The Hornsey Loop
By Richard Harrison
@richhaz
Here is an eight mile walk around some mainly rural stretches of inner North London.
It combines off-road strolling along leafy paths with stunning views. The idea of rurality might be stretched by the trek up the formerly cloacal Harringay Passage but it is all interesting, in one way or another.
I first put this together about 20 years ago when I was looking for a way to link the northern and southern stretches of the Parkland Walk. I then embarked on other walking and cycling projects and forgot about this. I am still very proud of it and having returned to it recently, I found that much is the same and the changes have been an improvement.
The best starting point is Highgate Tube station on the Northern line. A bit of road walking, will get you to the Boogaloo Pub (with its fully air-conditioned garden) at which you turn left into Holmesdale Road and then drop down onto the track of the old railway line to Finsbury Park: the best known part of the Parkland Walk. This is a delight for a couple of miles: shaded paths; road bridges; sudden vistas; the old Crouch End Railway station; a spriggan emerging from a bridge abutment; the Mountview reservoir.
At the end cross the footbridge over the main east coast line and walk through Finsbury Park past the café, along side the running track and down the hill North East towards the New River which exits the park to disappear among the houses of the Harringay Ladder. The path is not open to the public in this urban environment. Have a look at it just at Lothair Road; then go up there and turn right to go past Railway Fields (which may or may not be open). Then proceed quickly under the Barking Gospel Oak Line at Harringay and turn left into Umfreville Road.
A short way along and you find the rather unusual Harringay Passage running up between the houses and crossing the roads of the ladder. It marks the line of an old sewer which needed to be covered over when the Victorian estate was built.
Once you get to Hewitt Road, turn left, cross the New River and then get to Wightman Road where the New River, having crossed, now regains a rural path which will take you up to Hornsey Station. Cross over here and walk up Tottenham Lane to Hornsey, having a look at the tower of the old parish church, St Mary's which will be a focal point from Alexandra Palace and the Muswell Hill part of the parkland walk. The New River Path can be regained past the New River Village Housing development. After crossing the first bridge, you emerge into the lower slopes of Alexandra Park where you confront the relatively steep ascent to Alexandra Palace.
Once you are up there, admire the view and make your way through the Grove, possibly stopping at the café, to Muswell Hill (the road as well as the place) which you pass under to get to the next section of the Parkland Walk. This takes you past the back of Muswell Hill Broadway with some quite spectacular views, especially from the viaduct over St James Lane.
Eventually you get to Muswell Hill Road which once again you pass under into Highgate Woods and from there the routes are infinite. You can find the old railway track or meander through the wood and over the playing field. But soon you will be at Highgate Tube station having completed a full circle revealing some of the best of North London's natural features and industrial archaeology.
The name of the walk is "The Hornsey Loop", this is apt because the track left on my old style walker's GPS shows a definite ring around Hornsey.
November 2014
