Final section of the Capital Ring.

On Friday (2nd January) we walked the final section of the capital ring. We finished the last section at Crystal Palace station and this is where we started. Lynne from Never too hot to stitch commented on my last post and reminded me that in 1910 Baden Powell, the founder of the Boy Scouts held a rally at Crystal Palace. A group of girls turned up and asked for something similar to scouting for the girls. Baden Powell got his sister Agnes to organise the Girl Guides and so guiding started. His wife Olave took over as the World Chief Guide and today guides are found all across the world.

The last section was fairly short but involved a number of hills. There was some walking along residential roads but as usual much of the distance was through parks and small areas of woodland. We went through a park called Norwood Grove where we came across this house of the same name. It is known in the local area as the White House.

This house was originally much bigger with only this bit (the east wing) remaining.It was built in the 1840's for Arthur Anderson, joint founder of Peninsula and Oriental Steam Navigation (P&O). On the front of the house is a blue plaque to Mr and Mrs Frederick Nettlefold. London's blue plaques scheme was founded in 1866 and it  is believed to be the oldest of its kind in the world. It commemorates the link between notable figures of the past and the buildings in which they lived and worked and I think there are over 800 plaques in London. Frederick Nettlefold was a British industrialist. When he retired he dedicated a lot of energy to philanthropy. 

Turning so my back was to the house this is the view I saw looking out over south London.

Not far along from here we stopped for coffee at the cafe at the rookery on Streatham Common. We then walked down the hill to where this photo was taken at the bottom end of the common not far from the busy A23 and the two miles of Streatham High Street. All seems so quiet just here.

We cut through the back streets to get to Tooting Bec common. Here we found this eccentric pumping station.

Once we reached Tooting Bec common we were on home territory as we sometimes walk Scamp here. We finished our walk at a cafe and celebrated completion of the 78 mile walk with a fish and chip lunch. 

After enjoying our walk I had a slow evening stitching whilst watching TV. Then to bed at a reasonable time as I had arranged to meet up with Lucy early on Saturday to go to the Imperial War Museum. We were going to a talk entitled Truth and Memory about the world war 1 paintings on display. This was really interesting and we now need to go back to see the rest of the galleries. Following the talk we visited the Horrible Histories exhibition about spies. The lady on the ticket desk explained it was aimed at children and we assured her we knew. Lucy loved the Horrible History books when she was young and I have read so many with her. The exhibition was very informative and lots of fun (even more so not having to keep an eye on any children.) 

Leaving the museum I took a photo of the trees as we were fascinated by their trunks. We know there is a plaque somewhere which explains why they are like it but it was raining and so we didn't want to search for it.

We also spotted a part of a mist/rain shrouded London Eye. 

As we walked back to the tube station we passed a blue plaque, the second in two days. This one is to commemorate William Bligh. Bligh is best known for being the Captain of the Bounty when mutiny took place in April 1789. He was cast adrift in a 23 foot open boat by the mutineers along with 18 crew members who were loyal to him. He managed to navigate the boat to the Dutch East Indies and from here returned to England. 

It has been lovely to have the time over the Christmas and New Year break for walking and visiting museums, not to mention stitching but from tomorrow I'm back at work again so for now I'm going to enjoy the last few hours of my holiday and do some more sewing.

Lyndsey