STEPPING back onto the Seven Sisters Road in Finsbury Park, traffic growling and chicken shops lighting in the dusk, was a bit of a shock.
After several hours trailing through a sun-soaked dream of glowing autumn leaves in a (not entirely) secret world nearby, the everyday face of the capital was on the gravelly side of gritty after what we had just seen.
Five miles walking an old hidden rail line through north-east London had revealed a golden world of woodland, nature and panoramic views of the capital.
The Parkland Walk from Finsbury Park through to Alexandra Palace is about five miles of easy walking along, for the most part, an old railway track which was dismantled in the 1970s.
London is scattered with the green riches of parks and leafy squares and quiet corners amid the roar of cars and illumination of high streets. But this gem is a fabulous ribbon of woodland, wildlife and lovely leafiness slicing through a few miles of Victorian neighbourhoods.
We started at Finsbury Park station, skirting the bus station and walking straight into the park itself, a huge oasis of green, dotted with playgrounds, immaculate tennis courts and benches. The Parkland Walk starts just off the south-west corner – cross over the main rail line onto a wide trail where the locals jog, walk, push prams and generally escape the surrounding bricks and mortar.
So far, so poetic. But, honestly, this place is worth a few hours of anyone’s time.
It’s labelled as a nature trail, which it is in so far as there are trees and squirrels. Yet, there’s something else at play here. Glimpses of grand Victorian terraces on neighbouring roads through the trees suggest the views passengers had on their four-mile journey.
Platforms constructed by the Victorian labourers of the Great Northern Railway remain as the traces of the line which opened in 1879 and ran from Finsbury Park, through Highgate, and onto the spectacular Alexandra Palace. It closed to passengers in 1954 and to freight by 1956.
Railway historian Julian Holland relates how he rented rooms nearby as an art student. The Parkland route was the first of Britain’s ‘lost railways’ he came across. He tells in his book Lost Railway Walks (Collins) that the link from Finsbury Park to Highgate and East Finchley stayed open for some freight then the transfer of London Underground trains until 1970 when the track was lifted.
The brick arches and tunnels are coated in colourful 21st century graffiti and tags while foliage and moss creeps towards the platforms you can still walk onto.
The walk itself is in two parts. The first is from Finsbury Park to Highgate, where you emerge onto Archway Road for a short distance before plunging into Highgate Wood and out the other side.
The second, much shorter, section starts from the top of elegant Cranley Gardens and takes you across the St James’s Lane 17-arch viaduct which gives you a panoramic sweep from the Shard, through Canary Wharf, to east London. The last stretch takes you to the edge of Alexandra Palace Gardens.
We took the train back from Alexandra Palace station to our starting point at Finsbury Park, then back home to Sussex from there.
Now, that’s what I all a grand day out!
Rebecca Maer 