And finally, completing my tourist circuit of Outer London, I've reached the northeast corner of town. I'll not linger on Islington, Hackney and Tower Hamlets, as their inner reaches don't fit the geographical criteria, and I'll not be including attractions that offer only food, drink or shopping. But there are still plenty of places in more far flung boroughs that are well worth a sightseeing visit, and hopefully I've listed those below. Do add to my suggestions with choices of your own, be that today or at some point in the future, which I'll add later if I think they fit. And if you're ever at a loss for something to do, and the mainstream media are serving up yet another diet of central venues, simply click back here to April 2015 and take your pick from Outer London.
WALTHAM FOREST
• Walthamstow: Top of the heap in E17 is the William Morris Gallery(10am-5pm, closed Monday, Tuesday) [blogged], the great man's childhood home recently transformed into a well-appointed and award-winning museum. With more of an eye on the local borough, the Vestry House Museum(10am-5pm, closed Monday, Tuesday) sits at the heart of Walthamstow Village (which is itself worth a look). Nearer the Lea is the Walthamstow Pumphouse Museum(11am-4pm, Sundays only), very recently refurbished (and only just reopened) to display its crammed-in collection of transport and industrial ephemera.
• Lea Bridge: A wealth of waterside wandering awaits down the Lea Valley between Walthamstow Marsh and Hackney Marshes. Tucked off Orient Way is the WaterWorks Centre & Middlesex Filter Beds(8am-7pm), a small visitor centre and wildlife reserve with hides for birdwatching.
• Chingford: Although most of Epping Forest is over the border in Essex, a long thin tongue stretches all the way down through Highams Park and Whipps Cross to Wanstead Flats. Overlooking Chingford Plain is Queen Elizabeth's Hunting Lodge(10am-5pm) [blogged], essentially a Tudor grandstand, beside a brand new visitor centre.
REDBRIDGE
• Ilford: The Redbridge Museum(10am-5pm, closed Sunday, Monday) [blogged] at the town's library is a modern, well-presented affair. But the main historic hub is nearer Gants Hill at Valentines Mansion(11am-3pm, Tuesday, Sunday) [blogged], a restored 17th century mansion set in gorgeous gardens.
• Wanstead: All that's left of Wanstead House, one of the largest stately homes in southeast England, is part of its landscaped estate (now Wanstead Park) and The Temple(noon-5pm, weekends) [blogged] a garden feature that's now a visitor centre.
• Fairlop/Hainault:Fairlop Waters Country Park is a large open space surrounding two lakes for sailing and angling, plus a golf course. Just up the road is Hainault Forest Country Park, with hillside trails, a boating lake and Foxburrow Farm/Zoo(9.30am-5pm).
HAVERING
• Romford: In the heart of Romford is Havering Museum(£2.50, 11am-5pm, closed Monday, Tuesday) [blogged], while a mile up the road is Romford Greyhound Stadium(Mon free, Wed £4, Fri & Sat £7) for a night at the dogs.
• Upminster: At the far end of the District line, Upminster Windmill(2-5pm, 2nd & 4th weekends, April-September) [blogged] is a 200 year old smock mill with regular open days. Meanwhile the Upminster Tithe Barn(2nd & 4th weekends, April-October) is officially called 'The Upminster Tithe Barn Museum of Nostalgia' and contains agricultural and domestic items.
• Rainham:Rainham Hall(10am-5pm, from 1st August?) [blogged], a Queen Anne merchant's house overlooking the Thames marshes, reopens this summer after a thorough restoration. Take the London Loop to the waterside to see The Diver, a semi-submersiblesculpture beside some dumped WW2 concrete barges.
BARKING & DAGENHAM
• Upney:Eastbury Manor House(£4, 10am-4pm Wed & Thu, plus Sunday afternoons) [blogged], a large Elizabethan landowner's house, has a wholly incongruous setting at the centre of an inter-war housing estate. It's one of the National Trust's hidden London treasures.
• Becontree: The only surviving manor house in Dagenham, Valence House(10am-4pm, closed Sunday) [blogged] is now the borough's part-moated museum.
NEWHAM
• Stratford: London's newest park is a landscaped triumph, although long-term Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park is essentially a backdrop to boost adjacent property prices. Walking its planted paths could easily take an afternoon. An ascent of the UK's tallest sculpture, the Orbit(£15, 10am-6pm) [blogged], is good value if you buy your annual pass online and use it to come back more than once. Or try your hand at road/track/BMX/mountain biking at the Lee Valley VeloPark(from £5).
• Three Mills: Reputedly the largest tidal mill in the world, the 18th century House Mill is run by volunteers and offers fascinating guided tours (11am - 4pm, Sundays, May-October) [blogged].
• Lower Lea Valley: Launching May 23rd, The Line will be a sculpture trail approximately down the meridian between Stratford and Greenwich, and will be free to visit (apart from the two bits where you have to spend £5 on public transport).
• Royal Victoria: TfL's contribution to the Outer London tourist experience is the Dangleway(£4.50/£3.30, 7am-9pm) [blogged], London's first cablecar, which'll whisk you high above the Thames to enjoy views of Docklands, the O2 and various Silvertown recycling depots. Near the Royal Docks terminal is The Crystal(£8, 10am-5pm, closed Monday) [blogged], a futuristic sustainability exhibition, once free but now over-priced.
TOWER HAMLETS (outer)
• Canary Wharf: The Museum of London Docklands(10am-6pm), an outpost of the Museum of London, fills an old dockside warehouse to tell the story of the capital's maritime past.
• Isle of Dogs: Head south beyond Canary Wharf to reach Mudchute Park[blogged], an unlikely 32-acre oasis with its own city farm (9am-5pm) that's free to toddle round.
HACKNEY (outer)
• Stoke Newington: A cluster of points of interest hereabouts includes recently-refreshed Clissold Park, the Castle Climbing Centre inside an old Victorian pumping station, and Abney Park Cemetery, one of London's Magnificent Seven.
ISLINGTON (outer)
• Highbury: Gooners (and probably only Gooners) will appreciate a self-guided Arsenal Stadium Tour(£20, 9.30am-5pm, not matchdays) which includes a trip to the bijou Arsenal Museum(£8, 10.30am-6pm) [blogged].
If you have any further thoughts on places you'd go out of your way to visit, please add them in the specific comments box. Strictly no food and drink, no shopping and nothing from Zone 1. And I'll add your best choices later.
For the third part of my Outer London sightseeing catalogue, I'm scouring the boroughs to the north and west of the capital. Westminster and Kensington & Chelsea have nothing for us, being far too Inner, and I'm only allowing the farthest reaches of Camden to scrape in. But there's plenty of life beyond the boundaries of Zone 2, should you ever deign to venture out. Feel free to top-up my suggestion with choices of your own, so long as they're not food-, drink- or shopping-based, and are worth crossing the capital for. And remember I've blogged previously about the interesting stuff in every single London borough as part of my Random Boroughs series, indexed here.
HAMMERSMITH & FULHAM
• Hammersmith: A tiny house on the Thames with connections to William Morris, 7 Hammersmith Terrace(£10, three tours each Saturday) boasts the last authentic Arts and Crafts interior in Britain. Closes for two years of renovation in June. Morris lived close by at Kelmscott House(2-5pm, Thursday & Saturday), whose basement and coach house are now a museum.
• Fulham: With over 1300 years of history, Fulham Palace(noon-ish to 5pm-ish, closed Friday & Saturday) [blogged] was the riverside home of the Bishop of London. True Blues may prefer a Chelsea Stadium Tour(£17, 9.30am-5pm) at Stamford Bridge.
EALING
• Greenford: The London Motorcyle Museum(£5, 10am-4.30pm, Sat & Sun) [blogged] is a converted farm building up a sideroad, packed with an endearing collection of a few hundred two-wheelers.
• Two interesting summits are Horsenden Hill[blogged], a natural hump with fine views, and Northala Fields[blogged], four artificial conical mounds sculpted from Wembley and Westfield's spoil.
HILLINGDON
• Ruislip: Officially Ruislip Lido[blogged] is a 200 year-old canal-feeding reservoir. Unofficially it's London's best seaside, with scenic trails and a miniature railway around the perimeter.
• Uxbridge: Accessed via a new housing estate on the site of RAF Uxbridge, the Battle of Britain Bunker(weekdays & the 3rd weekend of summer months, pre-booked tours) [blogged] was home to Fighter Command during the Battle of Britain and beyond.
• Hayes: There'll be a reason I've never visited the London Motor Museum(£30, 10am-6pm). Ah yes, that'll be it. Slightly cheaper prices are available online.
• Harmondsworth: Described by John Betjeman as the 'Cathedral of Middlesex', Harmondsworth Great Barn(10am-5pm, 2nd Sunday of the month, April-October) [blogged] is a Grade I listed medieval treasure, over 60 metres long (and currently undergoing major maintenance).
• Heathrow: Few people visit Heathrow Airport for fun but, if plane spotting's your thing, a few less-than-optimal vantagepoints remain.
HARROW
• Harrow: Forget the main town centre and head up the hill to the village atmosphere around St Mary's Church (great views!) and Harrow School[blogged]. No really, go look, it's another world. The school's Old Speech Room Gallery[blogged] is open to the public on term time weekdays (2.30pm-5pm), while the tiny Museum of Harrow Life opens on selected Sunday afternoons.
• Stanmore: RAF Bentley Priory, the former headquarters of Fighter Command, is now home to the Bentley Priory Museum(£9, 10am-5pm, Mon, Wed, Fri, Sat) and dozens of newly-built luxury mansions.
• Headstone:Headstone Manor, a moated dwelling, is Middlesex's oldest surviving timber framed building [blogged]. It might be open for weekend summer tours while the Great Barn is being done up this year, or it might not, the museum's website is fairly opaque on the subject.
BRENT
• Wembley: A Wembley Stadium Tour(£19, 10am-4pm) will take you inside the home of English football. Meanwhile it's free to walk around the outside at podium level, although the surrounding area is becoming increasingly densely-developed.
• Neasden: Down the road from IKEA, the exquisite Shri Swaminarayan Mandir is the largest Hindu temple outside India. Two-hour tours are offered daily (9am-6pm) [blogged].
CAMDEN
• Hampstead: The Heath is the highpoint, obviously, and must be walked. Don't miss art-filled Kenwood House(10am-5pm) near the summit, and make tracks for the utterly photogenic Hill Garden and Pergola[blogged] on West Heath. Meanwhile the 'village' between the Heath and the tube station is well worth exploring, and includes a cluster of special buildings; specifically Burgh House & Hampstead Museum(noon-5pm, not Monday, Tuesday or Saturday) [blogged], 17th century Fenton House(£6.50, not Monday or Tuesday, March-October), the inspirational Keats House(£5.50, 1-5pm, closed Mondays) [blogged] and Goldfinger's 2 Willow Road(£6, not Monday or Tuesday, 11am-4.30pm, March-October) [blogged].
• Highgate: Highgate's cemeteries are must-visits, they're the dead centre of London. Karl Marx is buried in the East Cemetery (£4, 10am-4pm), while the West Cemetery is older and far more atmospheric, and accessed via guided tour only (£12, one tour on weekdays, 11am-3pm at weekends) [blogged].
BARNET
• Barnet: An independent survivor, Barnet Museum(2.30-4.30pm & Saturday mornings, closed Monday & Friday) [blogged] continues to showcase the borough's history from an early Georgian house in Chipping Barnet. The nearby village of Monken Hadley and its common are a pleasant spot for a walk.
• Colindale: The RAF Museum(10am-6pm) [blogged] at the former Hendon Aerodrome is surely one of Outer London's best days out, with 100 undercover aircraft across several hangars.
• Mill Hill: Until Barnet council closes it down, Belmont Farm(£6, 9am-5pm) offers tractor rides, unusual animals and petting opportunities galore for younger Londoners.
HARINGEY
• Tottenham:Bruce Castle(1-5pm, closed Monday & Tuesday) [blogged] isn't a real fortress, it's the borough's (relatively minor) museum. Further south by the Lea is the Markfield Beam Engine and Museum(11am-5pm) [blogged], which opens and steams on the second Sunday of the month (and the fourth in Summer).
• Alexandra Palace: Even if you don't go inside Alexandra Palace for ice skating, an exhibition or whatever, the view from its hilltop park is brilliant. There'll be more to see once the old theatre, and the world's first television studio, are eventually restored.
• Highgate: A particularly fine cluster of outdoor expanses includes Highgate Wood, Queen's Wood and the Parkland Walk, the latter a disused railway line from Finsbury Park.
ENFIELD
• Forty Hill/Bulls Cross: I've over-reported on the triple-hit of horticultural/historic highspots to the north of Enfield town centre, but here goes again. Forty Hall(11am-5pm, closed Monday) [blogged] is a 17th century manor house, now a museum on the site of a Tudor palace. Myddelton House Gardens(10am-5pm) [blogged] are an eight acre treat created by botanist Edward Augustus Bowles. And Capel Manor(£5.50, 10am-5.30pm, closed winter weekends) [blogged] is a horticultural college which shows off its students' handiwork to the wider public across 60 crafted gardens.
• Crews Hill: For a most unusual collection, try the Whitewebbs Museum of Transport(£4, 10am-4pm, Tuesdays & the last Sunday of the month) [blogged], home each May to the Enfield Pageant of Motoring.
If you have any further thoughts on places you'd go out of your way to visit, please add them in the specific comments box. Strictly no food and drink, no shopping and nothing from Zone 1. And I'll add your best choices later.
I'm continuing my sweep round Outer London cataloguing the most interesting places to visit, today reaching the southwest quadrant. Thanks for all your suggestions yesterday, not that there were many, which must mean a) I listed all the best places anyway b) you don't live in southeast London, or c) you're not especially interested. Again, any top-ups to today's list of sightseeing suggestions would be very welcome. All attractions are free unless otherwise stated.
WANDSWORTH
• Battersea:Battersea Park is a lovely place for a stroll, especially if you find the Pump House Gallery(11am-4pm, closed Monday, Tuesday) in almost-the-middle of the lake.
• Tooting: A fascinating hoard of everyday industrial history can be found upstairs on Balham High Road at the London Sewing Machine Museum(2-5pm, first Saturday of the month) [blogged].
MERTON
• Wimbledon: There's the tennis of course, its tale told at the Wimbledon Lawn Tennis Museum(£13, 10am-5pm). And nearby is the enormous stroll-worthy Wimbledon Common, at the heart of which is the Wimbledon Windmill Museum(£2, Saturday afternoons & Sundays).
• Morden/Merton: The National Trust manage the green oasis of Morden Hall Park, with its waterwheel and second hand bookshop. Just across the tramtracks is Deen City Farm(10am-4.30pm, closed Mondays), and a bit further up the Wandle is Merton Abbey Mills[blogged] with its William Morris heritage, arts and crafts, and another waterwheel.
• Mitcham: The Wandle Industrial Museum(50p, Wednesday and Sunday afternoons), located in a hut opposite the cricket ground, has possibly the cheapest entrance fee of any London museum.
• For riverside ramblers, the Wandle Trail[blogged] and the Beverley Brook Walk[blogged] are recommended.
SUTTON
• Carshalton: Pick the right day, like this Sunday, and here's an unlikely multi-venue day out. The regular-opener is Honeywood Museum(11am-5pm, closed Monday & Tuesday) [blogged] overlooking Carshalton Ponds, a listed building refurbished in 2012. Close by is the Carshalton Water Tower(£2, 2.30pm-5pm, Sundays from April to October) [blogged], with additional tours of the Hermitage for an additional £1 on the first and third Sundays. Meanwhile down in Carshalton Beeches, Little Holland House(1.30-5.30pm, first Sunday of the month & Bank Holiday weekends) [blogged] is a homemade Art Nouveau/Arts and Crafts fusion, suburban style.
• Cheam:Whitehall(2-5pm - also Saturday mornings - closed Monday & Tuesday) [blogged] is a Tudor timber-framed house (and museum) in the heart of Cheam village.
• Little Woodcote: In the last field before Surrey, Mayfield Lavender(approximately June to August) [blogged] is a blaze of purple colour and, if the sun's out, an absolute delight. (Sutton in 'more interesting than Wandsworth' shocker)
KINGSTON
• Kingston: The royal town, on Thames, is home to the small but well-appointed Kingston Museum(10am-5pm, closed Mon, Wed, Sun). About a mile up Coombe Road is Coombe Conduit (2-4pm, 2nd Sunday, April-September) [blogged], a rarely open Tudor pipehouse which once supplied Hampton Court with water.
• Chessington: For London's best (indeed only?) rollercoaster experience, plus safari animals, big rides and mortgage-sized admission prices, it has to be Chessington World of Adventures(£46 on the gate, £26 in advance, 10am-5pm).
RICHMOND
• Richmond: Richmond - town and borough - boasts an embarrassment of sightseeing riches. Embracing the river helps, along one of the finest stretches of the ThamesPath, which is pretty damned great all the way from Hampton Court to Fulham. But equally lovely is Richmond Park, London's largest green expanse, where the views are extensive and the deer run free. At the foot of Petersham Hill, and along the river a bit, you'll find 17th century Ham House(£10, noon-4pm, March-October). And if you can draw yourself away from all that, the Museum of Richmond(11am-5pm, closed Sunday & Monday) is in the Old Town Hall.
• Kew: Amongst London's very best attractions is Kew Gardens(£15, 10.30am-5pm) [blogged], an unsurpassed botanical collection and a World Heritage Site to boot. Within its grounds lies royal Kew Palace(April-September), now included within the main ticket price.
• Barnes: On a loop in the Thames, the London Wetland Centre(£11.60, 9.30am-6pm) [blogged] is like Heathrow for waterfowl, especially at migratory times.
• Twickenham:Twickenham Museum(11am-3pm, Sat & Tue, plus Sunday afternoons) [blogged] is a tiny thing on the riverfront near Eel Pie Island. Close by to the east there's art at the Orleans House Gallery(10am-5pm, closed Mondays) and also the gleaming white Palladian villa of Marble Hill House(£6.20, guided tours at weekends only), while to the west is the newly restored Strawberry Hill House (£10.80, afternoons, closed Thursday & Friday). And then of course there's rugby, specifically the humbly-named World Rugby Museum(£8, 10am-5pm, closed Mondays) (or £20 with stadium tour).
• Hampton Court: 500 years old this year, Hampton Court Palace(£19.30, 10am-6pm) [blogged] is the great Tudor survivor with much to see and explore, plus the famous maze. If you have time, extensive Bushy Park (with its deer and gardens) is just across the road.
HOUNSLOW
• Chiswick: For a small artist's home by a roundabout, pick Hogarth's House(noon-5pm, closed Sundays) [blogged]. For a grand neo-Palladian mansion in beautiful gardens and parkland, pick Chiswick House(house £6.10, 10am-6pm, closed Thu, Fri, Sat) (gardens free, daily) [blogged].
• Brentford: To the west of Kew Bridge, a Victorian pumping station has become the London Museum of Water and Steam(£11.50, 11am-4pm) [blogged], recently rebranded and relaunched, with rotative steaming on certain dates. A few doors down is the Musical Museum(£10. 11am-5pm, Friday to Saturday) [blogged], a collection of self-playing musical instruments, plus demonstrations on the Mighty Wurlitzer. Boston Manor House(noon-5pm, April-October) is a homelier Jacobean affair by the M4, while Syon House is quite the lordly mansion, set in spacious gardens overlooking the Thames (£12, 11am-5pm, Wed & Thu & Sun) (or £7 for just the gardens, daily)
• Osterley: Hounslow has far more than its fair share of grand mansions, with Osterley Park(£9.90, 11am-5pm, March-October) [blogged] one of the grandest, located at the centre of a landscaped estate large enough to build a small town.
• Hanworth: The world’s largest working triple-expansion steam pumping engine has been restored in an old pumping station at the Kempton Steam Museum(£5, 10.30am-5pm, on Tuesdays, Thursdays and the third weekend of the month) [blogged] and is a breathtakingsight. Also on site, the newly-restored (and very dinky) Hampton and Kempton Waterworks Railway(£2, 10.30am-4pm, Sundays, March-November) [blogged].
If you have any further thoughts on places you'd go out of your way to visit, please add them in the specific comments box. Strictly no food and drink, no shopping and nothing from Zone 1. And I'll add your best choices later.
I've been meaning to do this for ages. A brief rundown of the most interesting places to visit in London that aren't in the middle. All too often tourists and the media focus on central London, and on places to eat and drink, so I'll have none of that. Instead I'm going to attempt to bring together as many sightseeingworthy places as I can, covering essentially zones 3 to 6 (with some outer zone 2 thrown in for good measure). If I miss out anything good, let me know and I'll try to add it, the idea being that this builds into a comprehensive list for anyone to refer back to. I'm going to divide up the suburbs into four quadrants, so expect this to take the rest of the month. If I've been and blogged about it, I'll link to that. And if you're ever bored in the future and in need of inspiration, simply click back to April 2015 on this blog and hopefully something from the list will take your fancy. Because there's more to London than pop-up restaurants in Shoreditch and shopping at Westfield.
GREENWICH
• Greenwich: If you can't make a day out out of Maritime Greenwich, you're doing it wrong. Top draws are the Cutty Sark tea clipper (10am-5pm, £12.15) and the world famous Royal Observatory(10am-5pm, £9.50) [blogged], the home of time, which includes London's only planetarium(£7.50) [blogged]. Alternatively there are several free attractions to see, top of which is the National Maritime Museum (10am-5pm), a multi-galleried repository of all things seaworthy. Across the grass is the Queen's House(10am-5pm), with its photogenic Tulip staircase, and don't miss the Painted Hall(10am-5pm) with its exuberant early Georgian ceiling. Additional tourist info can be found at the Discover Greenwich Visitor Centre, near the entrance to the Foot Tunnel. Or for a quirkier more dainty experience, give the Fan Museum a go (11am-5pm, £4, closed Mondays) [blogged].
• North Greenwich: Forget the O2, and walk downstream to watch the wildlife in the Greenwich Peninsula Ecology Park (10am-5pm, closed Monday & Tuesday).
• Woolwich: If you hurry you can visit the overlooked Firepower Royal Artillery Museum at Woolwich Arsenal (10am-5pm, £5.30, closed Sunday & Monday) [blogged] before it's forced to vacate the site at Christmas 2016.
• Eltham: Just wow. Eltham Palace is an amazing building, an amalgam of Art Deco mansion and Tudor moated hall (from 10am, £13, open Easter-October and school holidays) [blogged]. English Heritage opened five new rooms earlier this month, so even if you've been before, you haven't quite.
• Green Chain: For a dozen fine walks around Greenwich, Bexley, Bromley and Lewisham, including strolls to Severndroog Castle(£2.50, 12.30-4.30pm, Tue, Fri, Sun) [blogged], the Thames Barrier and Lesnes Abbey, check out the Green Chain website (or buy the official pack so you can do the lot).
BEXLEY
• Bexleyheath: Perhaps unexpectedly, it's perfectly possible to fill an entire genteel day out in Bexleyheath. William Morris lived here in an Arts and Crafts home of his own devising, the Red House(£7.20, mid-Feb to October-ish, closed Monday & Tuesday) [blogged], now watched over by the National Trust. Close by is Danson House (noon-5pm, £8, April-October, closed Saturday), a sumptuous Georgian villa, while a short distance down the A2 is Hall Place(10am-5pm, £8) [blogged], a creaking Tudor house in extensive gardens.
• Crossness: Sir Joseph Bazalgette's Crossness Pumping Station(£6, 10.30am-4pm, occasional Sundays) [blogged] is a Victorian engineering marvel, next open on June 21st.
BROMLEY
• Crystal Palace: The original glass exhibition hall burnt down in 1936, but Crystal Palace Park remains full of plenty to explore, including a maze, a free museum (11am-4pm, weekends) and the legendary model dinosaurs.
• Chislehurst: Even if it's raining out, you can explore some of the 22 miles of tunnels at Chislehurst Caves(£6, 10am-4pm, closed Monday & Tuesday) [blogged] on a 45 minute lamplit tour. An underappreciated gem.
• Orpington: The Roman remains at the Crofton Roman Villa(£1.50, 10am-4.30pm, April-October, Wednesday, Friday, bank holiday Mondays and the first Sunday of the month) [blogged] are a rare suburban bargain.
• Downe: Charles Darwin came up with his theory of evolution whilst living at Down House(£10.60, 10am-6pm, closed winter weekdays) [blogged], now open as a museum to the great man courtesy of English Heritage. You owe it to your genes to visit at least once.
• Westerham: A short distance across the border (by 246 bus) explore Quebec House (£5.20, March to October-ish, closed Monday & Tuesday) or even Churchill's Kent home at Chartwell(£13, 10am-5pm)[blogged] (bus on Sundays only, March-October).
CROYDON
• Croydon: The Museum of Croydon (10.30am-5pm, closed Sunday & Monday) isn't worth going out of your way for, but the Croydon Airport Visitor Centre(11am-4pm, 1st Sunday of the month) on Purley Way might be.
• Shirley:Shirley Windmill, now mid-housing estate, is open to the public on the second Sunday in May and the first Sundays of June to October (1pm-5pm)
• Coulsdon: The Downs to the south of Purley and Coulsdon are some of the finest rambling territory in London [blogged], especially the finger-ridge of Farthing Downs.
LEWISHAM
• Forest Hill: Possibly London's most eclectic museum, the Horniman Museum(10.30am-5.30pm) houses a collection of stuffed animals, musical instruments and ethnological treasures, plus some fine gardens to wander outside. Head off via Dulwich Park and you'll soon reach...
SOUTHWARK
• Dulwich: The Dulwich Picture Gallery(£5, 10am-5pm, closed Mondays) [blogged] was the world's first purpose-built public art gallery. It's small but perfectly formed (and attached to a surprisingly pastoral village).
LAMBETH
• Brixton: Recently restored, Brixton Windmill takes some finding, but opens for guided tours generally on the second weekend of the month from April to October (2pm-4.30pm). Or head to Brockwell Park for the Lido, the walled garden, the fine views over London and (Sundays only) a ride on the very miniature railway.
If you have any further thoughts on places you'd go out of your way to visit, especially for those three inner boroughs, please add them in the specific comments box. Strictly no food and drink, no shopping and nothing from Zone 1. And I might add them later.
Today, officially for the first time, TfL have renamed a station for commercial reasons. The station in question is Canada Water which, thanks to its proximity to the London Marathon course, has been renamed after a well-known brand of bottled water. [5 photos]
The sponsored product is part of the Nestlé Waters portfolio, and is an "official partner" of this year's London Marathon, which is itself named after a financial service. Nestlé have paid £110,000 to have branded artwork placed across the station and all the roundels temporarily replaced with the brand name of their choice. The replacement affects the Jubilee and Overground platforms, and has been professionally done - there are no tacky stickers here. Even the line diagram at the foot of the escalator has been modified for the day, lest you forget where you're supposed to be. Two of the nameplates outside the station have been left alone, but the tall white interchange signs by the bus station have been rebranded, replacing Canada with the name of a town in Derbyshire. Meanwhile passengers entering the station are greeted by cap-wearing agents dispensing very small bottles of the sponsor's water, sometimes more than once if they're particularly keen.
Information on dot matrix indicators advises customers that "the name change is part of a one day sponsorship deal", and urges them to join in with the promotion by tweeting the specified hashtag. Meanwhile a regular platform announcement, delivered by a much chirpier voice than usual, manages to namecheck the sponsor five times in less than thirty seconds.
Equally, someone in TfL's press release department managed to sign off the following sentence, which suggests that the generation of PR drivel is alive and well on the Jubilee line.
Tube maps elsewhere in London have not been adjusted. Indeed were it not for the torrent of wider publicity, only passengers using Canada Water station today would have noticed. Instead the brand name has been splashed across the media since the announcement midweek, allowing Nestlé to get maximum exposure for minor outlay, and I'm sure other companies will be queueing up to have a go. Oh how we laughed back in 2006 at the idea of the Sponsored Tube Map. But now alas, thanks to Middle Eastern airlines and Gatwick-based drinks companies, that tarnished reality is upon us.
I understand that TfL's bosses are (currently) unwilling to go beyond a 2-day renaming, so the chances of a station being permanently vandalised are (currently) nil. But expect a lot more of this sort of commercial contamination of our public services in the future, because at £110,000 a day it'd take 85 years of station sponsorship to rake in the £3.4bn TfL needs to raise to meet funding gaps. Or, and I know this is unfashionable, perhaps we could just put fares up by a few pence? It'd cost us a lot less than the price of a bottle of water, after all.
Bottled water is for losers. That's other than those who buy it for logically defensible reasons, namely:
• being outdoors, and in preference to fizzy drinks
• preferring sparkling water
• running in a marathon
• that other logically defensible reason I forget
But if you can't get through a day without grabbing a bottle of H2O to keep you 'hydrated', then you are officially a mug, and somewhere a shareholder is very pleased.
There's no need to buy bottled water if a tap dispensing drinking water is at hand. You might think there is, if you believe the taste of tap water is tainted by fluorides and chlorates and whatever, but that simply means you've swallowed some marketing myths and are more gullible than you look. Apparently 57% of UK bottled water is consumed at home, which is madness, lugging home liquid you could source perfectly easily (and hugely cheaper) from a tap. Obviously it's your right to throw away your hard-earned cash in this way if you so choose, but quite frankly you're flushing your money down the drain.
Only 13% of bottled water is "carried out", while 30% is drunk "out of home", for example in restaurants or the workplace. I always think that capitulating to bottled water in a restaurant is a sign of weak character, rather than having the bottle to stand up for tap. In a cafe bottled water might be the healthiest drink going, so maybe isn't too bad, although I'd always rather pimp up my water with a boiling teabag. As for clutching bottled water in the workplace, perhaps to get you through a meeting or as a deskside companion, for goodness sake use the drinking water provided you mindless wastrel.
According to www.britishbottledwater.org, a marketing mouthpiece for the British bottled water industry...
• we drink five times as much tea as bottled water, although the gap between the two beverages is closing (they seem pleased about the latter)
• annual bottled water consumption currently stands at 39 litres per person (considerably less than the European average of 115 litres per person)
• sparkling water's share of the market has more than halved since 1998, now accounting for only around 15%
• bottled water typically retails at up to 500 times more than the price of tap water
Actually they didn't mention the last of those facts, it's the elephant in the room, given that water now sells for more than milk, even oil, in many cases. But that doesn't stop drinks companies from selling their overpriced liquid to an audience of naive hydration disciples, and raking in profits by the gallon. Indeed, these greedy corporations are precisely the sort of vacuous marketing behemoths who would sponsor a tube station...
An anniversary is sometimes little more than an excuse. And yesterday, it turns out, was the 150th anniversary of the opening of the railway line between Loughton and Ongar. It wasn't on the Central line at the time, it was a spur of the Great Eastern Railway, plunging out into the Essex countryside in search of not terribly many passengers. 150 years later the Epping Ongar Railway are celebrating with a special in-steam extravaganza this weekend, and London Underground are celebrating with a trio ofspecialposters. I thought I'd celebrate with an evening walk from Theydon Bois to Epping, because hell why not, and I didn't have any better offers. Armed only with an Ordnance Survey map and a desire for fresh air, I headed off for a two and a bit mile stroll beyond the boundary of London. And as Friday evenings go, it may have beaten yours.
TheydonBois (rhymes with Boys) is the least used station in Zone 6, but still disgorges a healthy footfall in the evening peak. They pour out onto Station Approach into the front seats of their beloved's cars, or into The Bull for a pint, or down cherry blossom avenues to be home by The One Show. This is a lovely village, one of the most pleasant spots you can reach by Underground, its large triangular green surrounded by cottages, a duckpond down one side, and plenty of space for a kickabout up the meadowy end. For my walk I turned right past the very-Essex parade of shops (where the discerning resident can buy award-winning pies, leave their dry cleaning or get their wrinkles sucked), then on past dream suburban gardens to the footpath at the end of Forest Drive where the pavement runs out.
The path ahead is part of The Oak Trail, a waymaked route courtesy of the City of London who own Epping Forest in these parts. But ignore that for a bit and head into the fields alongside, which are private land with free public access, and whose grassy slopes afford fine views of the surrounding undulations. From the top of the ridge at Piercing Hill the outlying streets and gardens burst with colour, a distant field glows with rape, and the M25 rumbles in the not-so-very distance. A rope swing has been hung from the single oak tree near the summit, where two girls out walking their rather small dog paused, one to push and one to screech at the acrobatic horror of it all. And every four minutes or so, in one direction or the other, a Central line train glides by following the dip at the bottom of the field. Only Epping-folk get to see the reverse panorama from their seats, assuming they're looking up, 150 years on.
Returning to the path, the next ascent follows a hedge past a flurry of white blossom. From the other side can be heard snorts and the occasional neigh from an unseen stables, the field you're walking in being more-than-adequate visual compensation. How green the leaves are at this time of year, dressing another solo oak at the top of the rise before a proper lane descends between hedgerows on the other side. To the left is the farthest corner of a golf course, where Essex blokes with trolleys are surprised to see a rambler heading by, and to the right is possibly the easternmost outpost of Epping Forest, a coniferous thicket wedged between road and railway.
To continue, near the farm outbuildings, follow the sign that says No Public Access Except By Public Footpath, because this is one. Beyond the stile is one of the M25's most peculiar junctions, more a slip road really, and completely out of bounds to normal traffic. Should your vehicle be permitted to pull off, the ramp leads to a cattle grid, then a bridge across eight lanes of freshly-resurfaced tarmac, and then straight back down again, with no means of alternative escape (unless you're the local farmer). I could have diverted down to the hard shoulder, no problem, but was instead struck by the density of wildlife hereabouts. Rabbits scampered back and to, while the large backside I saw disappearing into the nearby trees belonged to a deer almost as surprised as me.
The field beyond looks across to the hamlet of Ivy Chimneys, a finger of cottages stretching down to the point where the M25 disappears into a cut and cover tunnel beneath a cricket pitch. I could have hit the edge of Epping in minutes, but instead took the path downhill to the railway, past a local geezer and his daughter taking a macho puppy called Jazz for a stroll. The Central line is crossed by a dour 40s footbridge, caged in to prevent gravity-induced vandalism, and then the official path continues straight (and untrod) across a field of barely-sprouted crops. Have faith, and switch to the banks of the tiny brook before crossing back across an unexpectedly wobbly footbridge.
The outer streets of Epping lie ahead, past a concrete fingerpost. It's seven-something on a Friday evening and going-out time for the smartly-dressed residents, slipping into their Audis and limited edition Beetles for a drink or a meal somewhere, perhaps with a bit of a bop to follow. One husband emerges from his porch with a handbag-sized dog, which he accidentally drops because the poor hound's legs weren't as close to the pavement as he thought. And a few London-bound souls head for the station to begin their night out, via the long alley round the car park, pushing against the pulse of commuters streaming through the ticket gates. The railway that opened a century and a half ago has brought them home.
It turns out we didn't have a mayoral election in Tower Hamlets last year, we had fraud. While the rest of London trooped into polling stations to choose councillors and European representatives, electors here ran the gauntlet of intimidation and illegal practices. But because four residents had the tenacity to collect evidence, and the balls to stand up and point the finger, the unduly elected Mayor has been foundguilty of electoral malpractice. I bet this sort of thing doesn't happen where you live.
Until yesterday, councillor Lutfur Rahman had been the first directly-elected Bangladeshi mayor in Britain. He won the first or second preference votes of over half of those who voted in last year's borough elections, and there's no indication that his winning margin would have been overturned had all been fair and square. But a lengthy inquiry has now confirmed what many had long suspected, that his Tower Hamlets First party won power under suspect and illegal circumstances.
The judge's statement confirms that some THF candidates gained their place on the ballot paper by naming a house they didn't live in as their place of residence. At least one THF candidate registered on the electoral roll twice within the same ward, and somehow managed to cast his vote twice too. THF agents visited certain housebound residents before polling day and persuaded them to hand over their blank postal votes, presumably to complete in Lutfur's favour. Meanwhile Lutfur's council has made questionable decisions over financial grants to ineligible local groups, and council buildings have been sold off to friends of the Mayor for below expected market value. A picture is painted of a leader trying every tactic to remain in power, and if this meant disregarding electoral law so be it.
So, in case we weren't sick enough of elections already, voters in Tower Hamlets will be invited to return to polling stations on June 11th to elect a new Mayor. Technically we haven't had one for the last eleven months, and yet decisions have still been made (for example on the relocation of the Town Hall) that will shape the face of our borough for years to come. Lutfur won't be allowed to stand, and it's unlikely that his party could find as charismatic a candidate to sweep the electorate along. A Labour victory thus looks likely, most probably John Biggs who came second in 2014, although Tower Hamlets politics is quirky enough that nothing is ever a foregone conclusion.
In a secondary decision, mayoral aide Alibor Choudhury has been found guilty of corrupt and illegal practices and has been forced to vacate his position as councillor. In consequence a by-election will have to be held in the Stepney Green ward at the same time as the mayoral vote is rerun, which could dramatically change the face of the council. At present no party has more than half the seats, but if Mr Choudhury's place is taken by Labour they'd suddenly command a majority. Not that this matters, because under a mayoral system the Mayor takes all and majority politics is void, but it's perfectly possible that Lutfur's downfall will end up handing everything to his main opponents.
The murky world of Tower Hamlets politics has once again thrown up a situation that those of you who live elsewhere must find incredible. It's a reminder of how easy it is for one ambitious person to manipulate the electoral system to their advantage, and almost get away with it. I thank the campaigners who had the courage to risk bankruptcy to bring the case to court, and I wait to see what June's trip to the ballot box throws up next.
And it's not just at pedestrian crossings. Guerilla pedestrians are perfectly happy to cross the road inbetween, even when this might be entirely unwise, because they think walking all the way up to the lights takes too long. The worst miscreants get only halfway across the road, and are then forced to hover in the middle on a thin white line hoping that a passing driver will take pity and pause to let them pass. Or maybe just run across anyway causing havoc, as is their prerogative.
Spotting approaching cars is easy, but the guerilla pedestrian often overlooks those on smaller means of transport, forcing cyclists and bikers to curse and swerve or worse. Stationary traffic creates a particular hazard, as guerilla pedestrians assume nothing's moving so start to weave their way through the maze of vehicles, only to be mown down by a two-wheeled oncomer previously invisible partway across. And if one side in the conflict raises a fist in blame, it'll probably be the wrong one.
Perhaps the advance of the guerilla pedestrians is the byproduct of a policy shift. To keep the traffic flowing, pedestrian crossings have been subtly retimed to give greater priority to the motorist, leading to an increase in the time that walkers are left stranded on the pavement. Who'd not get impatient after waiting seconds longer day in day out, no matter how many times you press the button, and so start jumping the lights as a matter of course? Downgrade our lights and we misbehave more.
Often it's cyclists who get a bad press at traffic lights, but perhaps another breed of road user deserves a stronger dressing down. I speak of those of us on foot, who think nothing of dashing across the street whenever we think fit. Are we seeing the rise of the guerilla pedestrian?
We pedestrians have always been bad at obeying the rules of the road. We had them drummed into us in childhood, all that looking left and right and waiting before crossing, then once we get older we invariably get more lax in our approach. But what I'm think I'm seeing, from observations at the same pedestrian crossings over several years, is an increasingly brazen disregard for doing as we should, and a steady increase in rushing across whenever the hell we like. We used to wait, but now we don't wait, because we think we're more important than that.
Turn up at a pedestrian crossing when the green man is green and there's no issue. But turn up one second later and guerilla action is afoot. Rather than shrugging and hanging around on the kerb for god-knows-how-long, instead we assume we've still got plenty of time to cross the road and step out anyway. And sometimes we're right, because the crossing in question has been programmed to allow a very slow person to cross very slowly. But at other times the oncoming traffic is immediately upon us, perhaps accelerating on green, and all we're doing is getting in the way.
Like we care. For the guerilla pedestrian traffic lights are for losers, because there's always a gap in the traffic if you run fast enough. We don't like to wait, and what's more we don't have to, because for us the red and green lights are merely advisory. If we want to cross while the red signal's red then we can, even though you on your bikes or you in your cars could be prosecuted if you did the same.
I'm sure we've all crossed the road on red when nothing's coming, because it's pointless hanging around. But what I think's now changing is how keen we are to break ranks when road traffic has right of way, and when we really ought to be keeping out of its path. I see this creeping anarchy every day at a junction near work - a horde of pedestrians buzzing to be on the move - and it's definitely getting worse.
For example, as soon as we spot that traffic lights are turning in our favour, we're out in the road before the last car has passed ready to step into its wake. For example, as the lights change for other traffic but not for us, we're exploiting the brief hiatus between one stream and the next to dash across. And for example, as the countdown timer ticks down, well, if we're a few seconds longer, where's the harm?
Those of us on foot in London have become pretty badly behaved, all told. Forever pushing the envelope, or chancing our arm, for the prize of a few less seconds on our commute. And the more regularly we travel, the more we know the idiosyncrasies of the lights we're crossing, the more likely we are to think we know how best to zip through. The guerilla pedestrian is on the march, or more likely on the run, at a road crossing near you.
It's a wonder we don't kill ourselves more often. But then once is all it takes, and if we've successfully negotiated a path between the traffic a thousand times before, we never imagine that the next reckless crossing might be our last. A car we haven't spotted, a bus travelling faster than we thought, if we choose to encroach on the road when it's not our turn we're putting ourselves at risk.
And we're putting others at risk too. A second breed of pedestrian I've seen a lot lately are human sheep. These sheep don't pay attention to what's going on around them, most likely because they have their head in their phone, so tend to cross the road by instinct along with everyone else. And if everyone else is jumping the gun because they've judged the situation 'safe', there's a very real danger that those following behind without watching might be stepping into danger.
You have to be a bit of an idiot to be a sheep. More interested in Facebook than red lights, more interested in Whatsapp than the truck bearing down on you, your implicit assumption that you have some kind of magic protective aura could end up doing you harm. But in fact it's the guerilla pedestrian who lures you out into the street, because if everyone had behaved and stayed where they were then you'd have stayed put on the pavement too.
We don't have laws on jaywalking in this country, and rightly so. Were we all forced to cross only at places of safety and only when signals were green, getting around would take intolerably long. But we pedestrians need to remember we don't own the road, and those we share it with are generally larger and considerably heavier than ourselves. And we need to remember that we can only push our luck so far, and that the rise of the guerilla pedestrian is ultimately unsustainable.
As a stalwart user of TfL services, you probably don't give a second thought to people using them for the first time. But visitors to our capital often find travel daunting, and TfL has a special wodge of tips, advice and special offers to help them get around.
If you're new here, TfL very much hope you'll find their Visiting London webpage before you arrive. As well as an embedded journey planner, the page leads with five prominent features that might be of interest to London Transport virgins. First off is a big splash announcing that buses in London are cash-free. This won't be news to you, but to those who've not been here in the last twelve months (or have never been) it may come as a surprise. Also, the emphasis on cashlessness allows TfL to push their important offer in panel number two - the Visitor Oyster card.
The Visitor Oyster card is just an ordinary Pay-as-you-go Oyster card, with the same daily caps and everything, but with a prettier pattern on the front. And it has two big advantages over a bog standard blue one, the first of which is that TfL will post it to you before you arrive. Decide how much cash you want on the thing (they recommend £15 for a weekend), stump up a £3 non-returnable 'activation fee' and it'll be on its way. This'll save you queuing up at the first station you reach when you arrive, which is important now that every ticket office is being terminated.
And secondly a Visitor Oyster card allows you to partake in special offers carefully curated by the folk at TfL Towers. These vary, but the current list (available here) includes 20% off your bill at Planet Hollywood, a free hot fudge sundae at the Hard Rock Cafe and 15% off at M&Ms World in Leicester Square. And OK, so these are tourist horrors to be avoided at all costs by discerning folk, but some of the other offers might have much more relevance to ordinary Londoners. 15% off purchases at the Foyles bookshop on the South Bank, for example, that could be damned useful. Or 25% off a Vinopolis tour, assuming you can get in before they close down. Or how about free entrance to a weekend night at the dogs at Wimbledon Greyhound Track (this also available to ordinary Oyster card holders, before you decide to trade yours in).
Panel 3 on the Visiting London webpage leads to a page for "Visitors and Tourists", with a choice of useful two pdfs. One of these is a special tube map I've never seen before. It's called the 'Small theatres tube and rail map', and shows all the railway lines in London along with all the theatres with under 400 seats. There are no West End classics here, but instead dozens of smaller independent venues which deserve our wider attention. There's the Cockpit near Marylebone and the Tricycle near Brondesbury, as well as the Compass near Ickenham and the Chickenshed near Cockfosters. The use of dotted lines to link each theatre to its nearest stations makes for a total mess in places, and is frequently entirely illegible. But I'd say this map (if done properly) is the sort of thing TfL ought to be promoting more strongly to a more local audience, because surely it's Londoners who'd be frequenting these small suburban theatres rather than fly-in fly-out tourists.
The second pdf is an 18 page visitor guide, called Hello London, and brings together all the tourist travel essentials in one place. It explains zones (the Harry Potter Studios are in Zone 9, apparently), gives start/finish times for various services, and urges you to use the Journey Planner to plan your journey. And there's a tube map, a riverboat map and a simplified bus map too, indeed if you downloaded this onto your tablet before you arrived in London you'd be in good shape. But although the brochure's dated 2015 it still manages to mention "Barclays Cycle Hire" on page 2, oops, so presumably it's not updated all that often.
Dig down and the 18 pages are littered with self-promotion. TfL are advising visitors to travel with them, sure, but also to consider travelling more widely on TfL's premium services. Boris's introduction on page 2 doesn't mention tubes and buses, for example, but does mention riverboats, the sponsored cablecar and sponsored hire bikes. The London Transport Museum gets a plug on page 3, as it should, and the capital's new bus gets a glamorous spin ("The New Routemaster bus featured in the James Bond flm ‘Skyfall’ and runs on routes 9, 11, 24, 38 and 390"). Meanwhile the cablecar and river boats get umpteen mentions throughout the document, including a starring role in a sample tourist itinerary on page 15, because the cablecar and riverboats are essentially tourist services so this brochure is their natural home.
Tucked further down the Visiting London webpage, beneath further panels promoting the cablecar and riverboats, are details of London's Visitor & Travel Information Centres. There are currently five of these, and by the end of the year they'll be the only places to go to find a TfL member of staff offering services behind a desk. Their focus isn't really travel, it's more being helpful and flogging stuff, like tickets to Madame Tussauds, coach tours, the London Eye and the top of the Shard. You'll find them at Piccadilly Circus, various central London termini and Heathrow, with VICs at Paddington, Euston and Gatwick Airport opening in the summer. The newly refreshed VIC at King's Cross is open now, in the entrance to St Pancras, replacing the ticket offices that closed down there at Easter. This gleaming facility has the look of an Argos collection point about it, all plastic panels and bright colours, with smiling staff poised at computer terminals, and the opportunity to browse a selection of gifts while you queue.
So as the summer season prepares to kick off, remember the humble London tourist. They get better Oyster cards than us, they get better-presented information than us, and they get secret maps the rest of us never see. They get ticket offices and we don't, because they spend more money than we do on expensive visitor attractions. And they get cablecars and riverboats rammed in their face, because we tend not to use them so there are plenty of seats. You may curse when one stands on the wrong side of the escalator in front of you, but their money probably helps keep your fares down, so be nice.
Outer London Day Out (NE)
Outer London Day Out (NW)
Outer London Day Out (SW)
Outer London Day Out (SE)
Today, officially for the first time, TfL have renamed a station for commercial reasons. The station in question is Canada Water which, thanks to its proximity to the London Marathon course, has been renamed after a well-known brand of bottled water. [5 photos]
Walk the Underground: Theydon Bois to Epping
It turns out we didn't have a mayoral election in Tower Hamlets last year, we had fraud. While the rest of London trooped into polling stations to choose councillors and European representatives, electors here ran the gauntlet of intimidation and illegal practices. But because four residents had the tenacity to collect evidence, and the balls to stand up and point the finger, the unduly elected Mayor has been found guilty of electoral malpractice. I bet this sort of thing doesn't happen where you live.
