Angel Road - 13.02 miles - Friday 3 February 2017

Today's walk is a mixture of events, first the Edge of Zone 4 Walk, secondly an opportunity to complete my River Lea/Lee Navigation walk and finally a visit to the least used National Railway Station in London - Angel Road.

With regards to The Zone 4 Walk, I'm invoking  rule 7.2a which allows me to walk to a point which will join up with other walks from this general area i.e. Barking, Highams Park etc and then do one final walk home. This is similar to what I did when I undertook the Sudbury Hill Harrow walk. 

So today I'm going to follow the River Lea through Tottenham, Hackney, Stratford, to Three Mills Island and then the Limehouse Cut to Limeshouse Basin. 

I left home at 08:00 and caught the 08:20 to Cannon Street and then the Central Line to Stratford to connect with the 09:30 Greater Anglia service from Stratford to Bishops Stortford, with Angel Road being the 4th stop after Lea Bridge (new station), Tottenham Hale and Northumberland Park. 

Rights lets get all the Angel Road facts out the way, 2014/2015 number of passengers 85,770, 20105/2016 27,754 passengers, that's 235 during 14/15 and 76 during 15/16.

There are 5 morning services to Stratford at 06:14, 07:24, 08:24, 09:24 and 09:52. 5 evening services 15:52, 16:52, 17:53, 18:53, and 19:52.

Whilst in the opposite direction to Bishops Stortford there are 4 services in the morning 06:19, 07:51, 08:52, 09:48 and in the evening seven services 16:17, 17:03, 17:33, 18:03, 18:33, 19:03, 19:47. 

That's a total of 21 trains, with no service on Saturdays or Sundays. You can catch my video below. The station is in the middle of a waste land of re-cycling and the North Circulate Road, so not surprised at the limited use. Five people got off my train and one got one.

So, from Angel Road I walked along Meridian Way, popping into Tesco's to use the loo and buy a croissant, God that was an effort I thought I would go into the cafe as it would be quicker, err no. The girl must have pushed so many buttons. In the end I gave up, leaving my change behind, after all I had a walk to do! 

From here I took a left turn down Leeside Road which brought me to the Rive Lea which basically I followed all the way to Limehouse, end of blog!

I've done this walk a couple of times already this year and a few more in previous years. The first lock of the day was Stonebridge Lock which is just past Northumberland Park. There were a few cyclists and a couple of walkers, not many barges on the move though.

I passed under a pipe encased in heavy metal close to the Lockwood Reservoir, this proved to be a Sludge Main, with an emergency number in case the sludge escapes and envelopes you, hope there was a mobile signal! Next up was Tottenham Lock, where there's some nice Thames Barges.

Shortly after this lock there was a diversion due to rebuilding of the bridge which carries the Overground across the canal on the Goblin Line which is currently being electrified. When I say rebuilding, more like maintenance. There was a nice little river tractor helping out.

As I approached the Springfield Park area of Stamford Hill, there are the remains of some canal side industrial wharf cranes which I have photographed a number of times. So this time I took an alternative approach!

Next the River Lea Rowing club, apparently the oldest one on the river, was doing good business, I expect there was a walking group present having a breather.

At this point I crossed the canal into Walthamstow Marshes, where a number of railways cross the marsh and canal.

At Millfields Park North there was another canal crossing and a nice piece of modern art - a rusting tree.

I'm now on the left hand side of the canal and I popped into to have a quick look at the Middlesex Filter Beds, which are now a nature reserve.

Next stop was Hackney Wick, in the shadow of the Olympic Stadium, or London Stadium as its called these days as home to West Ham United. Here I had my lunch, cold pasta from last night and hot coffee. It was actually quite cold now as I sat on a bench opposite the Hertford Union Canal link to the Regents Canal. There was a lot of activity across the canal with no less than four freight trains.

After lunch I continued along the side of the Olympic Park passing through Old Ford Lock, which was quite atmospheric.

I then had to take a diversion as Crossrail were undertaking landscaping for a few weeks, the path re-opening on the 11 Feb, should I come back, i doubt it, well at least not in the short term. This diversion took me along the Greenway with good views of the stadium and the gyro thingy.

The diversion also gave me a good view of a temporary sidings for Crossrail where ballast is delivered. There was a Freightliner Class 66 delivering a load. I thought at one point I was going to be able to see it leave but it was just moving along slightly so the next wagon could be unloaded.

I was able to pop into Pudding Mill Lane DLR station to nab a station sign.

The diversion brought me to the Bow Interchange were I was able to rejoin the canal and head off to Three Mills Island. At this point the Waterworks River, Three Mills Wall River, Bow Creek all join up and there's a tiny spit of land which leads down to a series of locks.

Before going this way I took the Leeway South which walks along the River Lea as far as Cody Dock were I had a welcome cuppa and piece of cake. Interesting place Cody dock, there's an old dock (obviously) I wonder if this is the site of the old iron works ship yard were amongst others the SS Robin was built.

From here I retraced my steps back to the lock and continued my walk along the Limehouse Cut, straight as a die.

This comes out at Limehouse Basin and a lock to join the River Thames and the end of the days walk at 15:15.

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