After I reached Reading, having walked parallel to the entire Elizabeth Line, I turned to the District Line. Unlike the Elizabeth Line, the District is all contained within London, from Upminster in Havering to Richmond in … well … Richmond-upon-Thames. No excursions into Essex, Berkshire, Surrey, or other adjoining countries. After I completed the District Line, I realised that the purple and green combination was completed, appropriately, at Wimbledon.
I walked the route from east to west, so that the sun was generally behind me on my morning outings (as early as I could by public transport from the western edge of London, where the buses don’t kick in until half the morning has gone — just after 0600). Leaving behind the architecturally null main entrance to Upminster station, I soon reached Upminster Windmill (pictured). As a friend remarked on seeing the sails, “Musk certainly gets around”.
Streets and parks alternated, with a rural loop of the river (one of the Lea channels) near Three Mills. After Bromley-by-Bow, I ticked off the stations to Temple on the pavement, but there were surprises revealed throughout, from an Italianate ex-hospital to a bar which used to be a fine pharmacy.
I had started one day’s walking at Mile End at 0730: I should have arranged the days to give me a start at Westminster. By the time I nodded to Boudicca at Westminster Bridge shortly after nine, the streets were clogged with stationary (or as near as makes no difference) tourists, and it was like that until I had waded past Victoria Coach station. Apart from that section, my gait was rarely disturbed by others.
At South Kensington (on the south side of the station), Imre Varga’s statue of Béla Bartók brightens the streetscape: the composer gazes towards the flats which he occupied when he was living in London.
And so to Earl’s Court, the nexus of the line, where most of the branches converge (the other junction is at Turnham Green). My day finished by wrapping up the Olympia branch and (since it was a weekday) walking towards Hammersmith to catch a bus for the first stage of my trip home.
Hungary came calling again at Barons Court, where an artist’s studio has been converted into a Hungarian Reformed church: the gateway with its intricate carving is typical of Hungarian houses, particularly in Transylvania (the area of north-west Romania which has a large ethnically Hungarian population).
Mirroring the eastern end of the line, the route between Hammersmith and Richmond alternates streets and parks: having walked from Earl’s Court to Richmond, I immediately caught a train back to Turnham Green and polished off the Ealing Broadway branch to be home for lunch.
The last piece of the route began at Edgware Road and (hello again, Earl’s Court!) ended at Wimbledon, and contained much interest. After greeting the window-cleaner at Edgware Road and passing Paddington and the varied architectures of the Hallfield Estate, Bayswater, Kensington and Earl’s Court, the route passed into the calm of Brompton Cemetery. Well, almost calm — I do not consider a cemetery to be an appropriate place to run laps (or at least, to try to look as if one is running laps), and the same applies to cycling.
Brompton Cemetery is one of London’s Magnificent Seven (along with Kensal Green, Highgate and others) and has been Crown property since 1852: it is managed as one of the Royal Parks. It is laid out as an open-air cathedral, with the chapel situated where the altar would have been. If you stopped to explore, you would never reach Wimbledon.
There are short stretches of greenery (and bluery as the route crosses the River Thames on a footbridge next to the District Line) as far as East Putney, then it is generally quiet streets to Wimbledon, with the expanse of Wimbledon Park bringing a change in the surroundings.
No craggy mountain views, but all in all, a fine walk, especially before nine o’clock in the morning. My morning walks were as follows — only after arriving at Wimbledon did not see me home for lunch: a pint and a BLT in Earl’s Court and I was able to avoid the Wembley crowds by taking the Piccadilly Line.
My days out on the District Line were
- Upminster to Becontree
- Becontree to Mile End
- Mile End to Kensington Olympia via Earl’s Court
- Earl’s Court to Richmond, then Turnham Green to Ealing Broadway
- Edgware Road to Wimbledon via Earl’s Court
Lwalks.London 