Day 31 - Heath and Market

It is surprising the number of sights that London has to offer which I never found the time to get around to when I was living and working here in the early 80s. With a few days left here on this visit I decided that it was time to start on a concerted effort to tick a few boxes.


Today I started by heading for Hampstead Heath, the 320 hectare park in the north of London. I caught the #24 Bus from Victoria to get there, as this had the advantage (from the upper deck) of offering vistas of some of London’s trademarks such as Big Ben and Trafalgar Square. I noticed in passing that the Tower of Big Ben looked to have been cleaned up a little since I saw it last (in 2008), as did the stonework of Westminster Cathedral.

Heavily wooded part of Hampstead Heath

Arriving at Hampstead Heath I started a big clockwise circuit. The term “heath” may conjure up images of open fields covered with dwarf scrub, but Hampstead Heath is nothing like that. For one thing it is quite hilly and for another much of it is covered with quite thick woodlands. Starting from near Pryors Field in the south I went through the heavily wooded East Heath (which is actually in the centre), up through Springett Wood and North Wood, around Kenwood House, through the Duelling Ground and across South Meadow, passed Highgate Ponds, and ending up viewing the London skyline from the highpoint at Parliament Hill. This took a little over two hours, proceeding at a gentle pace and pausing to take photos here and there. It is a pretty amazing park with quite a diverse range of habitats and about 30 ponds, some of which are open to swimming. And today, being a warm day (for London), there were actually a handful of swimmers making the most of the day.

A canal lock in action

Afterwards I caught the #24 bus back as far as Camden Town to explore the expansive Camden Markets. These are spread out on two sides of Chalk Farm Road and completely filled the old horse stables. A lot of the London souvenirs were repeated at numerous stalls, but there were still many stalls with distinctive handicrafts and objects d’art. Plus there were numerous clothing and food outlets as well. I was also able to witness the locks in use on the adjacent Grand Union Canal, with a couple of barges passing through in each direction.

Having spent a couple of hours thoroughly exploring the area I sat for a caffeine infusion before catching the tube from Camden Town, which conveniently is on the Northern Line that gets me back to Chris and Janelle’s place. It was another quiet night in, with the opportunity to watch a documentary about the timeline of events from the day of 9/11. Thereafter it was early to bed for a change after a big day of walking.