Picturesque Autumn London Walk: Crystal Palace to Beckenham Hill (4K)

This is a good place for an autumn walk, a perfect place for an autumn walk. I fancied a nice autumn walk today regardless of the weather which is just as well because it's it's raining it's not the rain's not too bad it's kind of gentle rain and I was thinking you know what I really fancy walking through some open spaces south of the Norbury Brook walk Norbury Brook walk this time last year maybe I'm not sure but I did the capital ring from here to um Streatham about I don't know it was about uh March 2023 god a year and a half ago so I thought I would pick up from Crystal Palace but go the other way in the opposite direction down to um Grove Park whether I'll get to Grove Park or not I don't know but it's lovely to start a walk in Crystal Palace in Crystal Palace Park which is such a gorgeous park let's have a look at the radio aerial and there it is the famous Crystal Palace TV mast such a a great symbol of London one of the great landmarks of London not just South London hoping to get some really lovely autumn colours today the capital ring is like the kind of kid sibling of the London loop it's just 150 miles and it's broken into 24 walks this is walk three and as ever I'm going in the wrong direction so I have made a dedicated video about Crystal Palace and Crystal Palace Park a few years ago now so rather than recap all that stuff about the National Sports Centre, the great exhibition, the TV mast, the dinosaurs, what else the famous bands that played at the bowl rather than repeat all of that we'll just crack on with the with the London loop but I do want to come back here to go into the secret tunnels that run well I don't know where they run but apparently you can get access to them now so I'm told lovely to meet Matt and Laura back there and their lovely dog Frida just as I put my cap on it's the cap you see that does it so it's always lovely to meet people who watch the videos they had seen the Crystal Palace video I made a few years ago which is nice to think that people remember the old videos unless YouTube resurfaced it recently so we're going to exit the park we're going to go around the lake exit the park towards Penge high street and I don't think I've ever been to Penge high street the capital ring is a great way to start your London walking if you haven't really done a lot of London walking yet or you're visiting London you want to get into doing walks into the more sort of like uh less heralded areas the um blunt the capital ring is a great way to start it's broken down to relatively short sections often about four or five miles long and it just goes through great areas and it's not so far out as the London loop it's a great kind of introduction to real London walking I think this is only my third capital ring video I think or fourth third or fourth I did the one from here it's a Streatham I also a while back went from Richmond to Horsingdon hill amazing walks but um when I talk to people when they come up to me in the pub or when I have a chat or if just maybe people that I know that come up to talk to me about walking in London the capital ring is often than one that they've started doing because it's a lot more casual particularly if they've not done a lot of walking before it's not as uh you know the jeopardy it doesn't seem as great as when you're doing a kind of 12 mile section of the London loop right out on the edge of London somewhere this is a lot more approachable if you like can you see that dinosaur there on the island in the undergrowth I think one of the interesting things I remember hearing or reading about the Crystal Pass dinosaurs is that they were created before some of the skeletons have been fully kind of excavated discovered by archaeologists so it's sort of taking a bit of a guess a little bit I think so we're basically doing a circuit of the lake before we um exit for Penge Penge I always thought it sounded like a kind of medical condition Crystal Palace Park really is one of London's greatest parks no doubt about that whatsoever some really beautiful colours as we look back across the lake across the tree canopy to the tv antenna here's one for the railway enthusiasts this bridge here as we leave the park is either the first railway bridge in London or one of the first built in 1839 apparently the first trains that ran along it were drawn by atmospheric traction which used a vacuum pump to draw the trains along the line sounds incredibly innovative what why they thought coal was better I don't know and and I culled that information from this wonderful little leaflet I picked up about 20 odd years ago in Thornhill Square library and I got them for the whole of the Capitol Ring and they're great I've kept them and I started using them a few years ago I have a feeling this section of the Capitol Ring would be a really good pub walk I mean there's a few round Crystal Palace now we've got the Bridge House here particularly if you were going in the correct direction you'd be ending here wouldn't you the name Penj is said to be of Celtic or Brythonic origin meaning wood end so it's a it's an ancient deeply ancient place you can see it can't you it would have also been one of the chapters in this other London I meant to write about Penj because of its association with the Buddha of Suburbia one of my favourite London books I think as isn't this where the main protagonist in the Buddha of Suburbia lives the wonderful book by Hanif Kureishi it's great to have some decent signage to follow as well because as you know I always need a little bit of help with directions this is Kingswood Road some old school green chain walk signage here I've done bits of the green chain walk as well I think it's just a South London thing the green chain walk again another great walk not so far from central London call this a trigger warning if you like for the David Bowie fans we're about to move into Bowie territory around what Cator Park Beckenham that kind of thing I'm not a big Bowie person I'm going to miss loads of things so just I'm going to say that in advance if it's not in the leaflet I won't know it wow look at this building here what an absolute beauty this is near Penge East station 1887 holy trinity I think it's the holy trinity church gorgeous Penge East station here I've really started to grow incredibly kind of fond of South London over I guess like particularly the last couple of years since walking like the Quaggy the Norbury Brook the shuttle it also goes back I guess to my walks across Woolwich Common and that sort of six years ago it is uh never really lived here six months in Newcross and that's it but I can see the appeal go across the old iron bridge here and the rain's starting to come down quite hard again Ebsom blows a little bit but at least it's not cold today according to my 20-odd year old leaflet the Eurostar the Eurostar trains pass through here which feels unlikely right be quite alarming if you're on the platform well next stop is Alexandra Recreation Ground but look at the wonderful wooded hills in the distance there I'll try and look up to see what that actually is isn't it beautiful though this is Leonard Road I think well I'm hoping it's Beckenham Place because that's where that's where we're heading so that would be fantastic this is a Alexandra Recreation Ground named after the wife of Edward VII I got that from the leaflet you see I wouldn't have known that Queen Alexandra was the wife of Edward VII I would have just known that I said well of course she might have even been queen there you go I'm big on my queen kings and queens I have to say I've been very impressed by the signage so far I would call this an unnecessary obelisk which kind of highlights the symbolic power of the obelisk as an object particularly in the Victorian mindset this is just a drinking fountain doesn't require an obelisk this club have got an amazing mural I wonder if they're actually any good at football I'm sure they're brilliant also it doesn't really matter they're a junior football club they should just love playing the game so we come out of Alexandra Park and turn into Trewsbury Road a trivia question for you there's a one of my favourite youtubers had an allotment site very close to where I'm stood now who was it we've got about 30 seconds before we get there I realise now that although I've never actually been to Alexandra Park myself before I have seen it in an awful lot of youtube videos it's a youtuber who I have made videos with actually how many videos have I made maybe I only made one video together oh no anyway he's in two youtube videos around here I'll go and visit his allotment slightly off bit of a detour but actually I don't know if you can get to the allotments forgive me Sean uh it's Sean James Cameron the wonderful Sean James Cameron he's still right around here and over there was his I think his most beloved allotment the uh what he called the rusty allotment after the cat rusty highly recommend Sean's youtube channel I watch it all the time it's been going brilliantly I mean moved to South Wales it's a fantastic story a fantastic journey highly recommend it highly recommend his channel particularly if you like gardening or if you like now like homesteading it's perfect for that this is a really beautiful leafy road isn't it cater road this is the autumnal colours I was looking for today I'm pretty sure Sean sent me a photograph of this a few years ago I can't remember this either quite a short stink pipe the stink pipe that slots this top or the remains of an old Victorian gas light it's a bit wide for a gas light so I'm going with stink pipe so now there is a little river near here and we know the rivers were used or the coarser rivers were used for the course of sewage main so another great stink pipe slash gas lamp or of course possibly both I think there are some stink pipes that had lamps on top because of course they could use the gases from the sewers to illuminate the lights which would be very efficient classic suburban footpath here playing fields on one side houses on the other the sign there says London borough of Beckenham I believe we're now in the London borough Bromley I think it's Beckenham's been absorbed by Bromley again one of the many things I could be wrong about yeah this is this is delightful so we turn into Kent House Road which I think has an interesting story attached to it further up the other street here as we approach Cater Park I think Cater Park's a Bowie location isn't it prompt outrage in the comments I don't know for sure we appear to be back on Leonard Road so it looks like we did a big loop around to take in Alexandra Park which I'm grateful for right so I think I somehow and rather foolishly missed the site of a Kent House which was in Beckett Walk I think I was just off Cater Road back there which is a real shame and Kent House is said to be it was a 13th century farmhouse which was demolished in 1957 which is a crime against heritage isn't it and it said that it was the first house in Kent on the road out of London which is interesting isn't it because I would have thought Kent started a little bit further in towards uh well just on the other side of the river really but there you go we now enter Cater Park Cater Park Cater Park I have actually walked through here with Ian Miller the wonderful Ian Miller when we walked along the the Ravensbourne the Beck I think we were walking the Beck we walked on the Ravensbourne the Chappinch Brook the pool I think the Chappinch Brook and the Beck conjoined to form the pool here and the Ravensbourne branches off I can't quite remember but we'll see it up here quite soon this was a once upon a time the Kent House pleasure gardens this is a this is a fine copse of pine trees here very tall pine trees anyone know what they are they look great don't they sort of remind me of the kind of thing that you would find in California maybe but am I confusing it with something else this is the beautiful little Chappinch Brook and this is the Beck as I mentioned I had a wonderful day walking the the Beck you know from the Ravensbourne at the Thames all the way back to the source of the Beck for the wonderful Ian Miller I'll link to that blog that's a while ago now it's a good seven or eight years ago so we come out of Cater Park and we go to Kingshall Road heading towards Beckenham Place Park I came out today looking for a leafy autumnal walk and I certainly found it a lovely relaxing autumn London walk this is beautiful look at this down here it wouldn't be a proper kind of London walk if you didn't have at least one station subway here we go under New Beckenham station apparently New Beckenham station dates from 1904 so I'm not sure whether to believe this is a well all street names are made up you know I mean this is called Coppers Cope Road Coppers Cope Road I have to look that up later it doesn't even mention the story in the capital ring leaflet it's got to be good we now go into the beautiful leafy Brackley Road I really fancy a cup of tea but I don't really fancy my chances it's massively residential isn't it what a beautifully leafy part of London I know I just said it a couple of streets ago but I'm not sure I could have chosen a leafier area in terms of residential streets it's incredible now returning to Worsley Bridge Road probably pronounced that incorrectly and we've got Crystal Palace's training ground down here somewhere let's keep our eyes peeled can't miss that well I never here's the county ground Kent County Cricket Club I thought Kent County Cricket Club were based at Canterbury but I guess they've got a little uh a London branch as well I suppose now we go up Stumps Hill Lane another great name it's really giving on the names isn't it this uh walk in the capital ring I think this is the remains of what would have been a stink pipe like the ones we saw in Cater Road. South End Road and then we turn into Beckenham Place Park which I think is where I'm going to end the walk I'm pretty tired and my knee's starting to play up a little bit so we turn off Beckenham Hill Road into Beckenham Place Park and I think this is that wooded hill or wooded ridge that we could see much earlier on in the walk wow the uh ever brilliant local information boards the unsung heroes of London history people that write these boards and it tells us that Beckenham Place Park is the largest park in southeast London at around one square kilometre which is amazing it was originally built as parkland for John Cater's mansion which was built in 1762. I could hear I could hear throbbing music and I thought what is that that would appear to be the circus wouldn't it as a big top I love the circus I studied clown once upon a time not that type of clown theatrical clown but even so it's a sense of magic in the circus wow that really is a grand sight isn't it that must be Beckenham Place uh John Cater's mansion according to the map it tells us that the portico was moved from a house in Blackheath that is a truly grand view from up here looking out of London into Surrey wow towards uh Shirley Biggin Hill all that London loop country what a stunning view from back of the house here out of shot my hat keeps blowing off my head it's incredibly windy up here now but what a glorious end to this perfect autumn walk I was looking for a beautiful leafy autumn walk and I got it in absolute spades so thank you for joining me on that walk that autumn stroll on the capital ring which has been an absolute joy an absolute joy to behold I'm gonna go to Beckenham station I'm ending it here there is a little bit left to do but I don't take my knee for granted it's been a little bit sore and it's still I'm still recovering with it so I'm still getting it back up to full strength it's gonna take a little while I think but it's doing well it's doing well it's done about eight miles today or seven and a half it'll be eight by the time I get to Beckenham junction station so so thank you to my wonderful supporters on Patreon on the YouTube members here I share little previews of upcoming videos and I do little BTS chats go through what I'm thinking what I'm working on and uh yeah so as always like to say I look forward to seeing the next walk wherever that may be you