Our odyssey of guided walks around the Capital Ring continues on May 19th with Jen Pedler’s walk from Richmond to Osterley Lock.  At the end of this section, we will be approximately half way through our journey around London.  Details and booking information for this section of the walk can be found here, meanwhile Jen gives us a little taster of the walk

(Nerdy note– the Capital Ring signposts are black at the start of this section due to the LB Kingston upon Thames planning regulations. Once we enter LB Hounslow later in the walk they revert to the customary green.)

This walk is topped and tailed by water. We start by the Thames at Richmond where we cross the river via the magnificent Richmond Lock.

This is a ‘half-tide’ lock designed to prevent the river from draining and becoming un-navigable at low tide. We’ll consider how the lock works and hear about the annual draw off, when the river is drained to allow maintenance, before continuing to the ancient riverside settlement of Isleworth.

Here we leave the river and make our way to Brentford via Syon Park, ancestral home to the Dukes of Northumberland, with a house designed by Robert Adam and grounds landscaped by Capability Brown.

At Brentford we join the Grand Union Canal at the often busy Brentford Lock. We then follow the canal, via a further lock and several bridges, to the end point of this section at Osterley Lock.

Despite the proximity of several major roads and railways, there is a distinctly rural feel to this section of the canal. The next section takes us to Greenford, continuing along the canal and the River Brent.

Once you have completed these two sections you will discover that it is possible to traverse the entirety of west London with almost no need to walk along roads.