's Gardens and Tracy Emin artworks hidden in plain sight on a railing on the Komoot map below.
Future Inspiration
Book - The Fitzroy: An autobiography of a London Pub, Sally Fiber
Book - The Laughing Torso, Nina Hamnett
Pub Crawl - 1950s Bohemian Fitzrovia
Book - Queens of Bohemia and other Miss-fits, Darren Coffield
