Walking London, Part One: Hammersmith to Camden

We went to London for the August bank holiday with no plan except to walk and explore the area. This is our method now, everywhere we go: cover the ground on foot, take the tube only when the distance is genuinely unreasonable, and let the good food and the good beer and the photograph worth stopping for arrange themselves along the way. Three days of it in the end, and almost no plan at all. This is the first two — Hammersmith on the Saturday, and a Sunday that started on the Thames and finished in Camden at one in the morning.

We stayed in Hammersmith, which I had filed in my head as a charming place with a scenic riverside culture.

Saturday: Hammersmith

You come out of the station into the ordinary business of a west London high street — the Broadway, the shopping foyer, the traffic on the A4 — and then you walk south for a few minutes, down through residential side streets that get quieter and older with every turn, and you arrive at the Thames footpath. And there, within about two hundred and fifty metres, are four pubs, benches along the water, an amazing view, and a great many people sitting out on a warm Saturday evening doing nothing in particular.

The Thames path at Hammersmith at sunset, London — The Thames path at Hammersmith, twenty minutes before everyone came outside.

The buildings are the thing. The Black Lion goes back to the 1800s, with wood panelling and leather chairs around a fireplace.

The Blue Anchor has been licensed since 1722. The Rutland Arms is around two hundred years old — traditional brickwork, arched windows, metal railings out front, and inside, high ceilings with cornicing that somebody has looked after properly.

Blue Anchor pub plaque reading licensed June 8th 1722, Hammersmith, London — The proof: licensed in 1722, older than the United States.

Ian worked out afterwards that this pubs we went into that night is older than the United States. I have thought about this more than is reasonable. Someone stood in that room, on that spot, and ordered a drink, in a year when the Declaration of Independence had not been written yet and the French Revolution was still only an idea.

The Dove claims the smallest bar room in the country at the front and then opens out behind it into rooms and steps and terraces and a mezzanine, the way old buildings do when they have been added to for three centuries. Apparently Ernest Hemingway had a pint there.

The Dove pub sign and lantern in the narrow lane at Upper Mall, Hammersmith, at dusk — The Dove, Upper Mall — the lane in front of it is barely wider than a doorway.

That evening the weather was lovely — calm, no wind, no rain, quite warm — and most people stood or sat outside the pubs.

The Rutland Arms on the Hammersmith riverside at night, lit up with hanging baskets along the first floor — The Rutland Arms, lit up on a Saturday evening.

Hammersmith Bridge lit up at night over the River Thames, London — The iron Hammersmith Bridge, which I photographed several hundred times.

Several hundred photographs of the river and the iron Hammersmith Bridge in the dark later, we ended up at Riverside Studios, which is still open after ten. Ian stopped at the bar to choose a beer, I spotted a sign for ice cream, and I was stuck at the freezer trying to decide. The crazy chocolate one won. Then I was free to walk around and look at the photographs, the old studio posters, and the art on the walls.

Ice cream and a beer at the Riverside Studios bar, Hammersmith, London — Riverside Studios, still open after ten. Ian chose a beer; I got stuck at the freezer.

Sunday: a long walk to a roast that wasn’t there

That Sunday we had no breakfast at all, for reasons that will become clear. The walk through the area was very interesting — big houses with well-tended front gardens, a few football and golf pitches, not many cars, and a scattering of people with dogs.

Barnes Bridge across the River Thames at low tide, London — Barnes Bridge, at the end of a long walk up the river on an empty stomach.

We walked the river all the way up to Barnes Bridge on the strength of a Sunday roast at noon that Ian had researched, and the Waterman’s Arms was not serving one. This was Ian’s one disappointment of the day: no Yorkshire pudding with gravy. I should admit it wasn’t the restaurant’s fault. We had seen a photograph of a roast with Yorkshire pudding on a review site, taken that as settled, and only realised afterwards that the photograph was six years old. The pub does do a Sunday roast — which we had. Just not the Sunday roast with Yorkshire pudding and greens that Ian requires on a Sunday.

What we had instead was better than a roast, for me at least: roast lamb shoulder for two, roast potatoes, and padrón peppers — those small Spanish green ones, fried whole with sea salt, where roughly one in ten is unexpectedly hot and nobody tells you which. Ian had a Twickenham Brewery pale ale. I had a French press coffee, which after that much river path felt like the correct decision and still does. And we had a good view from the window out to the Thames.

Roast lamb shoulder with roast potatoes and a pale ale at the Waterman's Arms, Barnes, London — Roast lamb shoulder for two. No Yorkshire pudding, which Ian has not fully recovered from.

This was the only piece of failed planning of the entire weekend.

Camden Market

Then we took a train north, into a completely different London.

Painted shopfronts on Camden High Street, London — Camden High Street: a completely different London to the one we left that morning.

We walked the market and sampled a fair amount of food without properly eating any of it, on the grounds that we were still full of lamb. This is a difficult way to visit Camden Market and I do not recommend it. We passed several pubs with craft beer around the market (like The Good Mixer and Bucks Head) and went into none of them, because Ian had decided the weekend belonged to the breweries.

Brick railway arch tunnel in Camden Market, London — Industrial infrastructure turned into somewhere you want to stand about.

We did stop at the Lock Tavern, where the upstairs room is arranged like somebody’s very comfortable living room — leather chairs, a fireplace, and then a door onto a roof terrace in the sunshine.

The upstairs room at the Lock Tavern in Camden — exposed brick, a fireplace, a chandelier and mismatched armchairs

And then we made our way to Camden Town Brewery and 3 Locks Brewing Co., both built into railway arches by the canal, in an area that has been remodelled into food courts and small makers and pedestrianised lanes, and does that thing where industrial infrastructure becomes somewhere you want to stand about.

Camden Lock and the Regent's Canal with willow trees, London — Camden Lock. I was mostly looking at the arches and the water.

Ian has written all of this up properly, beer by beer, in the Taps posts. I was mostly looking at the arches. To deal with the beer munchies we went to the nearby Waterside food hall and, out of the few places still open, took Chinese roast duck from Three Uncles. It tasted good and £15.50 felt reasonable.

Then there was a walk to one more small local brewery from Ian’s list — Werewolf, American-style beer — arriving half an hour before closing. Half a pint and half an hour later we walked back into central Camden and found a live band playing Queen covers at the Blues Kitchen. That was our first night out in that part of London, and we passed a few more places with long queues outside. It was an amazing experience. As a big Queen fan — like everyone else in the room — I loved it. Everyone was dancing and singing, and so were we.

A busy bar at the Blues Kitchen in Camden late at night, with staff pouring and a crowded room behind — The Blues Kitchen at midnight, mid-Queen-cover.

Of course, at half past one in the morning nothing runs but the buses, and as you know by now, a Yorkshireman is not paying £80 for a taxi. We walked to the nearest bus stop, where there should have been a bus straight back to Hammersmith — easy and convenient. But remember: bank holiday, and the Notting Hill Carnival. We discovered that some buses had changed route and some had simply abandoned the timetable. After forty-five minutes of waiting we finally got on one, and were back at the hotel very quickly, because by then the roads were completely clear.

That is Saturday and Sunday. Part Two is Monday — Camden again in daylight, the climb up Primrose Hill, the only rain of the three days, and the dinner the whole weekend had been walking towards.

Worth knowing before you go

Bank holiday transport. We were there on the August bank holiday weekend, which coincides with the Notting Hill Carnival. Several bus routes were diverted or simply not running to timetable, and the tube stops around half past midnight. If you are out late in Camden, budget for a long wait or a long walk — we waited forty-five minutes for a bus that should have been every ten.

Sunday roast is not guaranteed. Review-site photos are not a menu. Ours turned out to be six years old. If the roast is the reason you are walking somewhere, ring ahead.

Addresses

Hammersmith

The Black Lion — South Black Lion Lane, Hammersmith, London

The Blue Anchor — 13 Lower Mall, Hammersmith, London W6 9DJ · thechaptercollection.co.uk · Mon–Thu 12–11, Fri–Sat 11–11, Sun 12–10.30

The Dove — 19 Upper Mall, Hammersmith, London W6 9TA · dovehammersmith.co.uk

Riverside Studios — Hammersmith, London · riversidestudios.co.uk

Camden

Camden Town Brewery — 55–59 Wilkin Street Mews, Kentish Town, London NW5 3NN · camdentownbrewery.com

The Blues Kitchen — 111–113 Camden High Street, London NW1 7JN · theblueskitchen.com · Mon–Tue 12–midnight, Wed–Thu 12–1am, Fri 12–2.30am, Sat 11am–3am, Sun 11am–1am

Walking London, Part One: Hammersmith to Camden

Saturday: Hammersmith