Walk Around London & Other Cities For Free - Guided, Self-Guided, Grimsdyke

Names in London suggest its history. Shepherds Bush. That's in the centre. Back in the days when one walked around what is now central London.

Now we have a new initiative to get Londoners and visitors walking more around the city. London already had maps showing walking times between some central stations. So did Singapore. Now London has issued some walking maps. 

They are only for the centre. However, out at Hatch End station on the Lioness line, Euston to Watford, you will see a map on the platform by the ticket office, showing you a walking route called the London loop, around London, linking landmarks in the countryside of outer London. 

London Loop sign. Photo by Angela Lansbury.

Grimsdyke Road

Near Hatch End station is a road called Grimsdyke, running from the main street, a wide street with wide pavements, accurately named the Broadway, parallel to the railway line.

Why Grimsdyke?

An Indian friend of mine from Toastmasters meeting two Monday evening each month near Harrow on the Hill station, erroneously mispronounced it as Grim's Dick. Very funny, since in English dick is slang for male organ.

I was able to enlighten her that the pronunciation is dike, rhyming with Mike. A dyke was originally a border, build up like a dam exaggerated with a shallow from the dugout earth. Keeping people, animals, wanderers, friends and foes, to know where one area started and another ended. Perhaps it was like the camber on a road, helping to keep rain on the crops and off the walking and riding areas.

Grimsdyke Hotel

The loop runs along the original dyke, which passes Grimsdyke Hotel, which was home to Gilbert, who wrote the words, the librettos, for the popular Gilbert and Sullivan operettas. 

Angela Lansbury with Map In The Entrance To Grimsdyke Hotel. Photo by Trevor Sharot.

The house is now a hotel which has afternoon teas in summer, magnificent trees and plants, the historic timbered interior, and operattas seasons. A good place to start or end your walk. (Or for those who would rather sit than walk. Park granny or grandad with a gammy leg there, while you take your walking enthusiasts off for a walk.

London, like many British cities, also offers free or paid for walking tours around trails, such as historic, ghosts, Shakespeare, the Beatles.

If you take the train from central London across to Europe, many European cities offer free walking tours. Sometimes the free tours are run by companies which offer other paid for tours. They hope that after taking the free tour you will sign up for a second tour with the same guide or another guide. You are given a free city map which lists all the tours. Sometimes a few, some or most of the walkers give the tour guide a tip. The tour guide might be practising their foreign languages. Or they might be promoting their city. Or getting a free drink from a cafe where you stop for a break. 

Or running their own paid for private tours on the side. They might even have to pay the company to take the tour, rather than being paid!

Photograph Maps

If you want to be sure of a free tour, just take a map and guide yourself. If you don't want to waste paper, photograph the map on your phone. If you have a foreign phone and cannot link to the local network without running up a charge, you can photograph the map on the phone of somebody else who had a phone with a local connection.

We did this in London. My husband returned from a trip to Singapore and accidentally took his Singapore phone with us into central London. I downloaded the TFL tube map, and he was able to photograph it onto his foreign network phone for no charge.

If you are out hiking, and cannot be sure of a WIFI connection in the mountains, photograph the local map, or download it when you have a connection in the local hotel, or your home before your travel trip. Then you can see it in your photo gallery. Or share it with others in your group.

Useful Websites

https://harrowonline.org/2025/06/03/new-tfl-walking-maps-aim-to-get-londoners-out-of-the-tube-and-onto-their-feet/

http://grimsdyke.com/history/

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Dangers Of Letting Dogs Swim in ponds - on a walk around Grimsdyke, Bentley Priory and London

 I have always wondered whether it is safe for a dog to swim in ponds. Now I have been informed that the pond itself, the pondlife, could be endangered by dogs.According to the handy nature trail guide, Old Redding Nature Reserve, dogs can endanger freshwater ponds.

1Flea treatment in fur kills freshwater invertebrates. 

2 Feet damage the pond's banks and bottom, stirring up sediment and preventing the growth of plants.

3 Dogs' coats pick up invasive bacteria, animals and plants, movving them from one area of water to another.

The Council claims it has to spend hundreds of pounds every year on clearing an aquatic ferm which was brought it by an animal. The gfern grew into a thick mat which covered the whole surface of a pond. The shade interfered with other plants.,

Tthe rest of the leaflet is good news, wonderful things yu can see on the nature trail. 

Opportunities for walkers. And for volunteers to help with conservation.

In addition to this area, the London loop signposts walks for 150 miles. Enough to keep you busy on a trip to London, or if you live in London, to keep you happy getting exercise every weekend, every week, or every day.

www.harrowncf.org/Bentley_Priory_circular_walk.pdf

Driving From London to walk in Cork in Ireland via The Fishguard Ferry, and back to London walks

Sculpture of Fish on Lower Harbour, Fishguard, N Wales. Photo by Angela Lansbury. Copyright.

Problem
I go to Fishguard every year to Writers' Holiday. From the Fishguard Bay Hotel on the top of the cliff at Goodwick you see the trains arriving below, bringing passengers from London and cars driving up to catch the ferry going off to Ireland.

If you stay in Fishguard at a b and b, three things you should do:
1 See the museum on the upper floor of the town hall (a green building on the central square), featuring the tapestry of how the indomitable Welsh women wearing red coats and tall black hats fought off and captured the French would-be invaders. A proud moment in history.

Fighting Welsh Women In The Tapestry
Creating the tapestry is a modern achievement - see the video of how they commissioned somebody to do the drawings. First, they had to research. It is not a myth but a true story, well documented. Who was the lady who led the Welsh women to march around and frighten the French?

Whether your interest is Wales, history, motivation and morale, art, embroidery, women's achievements, or project management, or negotiating prices, the story of the embroidery creation will interest you. The designer researched suitable scenes, the buildings still standing, checked characters and colours described in historical accounts.

Then each scene was drawn to size, with enough action or background to each scene in the entire square. The drawings were converted into stitches. They had to source the hessian backing, find matching embroidery silks at the right price, find embroiderers to do each section. Finally, stitch together all the scenes. Then mount the embroidery.

Later, of course, display lighting, preservation, security, opening ceremony, publicity, and finally making the video - which had either be filmed, started earlier, or involved going back to find the people and places.

Check museum opening times which vary seasonally. You have a library and town hall and a shop on the ground floor. If you can't see the tapestry, or if you can, allow time for the shop which has tourist literature as well as postcards and souvenirs of the tapestry.

Drive or Walk to Lower Fishguard
Around the edge of the bay you can walk past the old cottages and a tea room and shop to the sculpture at the end. Seagulls will follow you. If you stop to sit on a bench and admire the boarts in the bay, while you eat a sandwich, the birds will hop around your feet, watching, hoping for a crumb or two or more. Look up and see Fishguard Bay Hotel. Check the opening times of the bar and restaurant in Fishguard Bay Hotel.

Go up to have a drink or meal,or Welsh cake for tea, admire the view from the terrace at the front. Read about the movies of Moby Dick and Under Milk Wood by Welsh poet Dylan Thomas (who visited and died in the USA) and about Liz Talyor and her husband (twice married to him) Welshman Richard Burton, who stayed at this hotel, and probably stood where you are standing, after they had filmed in the bay.

Fishguard Bay Hotel For Views and News Of History
2 Yes, go up to the Fishguard Bay hotel, where the terrace gives a lovely view on a fine day - longer hours of daylight in summer. From the bar or the tables by the window in the dining room you can look out over the bay. If you are in Fishguard just for one day or evening, go for a quick drink. If you are taking a holiday, go there for a birthday or celebration or first night or last night drink or meal.

Where do the passengers go? I've looked up Rosslare, and can't see much there.

Answer
I just spoke to a friend in London, whose family live in Cork. He said they used to drive regularly from London, along the M4 to Wales, up to Fishguard, stay overnight in a b and b. In the morning, they would catch the ferry across to Rosslare. They would not stop in Rosslare but drove straight across to Cork where they stayed at a b & b called Sea Breeze, nothing special about the decor, just friendly people who are their friends.

What is there to do in Cork? Mainly walks, rambles. The complete opposite to London.

You can imagine the walk around Cork. The crowds in Oxford Street in London. However, I must defend London. If you go to Cork and come back to London, looking for places for pleasant walks you will find them. The Japanese are impressed by London's parks. In the city centre, you have Green Park, Regents Park with the zoo and summer theatre in the park.

If you want to walk in London, there are many walks and the London Loop, which is signposted through parks and alleyways and pedestrian bridges and the old Grims's Dyke.

In Fishguard you can walk down from a car park to a promontory with ruins. See my previous posts on Fishguard for more information on places and more links.

Handy Websites
AA driving and routes
Ireland
Ferry
Wales
London

Britain
https://www.visitbritain.com/gb/en

Fishguard Bay hotel
tapestry
Writers Holiday

Author
Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer.
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Getting Around London: bus, bike, cable car, river boat, taxi

You have loads of options.

Walks
You can walk around pedestrian areas such as Carnaby street. Enjoy walking in the parks. Taking a walking tour of London. Loads of choices: Shakespeare, Beatles, Jack the Ripper. and many more. 

You will see walking routes from some suburban stations.

Buses and hop on hop off buses go to Regent Street, Upper Regent Street, and Oxford Circus (walk to Carnaby street).

Routes
Use satnav on your phone. Get a free local map of the area from your hotel. Google Streetview will show you the building you are looking for, whether it's a museum, shop, or department store.

Bus and Train
Buy an Oyster card for the trains and buses.Tube map in the racks at most stations or ask the ticket office for a map. 

There are a few late night or all night bus routes.

Route Planning
London Transport has a website giving prices, times, distances, routes. 

Hop on Buses
Bus and There are also hop on hop off buses run by two or three different companies.

Taxis and hire cars.

Bikes
On a clear day hire a bike from the banks of bikes to hire. For example, take the underground to Baker Street station to visit Madame Tussauds and/or the adjacent planetarium.  Cross the road and you find a bank of bikes waiting to be hired.

You can get aps so that you only use safe taxis and cars.

River boats
You can take a trip or tour on a river boat. And walk along the Thames riverbank.

Aerial travel
You can take the cable car across the river. 

Helicopter
Or a helicopter tour.

Photos by Angela Lansbury. Copyright. Several thousand more photos, similar and different, available. Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer.

London Loop and Walking around Hatch End

London Loop sign corner of Grimsdyke road in Hatch End pointing towards the railway station

Hatch End railway station with its clock tower

Hatch End station elaborate facade dated 1911.

Plaque inside Hatch End station.

The long walk from Hatch end to Elstree. Section 15.

For a shorter walk, turn left at the London Loop sign on the corner of Grimsdyke road. Walk along the Broadway (high street/main street) to Wooodridings Close. At the end is an alley way. 

A French jogger called Jacqueline told me that if you follow this path you come to horses and a golf course.

Jacqueline says follow this path to see the horses.

To buy books by Angela Lansbury the author go to Lulu.com

(Books on travel, comic poetry, quotations) 

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