Wapping to Canary Wharf.

On 22nd November 2025, ten of us met at Wapping Station on a rather cold and damp day. After refreshment at the café a couple of doors down, we set off at 11am. My book said to go left at the station, which I assumed was as you exited the station, but rather than being the Thames Path, this would have taken us to the river, or mudlarking if the tide was out.

We therefore went back past the café and carried on to the Prospect of Whitby pub, which has been around since around 1520 and overlooks gallows set in the mud of the Thames as a deterrent/warning to pirates. The wood and rope looked relatively new, so although it’s been there a few hundred years I suspect it’s like Trigger's brush in Only Fools & Horses. The pub was apparently frequented by Samuel Pepys, Charles Dickens and J. M. W. Turner.

Carrying on, we turned alongside Shadwell Basin and up to St Paul’s Church – the church of sea captains (with 75 buried in the cemetery and Captain James Cook as a Parishioner). The church was open, but for a Christmas Fair, so we just popped in briefly to warm up and browse. We then circled round back to the Thames Path, through King Edward Gardens and on to Limehouse Basin, where the Regent's Canal meets the Thames. We followed the Limehouse Cut - which connects the Basin with the Lee Navigation at Bow Locks - a short way to visit St Anne's Church, built by Nicholas Hawksmoor and with an unusual pyramid in the grounds. There was an exhibition in the gallery, plus the bonus of an organist playing whilst we were there.

We retraced our steps a short way along the cut to then go through Ropemakers Park and come out near The Grapes Pub (another link with Dickens). From there we went down Narrow Street to rejoin the Thames Path and carry on to West Ferry Circus and Canary Wharf. We finished at Leon in Cabot Place for a warming drink and food for those that wanted.

The walk was approximately 2.75 miles. 

Richard  27th November 2025

The gibbet at the back of the Prospect of Whitby pub.Wet and Windy

Photos by Madeleine

Autumnal Epping Forest Walk

   A walk led by Parviz from Loughton to High Beech on Saturday 15th November 2025 

  Photos by Madeline

Frieze Sculptures in 2025 - Regent's Park

On Sunday 19th October, ten of us met at Great Portland Street station at 11.15am.  Actually, most of us managed to meet in Pret's, beforehand, to get a cup of tea.   I was surprised at how many EFOGees showed up; the drizzle started soon after we entered the park, but at least we didn't get the heavy rain that was forecast and it wasn't too cold.  

The Frieze Sculptures - an annual event that is London's largest free display of outdoor art - are dotted around The English Garden in Regent's Park; this year there were 14 works of art on display.   

We visited every piece that was there: 'plant-life' that, from most angles, looked like a man leaning his head against a pole; a group of intertwined lifebuoy rings that, if you squinted, looked like one of those balloon dogs that people make at kids' parties; a square cube of clay with pottery embedded in it, with the pottery decorated with flowers found in Regent's Park; a concrete filled-in tunnel representing the shadow of an ancient boulder, on the equinox (it didn't say which one); a huge body-less blue suit made for a giant; three bronze dancers that had rabbit ears / a ball in an armpit / a square head (that reminded one of our group of The Cooker in Wallace and Gromit's "A Grand Day Out" film) and dresses blowing up as if by the wind; some twisted salvaged wood; a miniature white bison on a rock in a metal canoe frame; three metal sculptures, atop cut-down telegraph poles, representing the waveforms of the birdcalls of a nightingale, a cuckoo and a crow; two huge ear trumpets, facing each other, above a series of metalwork bars that looked like a climbing frame for the local squirrels to enjoy; two giant metal digeridoos, with speakers attached at the thin ends playing the sounds of extinct birds - these are to be enjoyed simultaneously with the sound of birds in the park; three bent metal shapes, representing a snake, an eye and a seed, that 'explores ancient symbols of fertility', although that bypassed us as we were too busy trying to determine if the brown shape on the left was another snake or a seed pod - I still think it's a tamarind pod; a huge straw dog under which we sheltered from the rain for a few minutes - it supposedly has glow-in-the-dark straps, but of course it wasn't dark at 12.40pm; and finally a stainless steel piece that 'reimagines a rhododendron bonsai tree as a futuristic hybrid of nature and digital design'. The helicoptering flower heads were very impressive.  

We spent about an hour and a half looking at all the sculptures, critiquing and admiring the different pieces. Unlike previous years, the descriptions were actually intelligble, with no long, multi-syllable words, which did help considerably as we didn't have to keep Googling the meanings.  

Most of us then walked to the Wetherspoons pub by Baker Street station, via the Rose Garden and the boating lake, where we managed to get tables next to each other.  After a pleasant, leisurely lunch, we headed for the tube station and home.   

When I Remember Through You DesnaturezaLife RingsGhost

 Neighbours

 King Of The Mountain 

River Brent Walk – Perivale to Hanwell

The walk originally planned for today, Sunday 5th October 2025, was cancelled due to the walk leader not being available, so I decided to lead this one, which I had planned for a while, but have had to defer on several occasions.

Arriving at Perivale on the Central Line, I met up with Louise and we were soon joined by Cathy S and Lorraine. We headed left out of the station, crossing over the busy A40 by footbridge with the Hoover building visible along the road, past a very old church, and soon entered into a park, crossing over the River Brent, stopping to watch the ducks and then turned right to follow the river on our right.

We passed an old recently demolished sports centre in Perivale Park, passing under a railway viaduct and continued along the footpath between the road and the river until we almost reached Greenford. We rejoined the road and crossed over it to continue alongside the river which had now decided to head south. We soon came across a tree which looked to have been recently knocked down, possibly by Storm Amy a day or two earlier, but it was a wide expanse of grassland so we were able to continue. At the end of the path there was a children’s playground with seats, ideally situated for a lunch stop.

After our stop, our path diverged; we could either follow the river through the golf course or take a path uphill, before entering another park and rejoining the river. Not wanting to be hit by a golf ball, we took the latter route and rejoined the river following it to where it passed under the magnificent Wharncliffe Viaduct, which was designed by Brunell. It now carries the Great Western Railway and is also home to a colony of bats which roost in the piers. We then continued next to a hay meadow to reach and cross under a road, to follow the river to its confluence with the Grand Union Canal at the bottom of the Hanwell Lock flight, a set of 6 locks.

At the canal we got talking to an angler, who was watching a massive Koi Carp over the other side of the river, and he said that he had caught it last week. I thought this a “fishy” tale (pun fully intended) however, he had the photos to prove it, and it was a whopper of a fish, so well done to him.

We then retraced our steps back along the river to the road and crossed over the Hanwell bridge to head towards the railway station, making a well-earned stop at a nearby pub to quench our thirst before catching the train back. It had been a lovely gentle downhill walk of just under 6 miles with beautifully sunny weather. Well done to those who came and made it so enjoyable.

Trev (Pathfinder) Eley,  8th October 2025