9 to 13 October 2025 - A Visit to London

It's a long time since I was last in London. I have distant memories of attending regular meetings in Grant Thornton's Euston offices, which I think have been pulled down to make way for HS2. I also worked at times in London, as well as in Bedford and Bracknell, from where visits to the capital were de rigueur. That was a long time ago.

Anyway, Sue and others wanted to visit a Cartier Exhibition at the V&A, and I went along with the visit to London.

Sue and I drove to her mother's house in Solihull, from where on Thursday 9 October a Chiltern train took us smoothly to Marylebone. From there we walked 5km to the National Portrait Gallery, via Leicester Square (pictured above).

A pot of tea in the gallery was most welcome, before a wander around that turned out to be much of a history lesson. (I wish I'd had a better teacher, my history knowledge from school is negligible.)

There were some interesting contemporary exhibits.

Andy Murray (Action Man)

From the Portrait Gallery we found our way to a Premier Inn in Paddington, met up with a load of friends, ate out in the noisy local Market Halls, and returned for an early night in our quiet room.

Phil and Richard found a seat in a pub...

Crossing a canal near Paddington

On Friday morning some visited the War Museum and others went to the Cartier Exhibition. We've a War Museum just a few minutes from home, and I preferred the Natural History Museum, which is conveniently next to the V&A. A group of us then walked 5 km from Paddington to South Kensington, via some city sights.

Cormorants on the Serpentine

We passed the Albert Memorial

The V&A

I think the dinosaur now outside the Natural History Museum may previously have been the centrepiece of the main hall inside, now occupied by the skeleton of a massive Blue Whale.

Up in the gods is the interesting exhibit of a cross section of a giant sequoia tree that was a seedling in the year 557 and was felled in 1891, at the age of 1,335.

Here's a view inside the NH Museum shortly before I left, satiated with knowledge that I'll soon forget.

Meanwhile, Sue and others were enjoying the Cartier Exhition.

A  2 km walk from South Kensington to Chelsea brought us all to the Chelsea Physic Garden, which we wandered around after lunchtime.

An interesting spot. Here are some of the crew on this trip - Carol, Sue, Mike (a fleeting visit), Richard, Phil and Sue. Also on the trip were Keith, Tove, Jenny, Jessica, Tom (a flying visit) and myself.

We left the garden on the overcast day with autumn leaves trying hard to provide a bit of colour.

A 5 km walk from the garden to Sloane Square, via Battersea Park, followed.

High tide at Battersea

Later, a longish ride on the Underground took us to Parson's Green and the 'even noisier than last night' White Horse for our evening sustenance.

Saturday morning, 11 October, saw a few of us heading out to East Acton underground station for a walk into the Wormwood Scrubs Nature Reserve.

The running track here is named after legendary runner, Linford Christie.

Eschewing the running track (apart from its toilets and cafe), Wormwood Scrubs parkrun follows a  two lap course throgh the grassland of the Nature Reserve. Six of us enjoyed the exercise. Here we are at the start, before mingling with the 149 strong turnout.

 

After an initial uphill slope I was able to look across to where the quicker runners were passing, already minutes ahead of me.

Run Director Marion Brydson took the trouble to support runners on the final corner before the finish. Carol and I are pictured, with the prison in the background.

Marion joined us for a post run snap, and Included us in her post run write up.

We had finished, out of 149 participants, as follows:

30 - Phil - 23:25
44 - Sue B - 25:05
46 - Sue W - 25:24 (a new PB!)
55 - Keith - 26:18
91 - Carol - 30:21
113 - Martin - 33:47

Full results are here.

On the way out, we passed a delightful poster. It looks quite dated until you spot the QR code.

Meanwhile, Jenny and others stayed in Paddington - where else would you find such a creature?

After the six runners had returned to the Premier Inn for a shower, nine of us took a tube ride to Putney Bridge to the start of a walk along the Thames Path.

An Uber ferry paused to allow some sailing boats the slowly move out of its path on the calm day.

Once over the river via a footbridge, we followed the Thames Path all the way round, on the south side, to Barnes Bridge.

Putney Bridge

The area was littered with rowing clubs and rowing buildings and paraphernalia.

Across the river, the home of Fulham Football Club, Craven Cottage, with a much smarter stand than the one I visited for a game in the early 1970s.

After a while we passed by Hammersmith Bridge.

A lovely shaded avenue of trees occupied the last stretch of the Thames Path before it reaches the busy town of Barnes.

After nipping into a shop to buy some lunch, we found a quiet spot by a pond at Barnes Green. The weather was distinctly summery.

A parkland route then took us back to Putney Bridge with ease, passing nice autumn colours and tasty looking fungi on the way.

Here's our route - 12 km in 3 hours or so.

Sue and I left the others for further enjoyment of the capital, Jessica having already said her goodbyes in Barnes. Thus, we made our way back to Marylebone for a 5pm train back to Solihull.

Sunday 12 October saw the remaining six who stayed for a third night enjoying the sunshine in some London parks.

13 October dawned misty in Solihull, where spiders' webs were particularly attractive.

Then we went home to Timperley in light drizzle, via a coffee break with Great Grandma Dot in Eccleshall.