47-52 - The High Points of London Part 3 - 10th January 2013

Click here for part 1

Click here for part 2

Continued . . . . . . . . 

Canada Water Station, 6:20pm

Bethnal Green - Tower Hamlets

We had parked in the car park and headed for the underground station where I purchased my underground card and Darren topped up his Oyster card, it was straight onto the London Underground overground line, then the District line and then the Central line to Bethnal Green, from here it was a short walk to Tower Hamlets where we found the highest point and took some photos.

High Holborn - City of London

Walking back to Bethnal Green tube station we were straight onto the Central Line towards central London, getting off at Chancery lane Tube station for the highest point of the City of London, this can be found on the south side of High Holborn at the top end of Chancery lane, after a quick photo we continued along to Holborn tube station and back onto the Central Line.

Hammersmith and Fulham

After changing at Oxford Circus we joined the Bakerloo line to Kensal Green where we were able to find 2 high points in go. Firstly we walked along the Harrow road and found what looked like a high point up a side road BUT after consulting the map and a few road signs we worked out that the first high point of Hammersmith and Fulham was back on the main road DOWN the hill, this was because the borough border ran along the length of Harrow road and that was the highest point. we took our photos and stopped to look in an awesome dinosaur fossil shop.

Chelsea Rob in Chelsea 

About 50 yrds back along the Harrow road we arrived at the highest point of Chelsea and Kensington, just outside some cemetery gates. Again we stopped off for some photos, I was quite pleased to get a photo of me in my Chelsea football shirt standing on the highest point of the borough of Chelsea and Kensington.

Back onto the tube and we travelled a short distance to South Hampstead and then a short walk to the highest point of the City of Westminster, this can be found at the junction of Boundary road and St Johns Wood Park, It was a rather unimpressive place, odd posh houses surrounded by not so posh flats, plus it had the shortest double yellow lines we had ever seen.

City of Westminster

Walking along now to Swiss Cottage we were starting to get weary, a look at out watches show that this was taking ages, We had been travelling around London for nearly 14 hours now and you can imagine it was starting to get very tiring. Onto the Tube at Swiss Cottage we travelled north towards Hampstead heath Tube station. On Arrival at Hampstead Heath we had a walk of a mile to get to the Highest point of Camden, this turned out to be a bus stop on the edge of Hampstead Heath,

Hampstead Heath

We looked at out watches and it was time to make a decision, we still had 6 more high points to go and it was now approaching 10pm, do we carry on? it would take us at least another 2, maybe 3 hours to do the rest, and we had a LOT of walking to do to get to our next 2 High points and then we had the problem of how to get to some of the other high points as they were not on direct tube lines. So, do we carry on? or stop? we decided to call it a day, it would be a shame to rush the last ones and not enjoy them, we were both in need of Pizza and we made our way back to the car at Canada Water.

One last interesting thing happened on the route back, from Hampstead Heath we walked to Hampstead Tube Station, after making it to 30 High points across London, we were now waiting for a train on the deepest tube platforms in London, so from the highest points to the deepest, we certainly have covered a lot of London.

We both had such an excellent day and I laughed so much with Darren, it was awesome, Just 6 more high points to go and we will do those next month so watch this space.

 Distance travelled - 161.4 Miles - Not counting Tube Travel
Time Taken - 15+ hours
HP 1 (22) - Shooters hill (Greenwich) - 132mts
HP 2 (23) - Langdon Shaw (Bexley) - 83mts
HP 3 (24) - Westerham Heights (Bromley) - 245mts
HP 4 (25) - Westerham Heights (Kent) - 245mts
HP 5 (26) - Sanderstead Plantation (Croydon) - 175mts
HP 6 (27) - Clock House (Sutton) - 147mts
HP 7 (28) - Telegraph Hill (Kingston Upon Thames) - 90mts
HP 8 (29) - Lauriston Road (Merton) - 55mts
HP 9 (30) - Putney Heath (Wandsworth) - 60mts
HP 10 (31) - Richmond Park (Richmond Upon Thames) - 56mts
HP 11 (32) - The Vale (Hounslow) - 35mts
HP 12 (33) - Horsenden Hill (Ealing) 85 Mts
HP 13 (34) - Potter Street Hill (Hillingdon) 134mts
HP 14 (35) - Bushey Heath (Harrow) 153mts
HP 15 (36) - Bushey Heath (Old Middlesex) 153mts
HP 16 (37) - Wakemans hill Ave (Brent) 92mts
HP 17 (38) - More End Farm (Barnet) 145mts
HP 18 (39) - Arkley (Barnet) 147mts
HP 19 (40) - Bournwell Hill (Enfield) 115mts
HP 20 (41) - Pole Hill (Waltham Forest) 99mts
HP 21 (42) - Cabin Hill (Redbridge) 90mts
HP 22 (43) - Havering Atte Bower Farm (Havering) 105mts
HP 23 (44) - Marks Gate (Barking and Dagenham) 43mts
HP 24 (45) - Wanstead Flats (Newham) 15mts
HP 25 (46) - Bethnal Green (Tower Hamlets) 16mts
HP 26 (47) - Chancery Lane/High Holborn (City of London) 22mts
HP 27 (48) - College Park (Hammersmith and Fulham) 45mts
HP 28 (49) - Harrow Road (Chelsea and Kensington) 45mts
HP 29 (50) - St Johns Wood Park (City of Westminster) 52mts
HP 30 (51) - Hampstead Heath (Camden) 132mts

32-46 - The High Points of London Part 2 - 10th January 2013

Click here for Part 1

Continued . . . . . . . 

Richmond Upon Thames

Having completed 9 high points so far we were feeling good, we were well into our mission to complete all 36 high points and after the tea break at Putney Heath we were able to move onwards to high point (HP) 10. This next location was the one I was looking forward to the most, it was Richmond Park, we arrived and drove through the park towards the highest point of Richmond upon Thames, passing through a herd of deer it was a pretty awesome drive, we turned into a car park and walked to the highest point.

The Vale - Hounslow

At this point I must explain, This moment became one of the funniest moments of the whole trip, thanks to Darren reminding me of a certain famous youtube video featuring a dog called Fenton, it can be found here. Anyway, we laughed about it and decided to make our own version of this video, I have to say, I have not laughed that much in years, not only were we laughing after making the video but a women nearby had a chuckle too. so here is our tribute to the Fenton clip - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6WKuu_YjA2o. Richmond Upon Thames scored an impressive 9 points.

Horsenden Hill - Ealing

Horsenden Hill - Ealing

After Richmond we headed across the river Thames to what I think must have been the worst of all the destinations, It was in the borough of Hounslow and there is not much I can say about it, it was a drab road with garages running along one side, we scored it a generous zero points. we stayed for literally seconds before moving on to our next HP in Ealing.

Horsenden hill was amazing, finally it was a proper hill, a hill where we actually had to park at the base and climb to the top. it was awesome, its a shame it was a little misty because the views would have been amazing, on the top there was a trig point and a few benches, it was wonderful to have such a nice HP to climb, It scored 10 out of 10.

Potter Street Hill - Hillingdon

Leaving Horsenden we travelled north towards Watford and the HP of Hillingdon,  This was an odd one, it was at the end of a dead end road, near a golf course and all I can say about it was that there were some nice green locked gates which led to nowhere, it scored a 4. quickly moving onward towards Harrow and our next destination.

Harrow and old Middlesex

The HP of Harrow is Bushey Heath, This also happens to be a Historic county high point, Back in 1974, the counties had a shuffle around and before that moment this was the highest point of Middlesex, this means that I get to cross 2 HPs off my list at this point. Bushey Heath is not noticeably hilly but it does have several signs that it is a HP, There is a Restaurant called the Alpine and a small road called Alpine walk, Bushey Heath scored a 4.

Wakemans Hill Ave - Brent

Moving back towards central London now we arrived at the high point of Brent, this turned out to be a drain cover in the middle of a Wakemans Hill Avenue, not surprisingly it scored a 2, it would have been a 1 but there was an interesting castle type building nearby. Straight on to Barnet now and 2 high points in 1 borough.

Mote End Farm - Barnet

The reason there are 2 highpoints in Barnet is because there is some confusion as to which is the highest point, according to the maps Mote End Farm is 2 ft lower than Arkley but Arkley looked like it was a Manmade hill, the official list puts them as joint top so who am I to argue, we did both. Mote End Farm turned out to be . . well, a farm, and Arkley turned out to be a water tower (I think). They scored 3 for the Farm and 2 for Arkley.

Arkley - Barnet

Bournewell Hill - Enfield

Bournewell Hill in Enfield next, this was in a surprisingly beautiful village, old fashioned gates marking the entrance to the village and a large open heath in the middle was the location of the HP. There was a school nearby and it looked like it was about to turn out so we got this one done quick and moved onwards to Waltham Forest. Bournewell Hill scored 7 points.

Pole Hill - Waltham Forest

The next HP was quite a long drive away, we stopped off at a Tesco for some food and to use the facilities, then made our was through Enfield town to Pole Hill, on the edge of Epping Forest in the borough of Waltham Forest, This was a surprise as it another real hill to climb, at the top there was a trig point and a pillar erected in 1874 to mark the point of the Greenwich Meridian, it could be seen from the Greenwich observatory so that true north could always be found, Pole hill scored a 9

Cabin Hill - Redbridge

Darkness was now falling and our next stop was Cabin Hill in Redbridge, this was a quick stop off at a woodland and it scored a 5, just a few miles away was the next HP, The Church at Havering Atte Bower Farm marks the high point of Havering, this was a quite a nice church so we stopped for some photos and headed on to the next HP.

Havering

Marks Gate

The HP of Barking and Dagenham is in the cemetery of Marks Gate, Sadly on arrival it was closed so we took some photos as near as we could and carried on to the lowest of the destinations in Newham.

Wanstead Flats - Newham

Wanstead Flats in Newham measures up at an amazing 15 mtrs (49 ft), Its one of high points which is in the middle of a flat road, there was a pub near by and it was difficult to decide where the HP actually was but we took some photos and moved onwards.

Next stop was not to be a high point, we were now aiming for Canada Water underground station where we would park up and move onto the underground, 24 down, 12 to go

To be continued . . . . . . . .

The Story so far

Distance travelled - 161.4 Miles - 10 hours
HP 1 (22) - Shooters hill (Greenwich) - 132mts
HP 2 (23) - Langdon Shaw (Bexley) - 83mts
HP 3 (24) - Westerham Heights (Bromley) - 245mts
HP 4 (25) - Westerham Heights (Kent) - 245mts
HP 5 (26) - Sanderstead Plantation (Croydon) - 175mts
HP 6 (27) - Clock House (Sutton) - 147mts
HP 7 (28) - Telegraph Hill (Kingston Upon Thames) - 90mts
HP 8 (29) - Lauriston Road (Merton) - 55mts
HP 9 (30) - Putney Heath (Wandsworth) - 60mts
HP 10 (31) - Richmond Park (Richmond Upon Thames) - 56mts
HP 11 (32) - The Vale (Hounslow) - 35mts
HP 12 (33) - Horsenden Hill (Ealing) 85 Mts
HP 13 (34) - Potter Street Hill (Hillingdon) 134mts
HP 14 (35) - Bushey Heath (Harrow) 153mts
HP 15 (36) - Bushey Heath (Old Middlesex) 153mts
HP 16 (37) - Wakemans hill Ave (Brent) 92mts
HP 17 (38) - More End Farm (Barnet) 145mts
HP 18 (39) - Arkley (Barnet) 147mts
HP 19 (40) - Bournwell Hill (Enfield) 115mts
HP 20 (41) - Pole Hill (Waltham Forest) 99mts
HP 21 (42) - Cabin Hill (Redbridge) 90mts
HP 22 (43) - Havering Atte Bower Farm (Havering) 105mts
HP 23 (44) - Marks Gate (Barking and Dagenham) 43mts
HP 24 (45) - Wanstead Flats (Newham) 15mts

23-31 - The High Points of London Part 1 - 10th January 2013

London, one of the largest urban zones and metropolitan areas in Europe is made up of 33 boroughs, each one of these boroughs has its own high point and is included in my list of places to visit, as you can imagine many of the high points in London are . . . how do I put this? . . . lacking in glamour? . . . . . . not so attractive? . . .  how about somewhat dull? yes I like that one, somewhat dull, therefore it would be silly of me to make special trips to visit.

When I first came up with the High Points challenge I discovered some confusion over the single highest point of London, I read in a book that is was High Holborn, a friend of mine who lives in London (Darren) pointed out that surely Alexandra Palace was higher and on looking into it, I worked out that High Holborn is the highest point of the City of London, there are of course 32 other parts on London, however Alexandra Palace was not one of them.

I started to researched the High Points of London and working out how to make it more interesting, eventually it came into my head about trying to visit them all in one day, is this possible? can I do it? it was going to be interesting whatever happens. I contacted Darren again and he was eager to join me so we set the date for Jan 10th

Shooters Hill - Greenwich

I headed up to London on the evening before the adventure, Darren lives in Bermondsey, this is perfect as it is very central and heading up the night before means we can set off early in the morning. The drive up was good, the roads were clear and I arrived much earlier than expected. Darren and I chatted for a while and then headed off our beds with our alarms set for 6:30 in the mornings.

January 10th
The alarms woke us up and we got ready and set off for hill number 1 of the day (high point number 22 of all the high points I am doing) , Shooters Hill in Greenwich, this was situated 7.4 miles east of Bermondsey and would take about 25 mins, the drive was easy, pretty quiet for London standards but it was only 7:30am and we arrived at Shooters Hill in Greenwich. The top of the hill was marked by a Victorian gothic water tower, there was a fog in the air so the views were not up to much but we took a few quick photos.

Langdon Shaw - Bexley

Darren and I decided we should score each of the high points out of 10, just to give you an idea of how much we liked each high point, we scored Shooters hill 3 points and then we headed off to high point 2 (or 23)

The next high point (HP) was in the borough of Bexley, heading south from shooters hill we drove the distance of 6 miles in about 20 minutes and ended up in Langdon Shaw. There is not a lot I can say about Langdon Shaw, it was a residential road, there was a school near by, we scored it a 3 again.

Westerham Heights - Bromley

Moving on we drove 19.5 miles to our next location, down to the M25, clockwise to Sevenoaks, then up to the HP near Bigging Hill. Westerham Heights is the of Bromley and the highest point we will visit today, and not only is it the highest point of all the London boroughs, it is also the highest point of Kent, This means I get to cross off 2 high points in 1 go. It was quite nice here, a country road but hard to tell where the actual highest point was, we gave it a score of 7.

Sanderstead Plantation - Croydon

The drive to our next HP was really nice, it was like driving through the New Forest, county roads and heathland and trees. after about 25 minutes and 9.2 miles we stopped at a road and walked into a small woodland called the Sanderstead Plantation, this was the HP of Croydon, it was quite nice here, a proper woodland and we scored it a 6.





Time to recap
HP 1 (22) - Shooters hill (Greenwich) - 132mts
HP 2 (23) - Langdon Shaw (Bexley) - 83mts
HP 3 (24) - Westerham Heights (Bromley) - 245mts
HP 4 (25) - Westerham Heights (Kent) - 245mts
HP 5 (26) - Sanderstead Plantation (Croydon) - 175mts

Clock House - Sutton

The next stop off was in the borough of Sutton, not too far at 5.1 miles, about a 15-20 minute drive. It was slowly becoming apparent as to how long this was all taking to do, Google earth said the whole thing would take about 9 hours but we were well behind schedule, still we carried on. Parking in a residential road we walked up a path into another woodland and found what we thought was the HP, for some reason it was called Clock House, we couldn't see a clock, or a house but I am sure it has its reasons, it was all pretty flat but I think we got it. This one got a score of 7.

Telegraph Hill, Kingston Upon Thames

Kingston Upon Thames next and a place called Telegraph hill, this turned out to be like a scene from 'The Hills Have Eyes', with random containers strewn about with their doors hanging open and dogs barking in the distance, otherwise eerily quiet and mud EVERYWHERE, we quickly took our photos and left as soon as we could scoring it a generous 1.

Lauriston Road, Merton

Onwards to Merton and rather uninspiring high point called Lauriston Road, This was (as you can guess) a road, quite a posh road, beautiful houses but pretty flat and nothing hill like about it what so ever, it was however the highest point, we scored it a 3.

Putney Heath - Wandsworth

The HPs were getting a little boring at this point, were there going to be many like this? just roads, or other odd places, never mind, we continued to our next one which was Putney Heath in Wandsworth. On arrival we were both pleased to see several things, 1 - a toilet (phew), 2 - A tea room (mmmm) and 3 - a nice looking highpoint, it was not that high but it was on the heath and was better than a street corner, we took out photos and got ourselves some food and a nice(ish) cup of tea.



So far so good, I looked at the time, we were a quarter of the way through and we have so far taken over 4 hours, eeeek, this is taking a LONG time. still we had to soldier on. 9 down and 27 to go

To bo continued . . . . . . . . .

The Story so far

Distance travelled - 72.4 Miles - 4 hours
HP 1 (22) - Shooters hill (Greenwich) - 132mts
HP 2 (23) - Langdon Shaw (Bexley) - 83mts
HP 3 (24) - Westerham Heights (Bromley) - 245mts
HP 4 (25) - Westerham Heights (Kent) - 245mts
HP 5 (26) - Sanderstead Plantation (Croydon) - 175mts
HP 6 (27) - Clock House (Sutton) - 147mts
HP 7 (28) - Telegraph Hill (Kingston Upon Thames) - 90mts
HP 8 (29) - Lauriston Road (Merton) - 55mts
HP 9 (30) - Putney Heath (Wandsworth) - 60mts

22 - Lewesdon Hill, Dorset - 29th December 2012

During the month of December I knew I would not get to climb many high points, this is my busiest time of year and there was no way I had the time to get away for the day to climb a hill, however with the Christmas rush over it was time to get back to climbing those hills.

Today it was going to be Lewesdon Hill which is the highest point of Dorset, It can be found about 6 miles north of Bridport and it was around a 100 mile drive from my home in Portsmouth.

Lewesdon hill from Pilsdon Pen

On leaving home my first thing to do was to pick up Chris as he was joining me for this walk, then we set off along the M27, A31 through the New Forest, the A35 to Bridport and finally the B3162 up to Beaminster and our car park. The Rain had started once we arrived at the car park so we put on the wet weather gear and set off.

Leaving the car we initially headed away from Lewesdon Hill, this was because we wanted to climb up Pilsdon Pen first. at 277 meters high Pilsdon pen is the second highest point in Dorset and it is also the site of an iron age hill fort, it was not far to the top and once there it was obvious this was a sight of archaeological significance. The top of the hill was a large plateau about the size of a football pitch, almost perfectly flat with a moat running around the edge.

Lewesdon Hill From Pilsdon Pen

We didn't stay to long on the top of Pilsdon Pen as it was raining pretty hard. so we headed across the plateau and down the other side now heading towards our final goal. We headed down the hill and through a few gates and then across a field finally reaching a road. the rain was pretty hard and the road was like a river, my feet were now wet but this was not a problem, we carried on.

Old Beeches on the way up Lewesdon

After a while we turned off the road and down a smaller lane, it was not long before I realised I had made a mistake and we had gone the wrong way to we headed back up the lane and a little further along the road to the correct lane, this new path headed up towards the hill and was very muddy.

After about 20 mins and plenty of puddle dodging we had arrives at the woodlands on the slopes of Lewesdon hill, we turned up the hill and before long we were at the top. Lewesdon hill was also once the location of an iron age settlement, there were a lot of trees about but you could see that is had once been the location of something man made, there were not too many views from the top with the trees but it was certainly worth the walk.

The Summit of Lewesdon Hill

Coming down the hill was just as muddy, we took a slightly different route but eventually rejoined the same path and after a short while we were back on the road. Finally the rain had stopped and we quickly made out was back along the road to towards the car park.

It was an excellent walk around the Dorset countryside even if the High point was not that high, Thanks to Chris for coming with me.