David Sharp

For 140 miles, the London LOOP (London Outer Orbital Path) follows a green corridor right around the capital, offering a circular walk among secret countryside that can make you forget you’re within a few miles of Heathrow Airport, the A13, or the suburban sprawl of Croydon, Watford or Dagenham. Here is rolling downland near Coulsdon, the forest of Enfield Chase, the lonely Thames marshes at Rainham, the classical parkland of Bushy Park and a canalside stroll at Uxbridge. London could not seem further away. Each of the guide’s 15 sections represents a day’s walk of reasonable length, and starts and finishes at a public transport point.

The London Loop

Ed Kay

On the whole the signage on the LOOP is very good, meaning that you could probably find your way around this track for about 80% of the distance without a problem. However, for those areas where the signs are pointing in the wrong direction (for example, it seems the students have enjoyed realigning every single arrow in Kingston) or absent altogether (especially in wooded areas where multiple tracks cross) then this book proves invaluable. Sometimes the descriptions are a bit weird or arbitrary, or just outdated due to the restructuring of fields or the route itself, but even in these cases the Ordnance Survey maps will come to the rescue. I did the Heathrow stretch in the winter and one of the paths was totally flooded and impassable, but the maps allowed me to find a diversion on the streets without any difficulty.

It may be that there's an electronic route available using some kind of smartphone app, rendering even the maps useless. However, there's a wealth of detail included here that adds an extra dimension to the walk, over and above the information provided on the many LOOP or other information panels in various parks or riverside walks. Sharp provides little nuggets of history at relevant points, including interesting diversions to sights off the route that are worth visiting.

I really enjoyed this walk - and I'd recommend it to anyone living in London as a magnificent escape from the urban sprawl, as well as to gain insights into the city itself - and a great deal of that enjoyment was down to this book.

The London Loop

Reviews