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Tubewalker: The Tube, on Foot

District Line: Wimbledon to Edgware Road

Crossing the Thames in Putney
Crossing the Thames in Putney

There were two themes to this walk today: the first was money, and lots of it; and the second was sun, and lots of it. Both of them are quite exhausting when stretched out along an entire 12.5-mile walk, but wow, the photographs are really something, especially when you consider that in this fierce sunlight, I've only been able to take north-facing pictures for most of the day.

Wimbledon to Wimbledon Park

Wimbledon station
Wimbledon station

While I was waiting for Jez to negotiate the Tube to Wimbledon, I thought I'd take a few photographs of Wimbledon station, so we could set off as soon as he arrived. This is the first week of the Wimbledon tennis championships and the forecourt of the station is all done up in AstroTurf, with a large-screen Wii tennis game to occupy the crowds of people spilling out of the station, and a queueing system that looks rather like the line for a sheep-shearing station, albeit a really rather posh one. Because of this, security is predictably tight at Wimbledon station (even though the nearest Tube station to the tournament is actually Southfields, a couple of stops up the line), so I wasn't particularly surprised to be accosted by a couple of police officers – one of each sex, naturally, this being Wimbledon – who asked me why I was taking photographs of the station.

The above male was stopped at the above location under Section 44 of the Terrorism Act as I saw him taking photographs of Wimbledon BR station. He informed us he was walking the London Tube network for charity; no further action taken.

Jez was quite impressed when he arrived, and we set off west from the station, wondering if we could collect any other forms along the way.

St Mary's of Wimbledon
St Mary's of Wimbledon

Wimbledon Park to Southfields

Wimbledon Park lake
Wimbledon Park lake

The Tube station gets its name from the park next door, a park that the Capital Ring crosses on its most glorious section, day 6. Landscaped by Capability Brown in the mid-18th century, Wimbledon Park has tennis courts and a children's play area near the eastern entrance, but the most impressive feature is the large park lake in the centre, where people come to sail and canoe among the geese and swans. It's a surprisingly large body of water, and just across the lake you can glimpse the All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club, which is currently hosting the Wimbledon tennis championships.

Crowds pouring out of Southfields station
Crowds pouring out of Southfields station

Southfields to East Putney

A District line train
The District line passes through the suburbs of Southfields along a cutting

Although the suburbia between Southfields and East Putney is less mansion-esque than Wimbledon Village and a lot more semi-detached, it is still very pleasant. Striking new developments along Sutherland Grove rub shoulders with more traditional 20th-century suburbia, while the Tube line runs along a cutting, only ducking below ground for a short stretch under the A3. Mock Tudor makes an appearance at times, though on the other side of the A3, along Keswick Road, the houses break away from their neighbours to become detached again, and defiantly so. We've now crossed into Putney, and it shows; a quick scan of the Web shows that a two-bedroom penthouse flat on Keswick road can be snapped up for a measly £1.1 million, with a monthly service charge of £325 on top of that. Bring on the property crash, I say...

East Putney to Putney Bridge

Steps up to the walkway over Fulham Railway Bridge
Steps up to the walkway over Fulham Railway Bridge

As the name East Putney implies, the Tube line actually runs to the east of Putney, leaving the main railway line to Richmond to take sole honours for having a station on Putney High Street. The Tube line crosses the east-west main line just north of Upper Richmond Road, and the bridge is visible from Oxford Road, where you can also get a good view of Putney railway station to the west. Travelling on a raised viaduct, the Tube line weaves through the lovely houses of northeast Putney, and as you walk north along Oxford Road, the side streets to the east are spanned by iron bridges, all the way to Deodar Road, whose houses back on to the river.

Putney Bridge station
Putney Bridge station

Putney Bridge to Parsons Green

Mansion blocks along Hurlingham Road
Mansion blocks along Hurlingham Road

If you thought the architecture of Wimbledon and Putney was impressive, then wait until you see the mansion blocks of Fulham; they are deeply imposing, and I would have more photographs of them if the sun hadn't been in completely the wrong place for decent photography. Instead we slunk along Ranelagh Gardens in the shadows of the 1930s mansion blocks of Rivermead Court (where a four-bedroom flat can be snapped up for a measly £1.8 million), while on the opposite side of the road even the modern blocks manage to look great, with window boxes draping their greenery in pleasant contrast to the light brown brickwork.

Parsons Green
Parsons Green
The White Horse
The White Horse

Parsons Green to Fulham Broadway

Novello Street
Novello Street

Fulham Broadway is not far from Parsons Green, and the back route along the south of the Tube line is by far the most pleasant way of connecting the two (the alternative, the Fulham Road, is busy and rather less pleasant). Heading east from the station, Novello Street is a treat, with a whole terrace of pastel-shaded cottages leading to the nearby Walham Green. There's a primary school opposite, which nicely ticks the box marked 'cachement area', and on a sunny day this looks like a little slice of paradise, but because the Tube line runs along the back of the gardens, houses here typically go for more than £150,000 less than an equivalent elsewhere in Parsons Green (though a three-bedroom house on Novello Street will still set you back £850,000, so the entry requirements are not a great deal lower).

Walham Green
Walham Green

Fulham Broadway to West Brompton

Stamford Bridge Stadium
Stamford Bridge Stadium

The most dominating feature along Fulham Road is Stamford Bridge Stadium, home to Chelsea Football Club. Stamford Bridge has been the home to Chelsea since the club's formation, and indeed the club was founded because the owners of the stadium offered it to Fulham Football Club but were turned down, so they decided to form their own club to make use of the stadium. Thus Chelsea Football Club was founded on in the Rising Sun pub (now The Butcher's Hook) opposite the Fulham Road entrance to the stadium, and they've since gone on to be one of the top clubs in the world.

One of the many graves in Brompton Cemetery
One of the many graves in Brompton Cemetery

West Brompton to Earl's Court

The Troubadour
The Troubadour

It isn't far from West Brompton to Earl's Court, but if you head east along Old Brompton Road, you pass two seminal London landmarks: the Troubadour Club and the Coleherne pub.

The Coleherne
The Coleherne

Earl's Court to High Street Kensington

Hogarth Place
Hogarth Place

On the opposite side of the road to the station is Hogarth Road, and just down here, on the left, is Hogarth Place, a cute little pedestrianised street that's home to two wine bars, a pub, an estate agent and a handful of restaurants and shops. It leads into Kenway Road, a quiet place with a whole row of local shops and some attractive terraced houses.

A mansion block on Wright's Lane
A mansion block on Wright's Lane

High Street Kensington to Notting Hill Gate

The Barkers building
The Barkers building

Kensington High Street is a busy place, and if you're not interested in the shops, it isn't a place to hang around, though the escape out of the chaos is enlivened by the impressive Barkers building, the former Derry and Toms building (on top of which you can find the largest roof garden in Europe, the Kensington Roof Gardens), and the fine Victorian Gothic St Mary Abbots Church, which dates from 1872.

Kensington Palace
Kensington Palace

Notting Hill Gate to Bayswater

Pembridge Square
Pembridge Square

The white Victorian terraces of Notting Hill positively glow in the strong sunlight, and a walk along Pembridge Gardens and into Pembridge Square is an exercise in spotting snippets of ornate stucco through the thick trees. Equally well hidden is the Greek Orthodox St Sophia's Cathedral on Moscow Road; during World War II the Greek government ruled in exile from London, and St Sophia's became the cathedral of the entire Greek nation until Greece was liberated. It's of a Byzantine design, and is hidden from the road by trees, so you can only see the distinctive dome from certain angles.

St Sophia's Cathedral
St Sophia's Cathedral

Bayswater to Paddington

23 and 24 Leinster Gardens
23 and 24 Leinster Gardens

My sense of direction took a bit of a bashing from the stupid stick after I left Bayswater, perhaps due to a rush of adrenaline at breaking the law. I really wanted to swing through Leinster Gardens, but the roads are all north-south round here, and I spent ages zig-zagging through the stuccoed terraces of Inverness Terrace and the hotels of Queensborough Terrace, trying in vain to find the connecting side streets that would take me east. In the end, the direct route would perhaps have been better, as the only reason I wanted to take in Leinster Gardens was to see numbers 23 and 24, and in the event, there isn't much to see at all.

Gloucester Terrace
Gloucester Terrace

Paddington to Edgware Road

The incinerator at St Mary's Hospital, with Paddington Basin in the background
The incinerator at St Mary's Hospital, with Paddington Basin in the background

It isn't far from Paddington to Edgware Road, and to avoid repeating the Bakerloo line walk from Paddington to the similarly named but separate Edgware Road Bakerloo line station, I headed along South Wharf Road, between St Mary's Hospital and Paddington Basin. There are some interesting views of the hospital buildings, in particular the tall chimney of the incinerator and the block on the right that proclaims that Alexander Fleming discovered penicillin here in 1928 (though the laboratory where he made his discovery is actually on the other side of the hospital, along Praed Street). St Mary's Hospital is also where heroin was first synthesised in 1874; that's not a bad record for one hospital, really.