So a short walk from Bexley station brings me onto the high street, but quicker than you can blinks, I’m off down a lane than leads to a track under the railway, the wooden platforms hanging perilously off the side of the bridge. Immediately on the other side the track becomes a very narrow path with high growing grass and nettles on either side. I meet a father with two very young children, both of whom are shorter than the plant life on either side of the path, and they clearly a little wary.
But soon I’m passing the cricket club, where the Whitstable Cricket team are warming up for their day’s match. Crossing their car park and then up a small incline to be face with a large area of open grassland. This used to be a landfill site according to my LOOP guidebook, but you’d never guess. The path across the grassland eventually leads to the end on a broad residential street, then it’s an immediate left turn down a snicket [not unsurprisingly my spell checker has queried the word ‘snicket’ as I’m not using the Yorkshire version of Microsoft Word!]. The path follows two very high green fences, clearly keeping people out of the surrounding land which is lush and green. Eventually the path emerges at a bridge over the River Cray, and a calming riparian scene, unlike the Cray I’d seen during the previous leg of this walk.
The route now follows the far bank of the Cray providing a very pleasant shaded riverside walk. The highlight of this stretch is the arrival at Five Arch Bridge where the river widens out to form a small lake at Foots Cray Meadows. Soon I’m onto the streets of Foots Cray itself. There are some older buildings here, but most seem to date from the 60s and 70s. Turning down Suffolk Road, leads to a small playing field, then a track skirting through Foots Cray and to the edge of Sidcup. This route passes the ground of Cray Wanderers Football Club.
A short climb through woodland brings me out into open parkland. The walk up the hill eventually leads to the grounds of Sidcup Place, once a private home, but now a very stylish pub. The grounds are maintained by Bexley council and the route now wanders through the gardens, being enjoyed by the locals in the warm sun.
But soon its back onto the road, past Queen Mary’s Hospital, then to a large roundabout where the route weaves its way through a series of subways. Once out of the subway system, I’m straight into Scadbury Park, and a wooded walk down the hill with the occasionally view of sweeping vistas, totally unexpected on my part within the M25. The route passes through the quite densely wooded park, and to my surprise I meet hardly anybody. One unusual feature is the ruins of "Scadbury Manor", a house surrounded by a moat. But what you really see is a 1930s recreation of stylised ruins.
Onward through the woods, which is often quite dense, until eventually you emerge on a main road. A quick dart across here, avoiding being knocked down, and back to more woodland, but now I’m into Petts Wood. Eventually, at a clearing this is confirmed by the National Trust sign and large information board. Here, with the woods are two monuments. The first is probably the most significant and involves a short trek of the LOOP path through very thick woodland. Have a minute or so I emerge into another clearing in the centre of which is stood a sundial. This is dedicated to William Willett of Chislehurst who successfully campaigned for the introduction of British Summer Time which came into effect in 1925.
Back on the path and further on there is a second memorial. This is the Edlmann memorial commemorating the saving of Petts Wood in 1927 and its subsequent donation to the National Trust thirty years later. This was an early attempt to save land as part of the green belt to protect it from over development. The result is a peaceful piece of woodland unexpected within the confines of Greater London. The path now follows the railways, out of the woods and over Kyd Brook. Then its up and over a series of three bridges across railway tracks, until the path emerges on the edge of Jubilee Park. And it is at this point that I head off to Petts Wood railway station.
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