06/01/25 - London Spiral Stage 17 - Woolwich to Roding Valley

The Great Guinness Shortage

Another Thames crossing on the London Spiral. I have used bridges, ferries and cable cars. Today, I can add feet - taking the deep dystopian plunge into the underworld and using the Woolwich Foot Tunnel. Only slightly worrying that there is an alarm sounding and no one else going subterranean. 

Going Underground

Not that I really wanted to surface. North Woolwich in the freezing rain.

Take me back down

Today's walk vividly demonstrates the essence of what Iain Sinclair's definition of psychogeography. Walking through industrial estates, alongside airport runways and under motorways is not for everyone. Route finding is tricky. Paths appear unexpectedly but also cannot be found to match the map. 

For Iain Sinclair, psychogeography is a way to uncover a city’s hidden soul, focusing on the forgotten, overlooked, and unloved spaces where history lingers. By walking through these neglected areas—abandoned industrial sites, crumbling estates, and disused railway lines—Sinclair reveals the stories and memories embedded in the urban landscape. These places, often dismissed or erased by modern development, serve as a counterpoint to sanitized urban spaces, offering a raw and chaotic glimpse of the city’s true essence.

Through his explorations, Sinclair celebrates the poetry of decay and the persistence of the past, reclaiming the narratives buried beneath the surface. Psychogeography, for him, becomes both a method of discovery and a form of resistance, connecting visible and invisible layers of urban life.

The end of London City airport runway

The River Roding

Most of this walk tries to follow the River Roding. Like many of London rivers, there is a waymarked walk associated. 

Delighted to find waymarkers

Yet this Roding Valley Way is a secret. I can find no official PDF or route map. Just a few blogs and part recordings on the usual tracking sites. Within metres of finding this marker, I manage to get to a dead end of new flats development (is there any other kind) and have to back track.

But getting lost has its own rewards. The diversion takes me to Barking Abbey. A rare bit of cultural history in an unloved part of town.

Ruined first by the Vikings, then Henry VIII

Refreshments? A rich seam for the pub archeology, with every pub passed derelict or turned into temples for different faiths. But there is an outlier in Ilford. And it opens before midday.

The Good Beer Guide Jono's.

How many Irish Pubs in the Bible?

I'm not sure what to make of this. Whilst checking whether open, I am instantly hit with a sign. No one likes signs in pubs. They should remain the last bastions of free living.

Marketing Myth or reality? Surely first come, first served.

Now, I only drink Guinness on St Patricks day. And only then if I am in Cheltenham Racecourse. Yet what else are you meant to drink in an Irish Pub. I chance my arm, but my Brummie accent ruins any chance of being mistaken as a regular.

Tribute it is. The only cask on offer and even then, the pump hidden around the corner away from the keg. Almost as if they are apologising for serving cask.

Decent TBF - Especially for 11:45am on a Monday

A real Good Beer Guide oddity. The guide adds scant info on its inclusion - noting that an occasional second pump sometimes serves Banks Wainwright.

And the locals? On Carling to a man.

Onwards, though a couple of pretty parks (Valentines and Clayhill) before more urban grittiness under the M11.

Flyovers - but at least the paths are signposted now

The destination - Roding Valley Tube Station. Only the most Londoner of Londoners knows which line this is on. A weird loop of the Central Line. 

I'll pick this route back up from Woodford.

Walk Information

Distance - 13 Miles

Start - Woolwich

Finish - Roding Valley Tube

Areas Walked - Barking, Ilford, Woodford

Geocaches - 4

Pubs - 1

Previous Walks - Stage 1, Stage 2, Stage 3, Stage 4, Stage 5, Stage 6, Stage 7, Stage 8, Stage 9, Stage 10, Stage 11, Stage 12, Stage 13, Stage 14, Stage 15, Stage 16