The far-sighted campaigns of local people in the 1970s to create the Brent River Park out of parcels of riverside land, has brought a revitalising place for plants, animals and people.

Sunday 12th October 2025, 1pm

Beneath the Wharncliffe viaduct, Brent Lodge Park

We walked through Brent River Park and Elthorne Park, then crossed to Warren Farm nature reserve, along to Brent Meadow, and into Brent Lodge Park taking in Hanwell Zoo.

Points of interest included Brunel’s great western line viaduct, the place where Jim Marshall invented his amplifier, the Grand Union Canal and river Brent, and the animals in Hanwell Zoo. More about the area …

Artist Susie Heyes has painted many impressions of the parks in west London; she invited us to see some of her paintings at her studio …

Meeting place: Boston Manor station
Arrive by train: Piccadilly line
Date & time: Sunday Oct 12th 2025, 1 pm
Distance: 4.2 miles
End point: Susie Heyes Studio, West Ealing
Map: Komoot map click to view, Google map
Contact: email tim.ingram-smith@outlook.com  mobile: 077932 00932
Cost: £8 per adult walker PAY HERE https://paypal.me/parktopark

Join the mailing list to be kept up to date. Sign up here and I will send you details of each walk coming up.

This walk starting at Boston Manor is a continuation of our Ealing walk to Boston Manor Park.

Gallery

Boston Manor railway siding

Deer sculpture Brent River Park, Elthorne Park Extension

Stone row, one of a number of stone sculptures in Elthorne Park Extension

Raymond’s Ash in autumn flush, by the Brentford Dock Railway track

Warren Farm, outbuildings, now fenced in

Plenty of paintings of Warren Farm by Susie Heyes on her website

Crossing the lock gate over the Grand Union Canal at Hanwell Lock

Brent Lodge Park with Brunel’s viaduct

Viaduct pillars

Brent Lodge Park Gardener’s house 1960s?

Lovebirds in Hanwell Zoo

Alwyne Gardens, maintained by local volunteers

Susie Heyes’ prints showing some of the parks we visited including Warren Farm and the deer sculpture at Elthorne. Susie Heyes’ website

Map

Map: Komoot – click to view, Google map

This Walk

Sunday 12th October 2025 – Grand Union to Hanwell Zoo

Walks Coming Up

Sunday 23rd November 2025 – Bushy Park and Hampton Court Park

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Previous Walks

Sunday 14th September 2025 – Queen’s Park to Westbourne Park

Sunday 13th July 2025 – Wanstead Parks Oases

A neighbourhood walk taking in Queen’s Park, Paddington Rec and the new garden at Mason & Fifth by the Grand Union Canal.

Sunday 14th September 2025, 1pm

Garden at Mason & Fifth Canal side

On a summer’s evening people come out to the parks of London for all kinds of activities, like sport and exercise.

In Queen’s Park in Brent there’s football, tennis, golf; walking of course; plus table tennis, parallel bars and kids on bikes. Queen’s Park is great for families and folk of all ages and our walk will take in its full sweep.

Then we navigate through high rise blocks from the 1960’s and 70’s which are being replaced with new towers and new shared garden space, like Woodhouse Urban Park, with mixed results. You can see the effort, the intent; unfortunately you can see the litter.

In Paddington Recreation Ground there’s a cricket match in progress, tennis, a gym, hockey and hundreds of runners circling the track. They’ve come to a good place for motivation – plaques on the wall commemorate the regime of Roger Bannister who ‘broke’ the four minute mile and trained in this park, and other athletes.

Then we search out a brand new garden on the banks of the Grand Union Canal, a development by Mason and Fifth. This private development seems more successful – outdoor seats warmed by a westerly sun, a gym, a restaurant, and a cinema showing Steve Shaw’s Meanwhile Gardens as it was 40 years ago.

Meeting place: Queen’s Park station, Salusbury Rd, London NW6 6NL
Arrive by train: Bakerloo line, or straight from Euston on the Lioness overground
Date & time: Sunday Sept 14th 2025, 1 pm
Distance: 3.3 miles
End point: Mason & Fifth, Woodfield Road, canal side, nearest tube Westbourne Park
Map: Komoot map click to view, Google map
Contact: email tim.ingram-smith@outlook.com  mobile: 077932 00932
Cost: £8 per adult walker PAY HERE https://paypal.me/parktopark

Join the mailing list to be kept up to date. Sign up here and I will send you details of each walk coming up.

Gallery

Queen’s Park quiet corner

Parallel bars

Queen’s Park woodland walk

Queen’s Park bandstand

Queen’s Park golf

Woodhouse Urban Park, a landscape award winner in 2016

Paddington Recreation Ground running track. We walked through Paddington Rec on the London Spiral, back in 2016.

It’s not all sport, plenty of people are just enjoying the evening sun, seated on the grass or on the benches, taking it in.

Paddington Recreation Ground red planting

There’s a wide range of trees in Tamplin Mews park – here we can see plane, whitebeam, pear, pissardii plum, fastigiate oak, and a yellow gate.

At the long jump a fellow has pulled back the tarpaulin and is practicing his triple jump. He’s got bounce, he’s got strength in his legs.

How far are you trying to reach? I ask. Fifteen, sixteen he says. Just a little bit short of Jonathan Edwards’ 18 metres 39, I say, trying to show my knowledge. 18 metres 29, he corrects me, then adds, There hasn’t been a jump near 18 metres this year. What’s worse there hasn’t been a British jump over 16 metres this year. I wonder for a moment why that’s worse. I need to fix my technique, he says. It’s a mental thing.

This walk is from Queen’s Park through Paddington Recreation Ground to Mason & Fifth Canal Side.

Jazz band at Mason & Fifth launch night

Swan on the Grand Union Canal

View from 10th floor across west London

Map

Map: Komoot – click to view, Google maps

This Walk

Sunday 14th September 2025 – Queen’s Park to Westbourne Park

Walks Coming Up

Sunday 12th October 2025 – Grand Union to Hanwell Zoo

Sunday 23rd November 2025 – Bushy Park and Hampton Court Park

register

Previous Walks

Sunday 13th July 2025 – Wanstead Parks Oases

Sunday 8th June 2025 – St James Park, Hyde Park, Kensington Gardens & Holland Park

People come from all over the world to see London. And what do they visit? – The Royal Parks

Sunday 8th June 2025, 1pm

Buckingham Palace across the formal gardens

Granted there are more Royal Parks than just those in the city centre – all these – but the central parks are the ones we were visiting on this summer walk.

It’s a chance to see the city as others see it. We met at Trafalgar Square, ducked between guards at Horseguards Parade, and stepped around the fountains of St James’s Park to Buckingham Palace. Then through Green Park into Hyde Park which has many memorials to Princess Diana, until Kensington Palace. There was much to enjoy in terms of green space, glorious vistas, plants and plantings, and places to relax and enjoy the sun. We continued to Holland Park and Kyota Garden.

Meeting place: beneath Lord Nelson’s column, Trafalgar Square
Arrive by train: Bakerloo line. Quite nearby: Charing Cross station, Piccadilly
Date & time: Sunday June 8th 2025, 1 pm
Distance: 4.9 miles
End point: Holland Park
Map: Komoot map click to view, Google map
Contact: email tim.ingram-smith@outlook.com  mobile: 077932 00932
Cost: £8 per adult walker PAY HERE https://paypal.me/parktopark

Join the mailing list to be kept up to date. Sign up here and I will send you details of each walk coming up.

Gallery

David Charnick leading a walk into St James’s Park

Horseguards parade

The Mall looking west to the palace

Heron in St James’s Park

The bridge over the lake offers a fine view of the palace, and it may be replaced by a glass tiara by Norman Foster

Looking east along the lake to the turrets of Whitehall

Buckingham Palace in June

Tree lined avenue in Green Park

Formal hedges on the edge of Green Park

The Diana Walk in Hyde Park

Rose garden Hyde Park

Hyde Park weeping beech

Inside the weeping beech, Fagus sylvatica

Hyde Park alliums in May

Hyde Park alliums in June

Diana ‘fountain’ Hyde Park

Westminster Extra newspaper article on Marina Tabassum, designer of the 2025 Pavilion, inspired by the tradition of “park-going” …larger image

Golden tree by Giuseppe Penone, Serpentine Gallery …more

More photos to come, of Kensington Gardens

Albert Memorial and Royal Albert Hall, from Hyde Park

Bandstand Kensington gardens

Entrance to the Diana lime tunnel

Sunken garden, Kensington Gardens

Statue of Diana Princess of Wales

Carp kites signifying springtime in Japan. Kyoto Garden, Holland Park

Photos by Elliott Jack:

Map

Map: Komoot – click to view, Google maps

This Walk

Sunday 8th June 2025 – St James Park, Hyde Park, Kensington Gardens & Holland Park

Walks Coming Up

Sunday 13th July 2025 – Wanstead Parks Oases

register

Previous Walks

Sunday 11th May 2025 – River Crane to Richmond Lock with artist Nicki Rolls

Sunday 13th April 2025 – Hackney Downs, Springfield Park and Clapton Common