There are three routes here and I have walked two of them, end to end, and those two I would send anybody on. The third I have put together from places I know separately, which is not the same thing, and I would rather say so than pretend otherwise.
Written in London in March, and corrected whenever somebody tells me I am wrong.
Putney for River Air and a Proper Music Pub
A Thames walk, a proper pub pause and an unfussy Italian dinner before a real music room – if the listing earns it.
Ten at night in January, the boats tied up at Putney Pier. Handheld at that hour, so it is soft. Not the evening this route is built around, but the river is still the reason to come.
The timings on this one are mine and they hold. I have done it twice in bad weather and it survives both – the towpath is the point, the pub is the reward, and the gig is genuinely optional. Go without checking the listings and you will still have had the day.
Start at Putney Bridge, allow three to five hours, it is a gentle walk, reckon on under £30 without a gig, and there are toilets at the station and the pub. The whole route, hour by hour.
Hampstead When You Want to Pretend You Left London
Start by the Heath, take the ponds seriously, then climb to Kenwood before tiny cafés and a properly useful pub finish.
Late afternoon, November, on the way up from the ponds to Kenwood. This is the stretch that turns a walk round the Heath into a proper one.
Walked end to end from Hampstead Heath Overground in August, and the timings here are measured rather than guessed. The ponds on their own are a stroll; it only becomes a proper walk if you keep climbing to Kenwood, which is the version written here. The Old White Bear was the best of the pub stops, and I would still not go in the two days after rain.
Start at Hampstead Heath, allow four to five hours, it is a proper walk, reckon on under £30, and there are toilets in the pub. The whole route, hour by hour.
One I have not walked yet, so there is no photograph of it.
Bloomsbury After Rain
Squares, books and somewhere warm: an indoor-outdoor route for days that should not be written off.
I have not walked this as one afternoon, so there is nothing to photograph.
I know each of these places and I am fairly confident about the order. I have not done them in a single go, so treat the timing as a guess rather than a measurement.
Start at Russell Square, allow two to four hours – guessed – it is flat, reckon on under £30 if you eat, and there are toilets in the museums. What I think it is.
The rest of them are in the index, in the order I trust it.
River first. Pub later. Routes with a beginning, a useful pause, and no obligation to make a big day of it.
If you go, tell me what was too loud, too long, unexpectedly good or not worth the trip. Corrections go into the next edition with your wording where I can keep it.
Three words for effort, used the same way every time: flat, gentle, a proper walk. They are defined in Terms used here.
