London walks: the long routes, the canal, and the ones you can do after work

London is a better walking city than it looks on a map, because the good routes are not the famous streets. They are the canals, the old railway lines, the river path and the two waymarked rings that go all the way round.

The two rings

The Capital Ring is about 78 miles in 15 signed sections, looping through inner suburban London: Woolwich, Crystal Palace, Richmond, Wembley, Highgate, Hackney. Each section is a half day and starts and ends at a station, which is the whole point. Nobody sensible does it in one go.

The London Loop is the outer ring, roughly 150 miles in 24 sections, out where London stops being London: Farthing Downs, the Darent valley, Epping Forest, Havering. It is properly rural in places, and a surprise to people who assume the M25 is all retail parks.

The towpaths

The Regent’s Canal runs from Little Venice through Camden, King’s Cross, Islington and Hackney to Limehouse, about nine miles end to end and flat the whole way. Two or three hours at a walking pace, and you can join or leave it at almost any bridge.

The Grand Union heads west from Little Venice and gets quiet fast. The Lee Navigation runs north from Limehouse through the Olympic park to Waltham Abbey and beyond, and is the best long flat walk in east London.

The old railway

The Parkland Walk follows the disused line from Finsbury Park to Highgate, about two and a half miles of cutting and embankment that is now a nature reserve. It is the single best short walk in north London and most of the people on it live within a mile.

The river

The Thames Path runs 185 miles from the source to the Thames Barrier, but the London stretch is the useful bit. Putney to Westminster is a good half day; Tower Bridge to Greenwich takes about two hours and passes Rotherhithe, the Surrey Docks and the Cutty Sark.

Walking east on the south bank in the evening puts the sun behind you and the City in front of you, which is the right way round.

Green space you can walk in properly

Hampstead Heath is the obvious one: eight hundred acres, and you can lose the path on purpose. Epping Forest is nearly six thousand acres and reachable on the Central line, which makes it the largest thing most Londoners never visit. Richmond Park has the deer and the widest skies. The Green Chain Walk links the south-east woods from the Thames down to Crystal Palace.

Practical

Every route above starts and ends near a station, which is what makes them work without a car. Sections are the right unit: pick one, not the whole thing.

Towpaths flood and get muddy from November, and the canal is unlit. In winter the river and the parks are better after dark than the canal, which is genuinely dark in places.

Transport for London and the Ramblers both publish the section maps for the Capital Ring and the London Loop free, which is more reliable than any list, including this one.

What is on along the way, from markets to riverside pubs, is in our listings, and the free things guide has more that costs nothing.