The Lord giveth....or Nundanket's tales of the riverbank

This is the latest of my river walks. It's out of sequence as I missed one from two weeks ago, when Lincolnshire Tom and I walked a big part of the Wandle Trail. Maybe more on that anon. The walk on Saturday, like many of my suburban perambulations, had an unexpected historical highlight.  Here's today's route. The numbers show the various places where I stopped to take snaps.

Sorry about the night mode. I don't know how to turn it off! This slice of SW London is a few miles upstream from London Town. You can just about make Wimbledon out, bottom right. Kingston is out of shot a couple of miles to the bottom right left. Boat Race fans will note the normal route along the Thames at the top.

Before LT and I met I stopped and snapped these fish doing the equivalent of treading water, facing upstream. I have no idea what breed of fish they are.

Point 1 on the map

We met late morning on the neutral ground of West Wimbledon (point 2), walkable for both of us from home. First stop Wimbledon Common. The brook skirts the edge of the common on the side closest to the busy A3 road (a dual carriageway, so there's always road noise in the background). It also passes a number of sports fields (rugby and football) which were busier than they have been for months as the lockdown is easing. The A3 is the large road which starts at the bottom of the map close to point 1.

The A3 bends round to the north east between Wimbledon Common and Richmond Park. There's a 'Pelican' crossing here, which as well as being for pedestrians, also has a special boarded-off section for horses. There's even a button for the riders to press, and instead of a little green man, there's a little green horse when it's safe to cross. You know you're in posh territory when there is a road crossing specifically for hoses.

Richmond Park seemed to go by in a flash. We were in full on 'yarning' mode. A chap exiled to Scotland recently told me he could bore for England (or words to that effect). He clearly hasn't spent time with Lincolnshire Tom and I. Up to that point it was easy to follow the route. We'd both walked this section a number of times before, so even if we didn't have the stream to follow, we didn't need a map. Now at the north side of Richmond Park the Beverley Brook exits the park under an 8 foot brick wall so you need to leave the park at Roehampton Gate (a few hundred metres to the south east of the spot where the brook leaves the park. I'd downloaded a guide, which was not particularly clear at this point, but we spotted a helpful sign on the left of the gate. This took us past the back of some very big houses with the park wall on our left. When we caught up with the stream again I climbed up on the wall of the footbridge and stood precariously while I took a photo over the wall of the park. Just for interest.

Point 3 - looking south into Richmond Park

Point 3 - looking north, down the Beverley Brook

We then turned right (north) and followed the path alongside the bank as it passed a smaller park (Palewell Common) and then a pitch and putt course. Across the other side of the stream there's another golf place with a large building which turned out, confusingly, to be the International Tennis Federation (point 4).

Point 4 - The ITF

After this there was a bit of road walking. For a while along the busy A205 (a.k.a. the 'South Circular'). Before that there was a street of pretty top notch Arts and Craft style houses (Hertford Avenue). Fabulous. The stream was following a course at the backs of houses so we had to stick with the roads. Before we picked it up again, we stopped for a few snaps on the footbridge at Barnes Station. The main building of this small suburban station has some excellent decorative brickwork in the Tudor style.

Point 5 - Barnes station looking west in the direction of Richmond

Incidentally, every Swede I've ever met in the metropolis lives in Barnes (plus a fair few of the Finns I've met too). Admittedly a small sample, but there is the evidence of a couple of Swedish eateries around the area. A ghetto it ain't though.

We picked up the stream again as it flowed east, past some more sports fields and common. Not long after (we didn't notice anything particularly as we were busy putting the world to rights) we were at the mouth of the Beverley Brook (point 6). Here are a few views from around here.

Point 6 - Almost there!

Point 6 - looking upstream (NNW). New stand being built at Craven Cottage (home of Fulham FC).  When I was here on Easter Sunday evening you could also see the Wembley Arch. Two football grounds in one shot - I was excited.

Point 6 - looking downstream. London Town round a few bends that way. The tide is clearly out.

Point 6 - looking straight down. With the water level low, London's archaeology reveals itself. Signs of the ancient Celtic civilization: here we can see an offering to the Goddess Vespa.

Point 6 - looking NE to Bishops Park, Fulham

So here we were, at a decision point. A trivial point. Loathe to retrace our steps, it was either left or right. Left would have taken round two big loops before we got any where useful to us in terms of easy transport. Right it was. The decision was influenced by the sight of Putney Bridge. You see, we are of a vintage when we can remember when Grimsby Town were 'any good' and we had many trips to Craven Cottage. Along our normal route to the Cottage was a hostelry called the Eight Bells which was a frequent stopping off point. Sometimes 'Three Sheets' would have been a more apt name. We remembered the Eight Bells had tables outside, and April 12th was the day that pubs could have customers again, provided they had outside space.

At the bridge my Yellowbellied companion piped up and said, "isn't that the church where they had the Putney Debates?" OK, let's have a look. Indeed it was. Education before pleasure. So off we went to have a closer look. Somewhere along the way we lost Point 7. It may have been where we saw a metal detectorist and a mudlark scouring the river beach. Anyway, St Mary's was well worth a visit. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/St_Mary%27s_Church,_Putney

Point 8 - St Mary's, Putney

First we had some lunch at the rather nice caff (a modern glass structure, with seats outside, attached to the church). Then a wander around the church itself. The tower looks to be the oldest visible part, most of the building is from a 19th century re-build (interestingly the Putney Debates weren't widely known of at this point, not that they seemed to be that bothered about historical buildings). Inside the roof is concrete, dating from after an arson attack in 1973. When finished the altar was, unusually, left in the middle of the nave on the north side so the orientation is all wrong. Come to think of it, it's not orientated. So an interesting mix of styles. The nave has an area commemorating the debates, placed there to mark the 360th anniversary in 2007. One little fact I learned was that a historian in the late nineteenth century re-discovered the minutes of the debates and their subsequent revelation enlightened the late Victorian inteligencia and political classes. I bought a comemmorative DVD for £5 to watch at a later date.

So on to the north bank. We'd earned that pint. Sadly the staff there didn't think so. You have to book. Right we hotfooted it back to the bridge where our timing was immaculate to catch the 85 back to Kingston. On the journey we discovered that the Mighty Mariners [sic] had gone 2-0 up against an in form Bolton, after 85 minutes. My naive son sent a message saying "I think we might win for once." Naturally Bolton scored after 95 minutes to give us a nervy minute or so. Remarkably we hung on to win and close the gap on Colchester 3rd from bottom (and safety). Naturally, Colchester, who played after the Funeral, won coming from behind. The Lord giveth and the Lord taketh away.  

After debussing on Kingston Hill, the mile walk back to Schloß Nundanket was a mere bagatelle to us hardened suburban strollers, and we were soon enjoying a cold drink or two in the Inner Ward of the Schloß. And of course we carried on boring for England. Basking in the sunshine and the (all too temporary) glow of a Mariners win.