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Bakerloo Line: Elephant & Castle to Willesden Junction

Elephant & Castle station
Elephant & Castle station

Dang. The weather has finally gone mental, and today's sweltering 30°C heat and high humidity did not go down well with me. I'm a grumpy bugger at the best of times, but when I can't move without dripping with sweat, I'm terrible. Luckily for me (but not so luckily for him) I was joined again today by my walking buddy Charlie, who put up with my personal storm cloud with the same tolerance he showed when we got stuck on Ko Samui in Thailand for two long weeks. Well done, Charlie; this walk would have really sucked if I'd been on my own.

Elephant & Castle to Lambeth North

Perronet House
Perronet House

The Bakerloo line station at Elephant & Castle is a classic Leslie Green station, with the ox-blood red terracotta tiling I so enjoyed along the Northern line. However, the station exit has a glass lobby attached to the side of the building, sitting directly below three of the arched windows, which now have metal grilles instead of glass. It's an interesting mix of classic 1906 architecture with modern glass and steel construction, and it works well.

The Imperial War Museum
The Imperial War Museum

Lambeth North to Waterloo

Waterloo station in the background, with the Waterloo & City crane on the right
Waterloo station in the background, with the Waterloo & City crane on the right

It's a fairly short walk along Baylis Road towards Waterloo, past some fairly sorry-looking social housing and the 1924 Duke of Sussex pub. However, things perk up at the junction with Spur Road, where a huge painting of a Cuban dancer lights up the wall above the Cubana bar, and cute shops and restaurants line Lower Marsh.

Charing Cross to Piccadilly Circus

The National Gallery
The National Gallery

It's a short hop from Charing Cross station, past the scaffolding surrounding Eleanor's Cross, to Trafalgar Square, which hardly needs an introduction. The pedestrianisation of the road along the north of the square has completely changed the ambience, and it's a truly world-class attraction, with the National Gallery facing off with Nelson's Column while tourists snap away at the lions, the pigeons and the current incumbent of the fourth plinth (Thomas Schütte's multi-coloured glass construction, 'Model for a Hotel 2007').

The Royal Opera Arcade
The Royal Opera Arcade

Piccadilly Circus to Oxford Circus

Regent Street
Regent Street

The main route from Piccadilly Circus to Oxford Circus is via Regent Street, but for a quieter alternative, it's worth taking Glasshouse Street and turning up Lower John Street into Golden Square... though, in a fit of confusion brought on by trying to eat a doughnut while map reading, we ended up walking along Warwick Street and missing the square entirely, which was a shame. Still, if you do manage to visit it, this historic part of London dates from the 1670s and was probably laid out by Sir Christopher Wren, and it's now home to a pleasant open area, some statues, and at number one, the headquarters of Virgin Radio.

Oxford Circus to Regent's Park

Park Crescent
Park Crescent

Heading north away from the crowds along Regent Street, things soon start to calm down. The pavements here are wide and there are far fewer people, and by the time you reach the distinctive spire of All Souls Church, Oxford Street is a distant memory. Next to the church is the famous 1930s Broadcasting House, the rear of which is currently being redeveloped into BBC offices for the 21st century. Check out the sculpture on the front of the building, of Prospero and Ariel from Shakespeare's The Tempest; this is by Eric Gill, who also produced three reliefs for Charles Holden's building at 55 Broadway, the home of London Underground (which I visited on my District line walk from Victoria to Bow Road). Meanwhile, the Langham Hotel opposite completes a trio of great buildings, all clustered around Langham Place.

Regent's Park to Baker Street

The Rose Garden in Regent's Park
The Rose Garden in Regent's Park

Not surprisingly, the biggest attraction near the station is Regent's Park, where we stopped for a bite to eat. Regent's Park has to be one of my favourite parks in London, and the section through Queen Mary Gardens in the centre, through to the bandstand opposite the boating lake, is one of my top lunchtime walks (I used to work just round the corner, and it's a great place for clearing your head after a morning staring into the cathode rays).

Baker Street to Marylebone

Inside Marylebone station
Inside Marylebone station

It's a very short walk from Baker Street to Marylebone, the highlight being the impressive architecture surrounding Dorset Square. This is a classical Georgian square surrounded by terraces of four-storey town houses, and it originally formed part of the early 19th-century Portman Estate development; the buildings are pretty much unchanged from those days, with the brown of the London stock bricks mixing beautifully with the white stucco highlights.

Marylebone to Edgware Road (Bakerloo)

Florence Nightingale Hospital
Florence Nightingale Hospital

Continuing west, this time along Harewood Row and Bell Street, there's an interesting collection of buildings to wander past, from large churches to streets of neo-Georgian terraces. Florence Nightingale Hospital on Lisson Grove is an impressive building, and there are two architecturally interesting period pubs along here, the Constitution and the Brazen Head. Towards the eastern end of the road the shops start to appear, and there's a definite Arabian flavour to the shops, this being at the northern edge of the part of Edgware Road that's known as Little Cairo, Little Beirut and various other nicknames along the same theme.

Edgware Road (Bakerloo) to Paddington

St Mary's Hospital
St Mary's Hospital

Opposite the station is the large tower of Paddington Green Police Station, the most important high security facility in the whole country. The above-ground station is normal enough, but there are 16 high-security cells beneath ground where serious terrorists are often brought. There are plans afoot to replace Paddington Green with a more secure and larger anti-terror jail, but for now this is anti-terrorism central.

Paddington to Warwick Avenue

A sculpture of two men facing each other near Paddington Central
A sculpture of two men facing each other near Paddington Central

Passing the small entrance to the Tube and heading up London Street takes you along a sloping pathway to the back of Paddington station, which I first visited when trying to track down the Hammersmith & City station when walking from Hammersmith to Barking. Just past the back of the station is Paddington Basin, the small section of canal just south of Little Venice, which we'll come to in a minute. It's quite a surprise to find this little piece of canal heaven in the middle of a busy part of the city, but despite the peaceful canal location, Paddington Basin is a hive of redevelopment activity. To the west of the basin is Paddington Central, with two large office buildings and two residential blocks with over 200 apartments, all surrounding the pleasant Sheldon Square; there are lots of office developments along the basin to the south, which I visited when I walked through here on the Hammersmith & City line.

Browning's Pool, Little Venice
Browning's Pool, Little Venice

Warwick Avenue to Maida Vale

Warrington Crescent
Warrington Crescent

It's a short walk from Warwick Avenue to Maida Vale along Warrington Crescent and Randolph Avenue, but it's sweet. At the Colonnade Hotel on Warrington Crescent there's a blue plaque for Alan Turing – the father of modern computer science – who was born here on , when the hotel was a nursing home called Warrington Lodge. The white Edwardian townhouses along the crescent are delightful, and there's even a small block of five Mock Tudor houses halfway along the eastern side, just to make sure things aren't too monotonous.

Maida Vale to Kilburn Park

Kilburn Park station
Kilburn Park station

The main event between Maida Vale and Kilburn Park is Paddington Recreation Ground, a large park that's mainly given over to sports. There are tennis courts, cricket nets, five-a-side football pitches, all-weather football pitches, a cricket pitch, a bowling green and even a normal bit of parkland in the centre. At this time of year it's a bit crazy with kids running around, blowing all the energy that would normally be soaked up by school, but it's a pleasant enough spot, even if my visit to the park toilets was somewhat spoilt by the sound of the attendant bollocking a group of ne'er-do-well boys whom he'd caught red handed doing something untoward in the urinals.

Kilburn Park to Queen's Park

A tower block on Albert Road
A tower block on Albert Road

If the last leg started to brush up against the realities of life in north London, this leg gets well and truly stuck in. The terraces along Chichester Road aren't too bad, but turning into Canterbury Terrace and Albert Road takes you into a housing estate that stretches all the way to Salusbury Road, the main road through Queen's Park. The estate isn't the worst I've seen, but it's a pretty depressing place, with no imagination in the architecture and a greyness that's only amplified by the overcast weather for which this country is famous. It's not a long walk to the main road, but it feels as if it is; this isn't a great part of town, to be honest.

Queen's Park to Kensal Green

Image from Elephant & Castle to Willedsen Junction

Happily, Queen's Park is schizophrenic, because the second you pass the station, things pick up immediately, and the main drag of Salusbury Road is a pretty pleasant place. Clearly this is an example of being on the other side of the tracks, because it's the railway line that separates the nice part of Queen's Park from the not so nice, and from here to Kensal Green it's an absolute delight.

Charlie with Iggle Piggle on Mortimer Road
Charlie with Iggle Piggle on Mortimer Road

Kensal Green to Willesden Junction

Kensal Green Cemetery
Kensal Green Cemetery

Just along the main road from Kensal Green station is Kensal Green Cemetery, which is well worth a quick visit. This was the first of the 'Magnificent Seven' cemeteries to be incorporated, back in 1832, and there are plenty of old graves to explore, as well as a large number of more modern ones. There are approximately 250,000 people buried here in 65,000 graves, including Isambard Kingdom Brunel and his father, Marc Isambard Brunel, who built the Thames Tunnel through which the East London line passes.