Huzzah! It's 12:18 on the 18th March, and I'm finally standing outside Erith station, ready to start the first section of the London LOOP (London Outer Orbital Path, making it somewhat of a tautology like ATM machine or PIN number). The LOOP doesn't actually start at Erith station, so there's a brief walk through a new build housing estate, heavy with the smell of fresh tarmac, before I reach Erith Riverside Gardens and the start proper of the London Outer Orbital Path. The gardens themselves are unspectacular, standard brick flowerbeds and a ship's mast now used as a flagpole, but as the origin of one of London's longest walking routes it's pretty significant. You would think, being called the Riverside Gardens that there would be a river nearby, and you would think right; midway along the riverfront there is a step to some stairs going down to the Thames Path, which gives a nice panorama of the river at this point. I snapped a few photos, then set off properly on the London LOOP.
The Thames Path is rather relevant at this point, as it shadows the London LOOP for some distance. This meant the first section of this walk was sort of familiar, as I'd walked the Thames Path a couple of years ago. Exiting the Riverside Gardens I passed the first of many information boards about the LOOP, this one detailing some of the history of Erith (for instance King Henry VIII's warship Great Harry was fitted out in Erith). Heading up Erith High Street I passed the old police station (still with a weathered-looking sign asserting it was no longer a police station), then the Cross Keys pub, turning left down a path just before the Erith Playhouse. This path led me back out to the Thames, where a pier stretched out into the murky water. Opened in 1845, it's a legacy from the days when Erith attempted to become a fashionable Victorian seaside resort; unfortunately the railway arrived in 1849, considerably cutting journey times to London, and the opening of the Crossness Sewage Works upriver in 1865 hastened the demise of the town as a leisure destination. The pier was sold to a coal merchants in the late 19th century, and was rebuilt in concrete in the 1950s before being abandoned, then rescued by Morrison's supermarket in the late 1990s. Nowadays it's a popular spot for fishing, or to sit and watch the river go by.
After nipping into the aforementioned Morrison's, the LOOP took me back out to the river for a short stretch, before making a lengthy detour along Manor Road, lined with various industrial units. I suspected this would be the least scenic part of the route, and was relieved when I saw the signpost directing me left down a path back towards the river. The path curved to the right, then led me out onto the top of a raised bank, looking out across Crayford Marshes, with the river to my right and the QE2 Bridge in the distance ahead. The path wound across the grassland, curving gently with the riverbank. Unfortunately the natural beauty is blighted by an industrial estate, of which the path follows the northern edge. As you round Crayford Ness a large, rather brutal concrete structure reveals itself; this is the cumbersomely named Dartford Creek Tidal Flood Barrier, which stops the River Darent from inundating a large swathe of southeast London/northwest Kent. Talking of the Darent, this is where I take my leave of the Thames (I won't see it again until Kingston), and follow the Darent for a bit. The landscape doesn't change much, except I'm now heading roughly south. The Darent is not a particularly pretty river, but it's not long before I reach the junction with the river Cray, which will now feature quite heavily over the next few miles.
The Cray at this point is mostly invisible under an abundance of reeds, but this stretch only lasts about 1/2 a mile before I'm diverted off onto a path that runs through the southern tip of another industrial estate. A swarm of seagulls swoop over a landfill site, and a pair of angry dogs warn me off trespassing (not that I was about to). Under a railway bridge, and suddenly I'm on a busy main road, the A206 to be precise. I cross the road, head past a roundabout and cross again, then carry on down a short distance to the entrance to the next part of what I discover is now the Cray Riverway. From this point the Cray is much more pleasant, wending its way between the backs of houses and yet another industrial estate, but screened from the latter by trees and bushes. A few pylons stalked the opposite bank as the river and I wound our way towards Crayford (the origin of the name should be fairly obvious). The riverside path ends up on Crayford Way, opposite the Cray Gardens, just to the north of the town centre. Having taken advantage of a handy convenience, I walked through the gardens, which contained several artworks commemorating people and past industries of Crayford, such as David Evans (the silk manufacturer) and the old Vickers plane factory. The Cray runs through these gardens, but I won't see it again for just over half a mile.
The LOOP takes me up London Road (how many London Roads are there in London?) past some residential blocks and an entrance to the estate where the aforementioned David Evans silk factory used to stand (closed in 2001), then left into Bourne Road, where a former theatre turned cinema turned car showroom still has some ornate lamp columns flanking its forecourt. Immediately afterwards I'm directed into a large park, where several amateur football games were taking place. It's here I rejoin the Cray as it divides this park in two. The path takes me past a bridge that I very soon have to return to, as the bridge I'm supposed to go over is blocked off by utility works, as is the entire path down to the southern edge of the park. (My preoccupation with this meant I missed one of the landmarks of the walk, Hall Place). I end up scrambling down and up the sides of a ditch, and find myself alongside a railway line (it's the Sidcup line). A short walk on, past a couple who clearly thought this part of the park would be unsullied by other human presence, and up a flight of stairs, which dumps me out straight onto the busy A2; quite the contrast to the last mile or so.Luckily I'm only on the road for a few moments, before I take a gently sloping path down to... yet more utility works. These however appear to have actually blocked my way forward, as I'm supposed to turn sharp left after the initial downward path. After yomping through some undergrowth in an attempt to find a way through, I'm left cursing the utility company; that is until I spot the path I want when I return to the original way. Feeling suitably foolish, I pass under the A2 alongside the railway line again, and mount a stile to get into Church Field Wood, which slopes uphill towards Bexley. Out of the woods and onto a path which brings me out opposite St Mary the Virgin Church, which has stood in Bexley for over 800 years. I cross the Cray again as the path takes me into Bexley town centre, which is where section 1 of the official TfL LOOP ends. I however am carrying on...
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