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Tubewalker: The Tube, on Foot

Northern Line: Camden Town to Edgware

Hampstead Ponds, Hampstead Heath
Hampstead Ponds in Hampstead Heath, with the swimming area in the distance

There's something slightly parable-esque about the route of this walk. It starts off with the abandon of youth in carefree Camden Town and rises to the top of the pile in Hampstead, before being brought down to earth by police action around Colinwood and left to go to seed in Burnt Oak and Edgware. I'm sure Simon Mann, the old Etonian who's just been slammed into an Equatorial Guinean jail for a failed coup, would appreciate the metaphorical aspects of the journey.

Camden Town to Chalk Farm

Camden Lock
Camden Lock

Camden Town is a town of two halves. When I walked along the High Barnet branch with Bill the other day, we struck north along Kentish Town Road, where the theme was social housing, and lots of it. Sure, it was pretty good social housing and I'm sure a fairly hefty proportion of it is private these days, but it really doesn't compare to the part of Camden that lies along Chalk Farm Road, which is exquisite.

The Roundhouse
The Roundhouse
Chalk Farm station
Chalk Farm station

Chalk Farm to Belsize Park

Eton Villas
Eton Villas

The houses along the backstreets of Chalk Farm are delightful, particularly those along Eton Villas and Primrose Gardens. Any student pretensions left over from Camden Town are well and truly blown out of the water by now, as this is obviously an expensive area, with lovely detached houses and period terraces surrounding little greens with bright red telephone boxes.

Belsize Park to Hampstead

The view from Parliament Hill
The view from Parliament Hill

After a short stroll along the main drag in Belsize Park, past some lovely mansion blocks and shops, it's time to head for some greenery. The western fringe of Hampstead Heath can be reached along Pond Street, past the Royal Free Hospital and across the London Overground on South End Road; Parliament Hill then heads northwest past some exquisite terraced housing and suddenly, bang, you're in meadowy grassland that stretches into the distance. Turn right and after a short climb you reach the summit, and there is London laid out before you, with Canary Wharf and the City on the left, and the BT Tower on the right. Under a pure blue sky, like the one we enjoyed this morning, it's a great view; this makes up for the grey rain that greeted me at the top of Primrose Hill all those miles ago, back on day one of my tubewalk.

Burgh House, Hampstead Village
Burgh House, Hampstead Village

Hampstead to Golders Green

A pretty mews in Hampstead
A pretty mews in Hampstead

The houses to the north of the station continue the delightful theme of the rest of Hampstead, and it's worth heading up Heath Street from the station so you can take the steps to the left up to Holly Mount; from here the streets wind round in a gentle fashion, each corner revealing yet another house to make the heart sing. It isn't until you reach Branch Hill that things start to calm down with a modern block to the left, but even the modern buildings are classy round here, with some very sympathetic curved balconies looking out towards the heath.

Struan heading off into the West Heath
Struan heading off into the West Heath

Golders Green to Brent Cross

Brent Cross station
Brent Cross station

The suburbia between Golders Green and Brent Cross is inevitably a step down from the village paradise of Hampstead, but it's still an enjoyable part of the capital to walk through. Heading out along the early 20th-century buildings of the high street, you pass a Greek Orthodox Cathedral along Golders Green Road, and the old library building, which is typical of the architecture round here: it all sprang up in the wake of the Tube line, and it's laid out a bit like Trumpton, with large period clocks on the public buildings and a functional but solid look to the street.

Brent Cross to Hendon Central

Hendon Central station
Hendon Central station

I'd originally planned to cross the North Circular Road at the footbridge to the north of Heathfield Gardens, but when we arrived, we found that the bridge was fenced off with warnings that it was no longer safe and closed until further notice (not surprisingly, as the bridge part is now missing altogether). Instead the sign suggested we traipse east to cross at the Brent Street footbridge, where we joined the Capital Ring for a few blocks to Hendon Park.

Hendon Central to Colindale

Hendon Fire Station
Hendon Fire Station

I'd originally planned a winding route through the backstreets of Hendon towards Colindale, and we started off well enough, but I was so impressed by the huge houses along Brampton Grove that I took us left instead of right, and ended up back on The Burroughs, just off the main A41. I'm glad I got it wrong, though, because there are some fantastic buildings along here that are much more interesting that yet more suburbia. The town hall (1901) and nearby library (1929) are impressive red brick and stone buildings, but even more interesting is the fire station (1914) with its tower and three red arched doorways. A little further up the road is the Hendon campus of Middlesex University, and the main building, which was built between 1937 and 1938 as the Technical Institute before being incorporated into the university, is suitably grand.

Church End
Church End

Colindale to Burnt Oak

The office tower that looms over the industrial parks of Colindale
The office tower that looms over the industrial parks of Colindale

It's not a pretty walk from Colindale to Burnt Oak, though there are a couple of worthy parks that make life more pleasant. The suburbs are rather worn around the edges and after the beauty of Hampstead it's sometimes a bit wearing, and as if to rub it in, the area to the west of the station is dominated by a staggering ugly office tower that looms over the industrial parks next to the main road. There's also the Health Protection Agency Centre for Infections, which is hardly the kind of place you want to live near, though on a more positive note, the British Library's newspaper collection lives in an impressive building near the station. However this isn't a particularly lovely part of town, and it's best to get through the suburbs quickly and up to Montrose Park for a little respite, a theme continued a little further north by Silk Stream Park. The Silk Stream flows through both parks, though it's a fairly typical urban stream at this point, a little choked by overgrowth and hidden away rather than celebrated.

Burnt Oak to Edgware

Watling Park
Watling Park

North of the station is Watling Park, which frankly could do with a bit of a clean; the stream at the entrance is clogged up with rubbish and the whole thing has a slightly unloved air about it, which is a shame as its quite an enjoyable open space once you get through the first section. But this isn't a particularly attractive part of town, and the suburbs to the north of the park are deeply bland, with pebbledash being the norm along Langham Road. It's in places like this that it's great to have company while walking; good conversation is an excellent distraction from peeling paint and dilapidated terraces.