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Tubewalker: The Tube, on Foot

District Line: Bow Road to Becontree

Mayesbrook Park
Mayesbrook Park

Ha! And I thought this section would be pretty boring, and possibly a bit grim. How wrong I was, which only goes to show you shouldn't always believe what you hear. For weeks people have been asking me about my route, and specifically whether I'm going to be walking through any dodgy parts of town, and the two areas at which people tend to suck in their breath are the eastern stretches of the District and Central lines, and the East London line. Thinking about it, though, most of those doing the sucking haven't actually been to east London, they just get their news from the Evening Standard or the Daily Mail, and assume that everyone east of Aldgate carries a knife. They are, of course, completely wrong, and it's a real shame.

Bow Road to Bromley-by-Bow

A 1919 Co-op store on Bow Road
A 1919 Co-op store on Bow Road

Turning right out of Bow Road station, it's a fairly uneventful few minutes above ground to Bow Church DLR station, because all the interesting stuff is below decks. On the approach into Bow Road from the southeast, underground trains have to negotiate the steepest section of track on the whole Underground. At 1 in 28, or 3.57 per cent, this is where trains heading into the City duck into the sub-surface tunnels under the Bow Road.

Bromley High Street from Stroudley Walk
Looking towards Bromley High Street from Stroudley Walk
Bromley-by-Bow Centre in Bob's Park
Bromley-by-Bow Centre in Bob's Park

Bromley-by-Bow to West Ham

House Mill and Clock Mill
House Mill (left) and Clock Mill (right)

There's an underpass under the A12 near the Tube station, but although it gets you to the other side of the road, you can only turn south, which was no use for me as the District line swings north-northeast from here, a direction it maintains all the way to the end of the line (except for a small wiggle as it passes through Barking). Luckily there is another underpass a little further north, which takes you to the Tesco on the other side of the road, and then into Three Mills Heritage Area.

Three Mills Green
Three Mills Green
The Greenway
The Greenway

West Ham to Plaistow

Graffiti along the Greenway
Graffiti along the Greenway

For this section, I stayed on the Greenway, enjoying good progress along the flat and straight path. Looking over your shoulder back towards the City is a great game, as the skyscrapers of Canary Wharf stand as a backdrop to suburban views, railway lines, parks and, just before the turn off towards Plaistow, the East London Cemetery, though all you can see of the latter are a few half-glimpsed graves through the trees.

Plaistow to Upton Park

The Black Lion, Plaistow
The Black Lion, Plaistow

The short walk down from the station to the Black Lion pub is pretty forgettable, but at the Black Lion things start improving. Reputedly a favourite haunt of Dick Turpin, the Black Lion is Plaistow's oldest pub, and you can still see the entrance to the courtyard that coaches would have driven through, all those years ago.

Queen's Market, Upton Park
Queen's Market, Upton Park

Upton Park to East Ham

Passmore Edwards Public Library
Passmore Edwards Public Library

From the station, I headed east along the backstreets to Plashet Grove, where rows and rows of late Victorian terraced houses stretch past churches and mosques. The borough's image might be tarnished – in a 2007 study carried out for a Channel 4 programme, Newham came out as the fourth worst place to live in Britain, after Hackney, Tower Hamlets and Merthyr Tydfil – but in the strong midsummer sun, this doesn't feel like a deprived part of the borough. Some parts on this tubewalk, like Bromley High Street and the Plaistow Road, look like they're feeling the strain, with boarded up shops and front gardens doing a convincing impression of landfill, but along Plashet Grove it feels as if there's much more pride in the community; after all, it doesn't cost money to sweep your front yard, just effort, and effort is free, even in the most deprived areas.

Sports day tracks in Plashet Park
Sports day tracks in Plashet Park

East Ham to Barking

A gas tower next to the North Circular Road
A gas tower next to the North Circular

East Ham is separated from neighbouring Barking by the twin barriers of the North Circular Road and the River Roding, which can be reached from East Ham via the long, straight Burges Road. The road is lined with terraced houses, with the side streets packed with yet more terraces, and even though the area could perhaps do with some more trees to provide shelter from the hot sun, there's nothing obvious to point to deprivation, apart from the large number of satellite dishes, which always seem to thrive in poorer areas.

Barking to Upney

Salisbury Avenue
Salisbury Avenue: spot the tree

There isn't much between Barking and Upney except for suburbs, and they stretch on and on into the distance, like an urban equivalent of Route 66 crossing the American desert. Side streets turn off Salisbury Avenue at right-angles and disappear in a similarly straight fashion into the horizon, and along the sides of every stretch of roadside are endless terraced houses, all of the same basic design. Apart from some notable side streets, there are hardly any trees along the pavement, and when the sun is beating down on the back of your neck, the place feels like an oven; in west London, there are trees everywhere, and you take them for granted, but when they're missing, you really notice it. With trees, this would be a lovely place to explore; as it is, it's pleasant enough, but the roads do stretch a long, long way, and it's quite a trek to Upney.

Upney to Becontree

A Canada goose in Mayesbrook Park
A Canada goose in Mayesbrook Park

The designers of east Barking could learn a thing or two from the people who built The Drive, the road that leads from Upney Lane to Mayesbrook Park. Smothered in trees and bushes for the whole length of the road, and with neatly formed shrubbery beds at each end of the road, it's so much more enjoyable to walk down than the dry, desert plains of Salisbury Avenue, and it makes a suitable entrance to Mayesbrook Park. This wide, open space has two large lakes, a friendly local population of Canada geese, and locals who apparently bring their dogs here to fight (followed, interestingly, by the locals themselves fighting, proving that dog owners look and act just like their dogs).