Railway days out of London

Early morning at the station (Edinburgh Waverley — too far, so not featured in these walks)

This page introduces a group of walks (some circular, others point-to-point) starting from and finishing at London’s main railway termini. See also the Chiltern Railway Walk for a separate set of station-to-station walks along that line out of Marylebone, and Excursions on the Elizabeth Line for station-to-station walks on that line.

The day walks are less than 20km in length, and are grouped against the relevant London termini. Times quoted on the walk pages are calculated using Naismith’s Rule with a base speed on flat ground of 5kph, adding time for gradients. Individual walkers may adjust the times to cater for a different base speed.

For details of the intermediate transport noted on the home page for each of these walks, checking with bustimes.org is recommended (other aggregators are available). Sunday bus services are rarely to be found, and even Saturday buses may be non-existent in places.

A majority of these walks have not been walked by me in the past few years, and that will need to be remedied. I have therefore removed photographs from those walks which need to be checked: the photographs for each route will appear after I have done so. The link to the text file is the heading for the terminus.

Euston

There are five walks which use Euston as a terminus. They are

Atherstone to Tamworth (linear) — 15.9km; 3hr 23min
Leighton Buzzard to Bletchley (linear) — 15.4km; 3hr 19min
Macclesfield, Tegg’s Nose and White Nancy (circuit) — 17.4km; 4hr 06min
Northampton to Long Buckby (linear) — 19.5km; 4hr 14min
Nuneaton to Atherstone (linear) — 11.9km; 2hr 28mi

The two walks to and from Atherstone may be linked. The Macclesfield walk is really for a special occasion (as the train fare would indicate). However, by turning it into a two-day off-peak jaunt, you may save much more than the cost of a budget hotel room for the night before the walk.

King’s Cross, St Pancras and Moorgate

King’s Cross and St Pancras naturally go together, and the line from Moorgate joins the East Coast Main Line at Finsbury Park. There are eight walks which use this group of stations as the start of the journey.

Bayford and Newgate Street (circuit from Moorgate) — 15.4km; 3hr 19min

Broadstairs to Margate (linear from St Pancras) — 17.3km; 4hr 05min
Kettering to Corby (linear from St Pancras) — 15.4km; 3hr 23min
Market Harborough and Foxton Locks (circuit from St Pancras) — 19.5km; 4hr 14min
Meldreth and Wimpole Hall (circuit from King’s Cross or St Pancras) — 19.5km; 4hr 14min
St Albans to Harpenden (linear from St Pancras) — 11.6km; 2hr 26min
Sandy and Everton (circuit from St Pancras) — 11.9km; 2hr 28min
Welwyn North and Datchworth — (circuit from King’s Cross or St Pancras) — 11.9km; 2hr 28min

Liverpool Street and Fenchurch Street

There are nine walks which begin by boarding a train at one of these stations. The Hockley and Laindon circuits use Fenchurch Street, while the rest use Liverpool Street.

Bishop’s Stortford and Hazel End (circuit) 14.6km; 3hr 11min
Chelmsford and Broomfield (circuit) 13.4km; 2hr 45min
Elsenham and Widdington (circuit) 13.2km; 2hr 46min
Hockley and Hullbridge (circuit) 13.4km; 2hr 56min
Laindon and Langdon Hills (circuit) 13.0km; 2hr 54min
Stanford-le-Hope to Pitsea (linear) 14.6km; 3hr 01min
Temple Bar and Turkey Brook (circuit) 12.9km; 2hr 44min
White Notley and Cressing (circuit) 11.9km; 2hr 28min
Wickham Market to Woodbridge (linear) 13.0km; 2hr 46min

London Bridge

There are six walks which may involve a train from London Bridge station. The Balcombe, and Gatwick routes may start and end with train journeys from and to St Pancras, Farringdon, City Thameslink, or Blackfriars, and these stations may be used to reach Sevenoaks and to return from Gravesend. The other routes (except for Ashurst) may involve Charing Cross, Waterloo East or Cannon Street, but it is easier to use London Bridge.

Ashurst to Edenbridge (linear) — 13.0km; 2hr 45min
Balcombe and Ardingly (circuit) — 16.3km; 3hr 52min
Gatwick Airport to Nutfield (linear) — 13.0km; 2hr 45min
Higham to Gravesend (linear) — 14.4km; 3hr 13min
Maidstone East to West Malling via Barming (linear)
19.5km; 4hr 14min
Sevenoaks to Knockholt (linear) — 14.4km; 3hr 13min

Marylebone

There are four routes on the lines out of Marylebone.

Great Missenden to Princes Risborough (linear) — 14.0km; 3hr 20min
Islip to Bicester (linear) — 13.0km; 4hr 05min
Kings Sutton and Charlton (circuit) — 10.8km; 3hr 13min
Lapworth, Baddesley Clinton and Packwood (circuit) — 15.7km; 4hr 14min

In addition, there is a 241km station-to-station walk along the Chiltern main line between Marylebone and Birmingham Moor Street. Within that route, sections without photographs require confirmation as above.

Paddington

Five walks may be begun by train from Paddington.

Bedwyn to Hungerford via Stype Grange (linear) — 12.6km; 2hr 46min
Bramley to Mortimer via Calleva Atrebatum (linear) — 12.8km; 3hr 13min
Maidenhead to Henley‑on‑Thames via Warren Row (linear) — 16.6km; 4hr 14min
Moreton‑in‑Marsh and Sezincote (circuit) — 11.6km; 2hr 29min
Pangbourne to Goring via Upper Basildon (linear) — 19.5km; 4hr 14min

Victoria

There are three routes for which Victoria is the most convenient terminus.

Amberley and Bignor Roman villa (circuit) — 17.3km; 4hr 05min
Holmwood to Dorking (linear) — 14.4km; 3hr 13min
Otford to Swanley (linear) — 19.5km; 4hr 14min

Waterloo

There are no fewer than ten routes which use the lines out of Waterloo. The Overton route is short, but is included because much of the route follows the Harroway, a trading route which is older than Stonehenge.

Bentley to Alton (linear) — 16.1km; 3hr 31min
Bookham to Clandon (linear) — 13.0km; 2hr 46min
Boxhill and Westhumble to Leatherhead (linear) — 12.7km; 3hr 00min
Brookwood to Woking (linear) — 11.3km; 2hr 19min
Datchet to Windsor (linear) — 14.3km; 3hr 01min
Martins Heron to Wokingham (linear) — 14.8km; 3hr 09min
Overton to Whitchurch (linear) — 7.8km; 1hr 42min
Southbourne to Emsworth (linear) — 13.7km; 2hr 45min
Tisbury and Old Wardour Castle (circuit) — 11.2km; 2hr 35min
Witley and Hambledon (circuit) — 13.0km; 2hr 54min

Disclaimer and advisory notices

Note that lwalks.london can accept no responsibility for content on an external site or in an external publication, nor for any action by an external site which renders our content or link outdated or unworkable. Furthermore, lwalks.london retains the liberty to unlink external content at any time if the content loses relevance to the linking page(s).

Images used on the lwalks.london site are either owned by lwalks.london, or are subject to a licence-to-use held by lwalks.london. These images must not be further used by any third party without the explicit permission of lwalks.london, or of the original image licensor. A small number of images are in the public domain.

Routes are to be followed entirely at the walker’s own risk: lwalks.london can take no responsibility for any inconvenience, damage, loss or injury caused by attempting to follow a route, which is no more than a mere suggestion of a possible enterprise.

We should be happy to learn of any changes to the line of a walk and/or its attendant facilities, or to consider an image which you own for inclusion on the site, lwalks.london thus being granted a free and non-exclusive licence to use the image anywhere on its site. Please contact us.