Capital Ring 5 - Richmond to Hanwell

I've been pretty lax with my walking of the Capital Ring, a 78 mile walk around London, but even more lax with blogging it, as I walked this section in March last year.

I'd previously reached Richmond, towards the bottom-left of this map, and headed back there with my daughter, the first time that I've had company on one of these walks.

Richmond is officially the start of Section 7 of the Capital Ring, but this was my fifth walk as I'm trying to do it in 10-12 even sections rather than the 15 official sections which vary from 4 miles to 8.5 miles. 

It was a short walk from the station down to the River Thames, where we picked up the path just after Richmond Bridge.

The first fingerpost sign was less than helpful, as we would be going further than Osterley Lock at 3.75 miles but nowhere near Highgate Wood at 25 miles.

We followed the path beside the river, with the Old Deer Park to our right. This hexagonal tower is apparently an access shaft for the local water authority (and there's another on the opposite bank).

The Old Deer Park used to be a Royal Hunting Park created in 1604 by James I. Later George III built the King's Observatory in the park, and three obelisks were erected to help align the telescopes. We could see two of them, but only one at a time due to their locations beyond a line of trees.

We crossed the Thames via a grand-looking footbridge

above Richmond Lock.

On the north bank now, we passed by All Saints Church in Isleworth

with an interesting sundial on the end of the Joshua Chapel.

It was erected in 1707 in memory of the wife of the Governor of Jamaica, and shows the time in Isleworth, Jamaica, Jerusalem and Moscow.

Moving on, we entered Syon Park, and passed by Syon House, the London residence of the Duke of Northumberland.

Further into the estate, we passed a brick barn

with a blue plaque commemorating Richard Reynolds, a 16th century chaplain of Syon Abbey who could not accept the supremacy of Henry VIII.

Leaving Syon Park, a bit of street walking rook us to the River Brent, by Brentford Lock.

The Brent shares its course with the Grand Union Canal (formerly the Grand Junction Canal) here, 93 miles from Braunston in Northamptonshire

and we share the Capital Ring path with both the Grand Union Canal Walk and the Brent River Park.

The canal basin remains, packed with narrowboats, but most of the surrounding warehouses have been turned into flats.

Just one of the warehouses is left, and the path goes through it, passing under what was once a canopy which sheltered the cargo being loaded or unloaded.

Passing under the A4, we got a distance-check, which later turned out to be half-way; three miles from Richmond, three more to Hanwell, though I didn't know we were half-way at the time. (I'd intended to walk further than Hanwell.)

We followed the canal north past Clitherow Lock

and then crossed it via Gallows Bridge

going on towards Osterley Lock.

Section Seven of the Ring ends here, and we took a break for lunch in a local pub before making a start on Section Eight in the afternoon.

We crossed the small bridge on the right of the photo above, over the River Brent which deviates from the Grand Union Canal for a short distance, and then past the lock.

The two waterways converged again and we followed them both until they split again by Hanwell Bottom Lock.

There are six locks on the Grand Union Canal here, raising the water by 53', but sadly our route lay along the River Brent instead. However I couldn't resist a small detour up to the second in the flight.

Returning to our route, we followed the river past Ealing Hospital and on to Brent Meadow, with Wharncliffe Viaduct carrying the Great Western Mainline above us.

We were close to Hanwell station now and my daughter really wanted to stop, so we did. I've already walked the next section (alone) so I hope to bring you that soon.

The Route