Distance - 10 Miles
Start - High Barnet Tube
Finish - Silver Street Overground
Geocaches - 1
Good Beer Guide Pubs - #563, The Alfred Herring
London does well in promoting walking.... here's another water-way based walk that follows a stream from source to a larger body of water. The Pymmes Brook Trail can be added to the previously completed Celandine Route, Waterlinks Way, Dollis Greenway, Wandle Trail and Darent Valley Trail.
Public Transport access is a little more tricky with this one - the start is meant to be at Beech Hill Lake, lying hidden in the middle of the wonderfully named Monken Hadley Common. The end is at Pickett's Lock, where the brook runs into the River Lea.
The easiest place for me to start is High Barnett - the end of the Northern Line. 2 Miles of walking - sharing paths with the London Loop - before I determine that the signage has been improved since Londonist brought the route to my attention.
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| All new signage |
Pleasant enough walking in the common - sharing paths with professional dog walkers (more than 6, all on leads) and dealing with a GPS issue that means I miss the blue sign heading south from Beech Hill Lake. Ignore the obvious spur on the map. Unless you want to see a bit more of the London Loop.
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| Into the shade of the Common |
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| Where I should have turned south |
After a bit of urban walking through New and East Barnet, the path picks up a number of almost co-joined parks - Oak Hill, Arnos and Broomfield - where the waterway can be seen and easily followed.
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| Pymmes Brook in Oak Hill Park |
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| Under the railway arches of Arnos Park |
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| Broomfield Park |
Palmers Green is the first and best place for a refreshment stop. It had a village feel and there seemed to be plenty of independent shops/cafes along one of the more pleasant North London high streets.
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| Old School Road Signage |
I am, of course, looking for a Good Beer Guide Tick. I could have added a couple of miles off track and to the North for the Orange Tree or a micro called The Green Dragon but a solemn vow was broken, due to laziness. The closest is a Wetherspoons - The Alfred Herring.
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| Apologies to Mrs M for spending money at Tims |
It couldn't be any more identikit - shop conversion, named after a significant local, filthy tables, earthy clientele, dirt cheap but excellent quality real ales and fetch your own condiments from a table that is slightly closer than the gents loos.
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| A First Dorset Brewing Company Durdle Door - £1.99 of Quality Ale |
This would possibly make a good place to bail out the walk. The rest becomes very urban and you have to work out how to cross the North Circular - twice.
The brook disappears into a culvert, only to appear periodically to show how many shopping trolleys it has collected.
After the Arts Centre at Great Cambridge Junction the path disappears into some wasteground. A gang of dope smoking asian lads sitting on a discarded sofa test my pleasantness by first saying "Hello Uncle". When I say hello back they grow in confidence and start calling me "Uncle Noncey".
As a citizen of Worcestershire, I wonder whether I am going to become a statistic of London knife crime. It goes through my mind as to how I can protect myself. They have numbers on their side but will be slowed down by their herb of choice. I am full of scampi, DBC Durdle Door and righteous anger at being compared to Rolf Harris just because I have a walking cap on.
In the end, I scuttle off in a tactical retreat, hoping their increased abuse I can hear does not turn into the sound of running feet.
Pymmes Park is a suitably named place to end the walk.
The Overground at Silver Street rushes be make to the safety of Archway Premier Inn.
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