Neeeeeeearly there! Yes indeed, we are almost all the way around the whole of London on the Climbing Moss Heart of London Walk. This time for Section 23 we are going from Bowes Park to Clissold Park in Stoke Newington…
We started off this section as we finished the last and with the same goal in mind: to walk more of the New River Walk. You could walk this and the last section together if you were willing to, as it’s not so long or difficult and if the weather is nice! We, however, had a dog in a bag and needed to keep the sections relatively short. But with that said, what does the walk have in store for you when you come to do it?
Well you start at Bowes Park Station and head down to the High Street, you know us and we headed first for coffee and so you don’t make the same mistake DO NOT get coffee from La Bottega unless of course you like really fucking sour, burnt, powdery mud in a cup, do instead wait and avoid Bowes High Street all together.
So, start the walk, but note the first section of the River Walk is closed off to the public, so you have to walk along the side road instead; follow the road around an S-bend junction and get to the park; the river runs under the park here.
Be warned this is a cut-through for Deliveroo and Uber Eats lunatics on powered bicycles, who do not stop as they fly through here on their way to certain death on the main road of Bounds Green Road, which you cross a short time later and rejoin the park. Go diagonally across the end of the park towards the bridge at Alexandra Palace Station.
Cross the footbridge and up the steps, turn left and head for the park entrance, you can go up the steep hill to the Palace, lakes and not bad coffee shop, or take the (Probably eternally muddy) path through the trees to follow the nature trail and around the New River Treatment Works (it’s not as bad as it sounds!)
Emerge from the trees and the mud to views of the Palace atop the hill and marvel that it’s still there, as no other building in the UK has caught fire more times! The exit for either route is around the bottom of the treatment works and alongside the railway tracks until you get to the main road and turn left.
If, by now, you are in dire need of caffeine, we recommend Island Coffee across the road before continuing east and then south along Wrightman Road. You can find the river underfoot at the bridge and then you can join the path again after walking along the main road for a couple hundred metres (turn right up Hampden Rd for the entrance).
The section is straight and simple, fairly void of much save a path and some water, but then you cross a steel bridge and follow along the path, reemerging onto Wrightman Road again and follow this all the way along the top of what is called The Ladder, until you get to Finsbury Park.
Again, there is an alternative (Purple) route that follows the river as it travels under the houses and the roads that run parallel and give the area its nickname.
Enter the park and follow the river around the Baseball Fields. There are public toilets and a cafe in the middle of the park (don’t expect much!), but if you need them! Continue on along the NRP, this section is the same as The Capital Ring, one of the few sections that went near nature and one part we regretted. When we walked this section, it was so entirely bogged down with mud that we literally got stuck and the short section took well over an hour to navigate; we lost our shoes in the mire and would have turned back to walk along Green Lanes instead, except we were too far in by the time we thought of that!
Thankfully, a few weeks later the council closed off the section and re-did the path, it only took 9 months to gravel the 200m!! But at least you can pass alongside the overgrown, dirty section, and exit onto Seven Sisters Road and cross to rejoin the New River Path and follow the clean, well-kept section around Stoke Newington’s Woodbury Reservoirs and exit through The Castle Climbing Centre.
A short walk down the hill will bring you to the entrance of Clissold Park and the end of this section of the walk. We ended it here to even out the last two sections, but again, if you wanted to keep going, Section 24 and the last part start right here!
If not, come back next time for that and the summary of the Climbing Moss Heart of London Walk!
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