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

Epping Forest and Copped Hall Walk

We started our walk at Epping Station (a bit later than intended, but that gave people a chance to have a cup of coffee from the stall).  It was a well attended walk with 16 members taking part.

We commenced by taking the pedestrian path near the car park and cutting through to the Forest, walking parallel to the Epping New Road where we crossed over, past the Bell Hotel, onto a path through meadows on the Copped Hall estate to eventually reach the estate road up to the White House.  We then crossed a stile and followed a grassy path to reach another small estate road which led to the entrance to The Selvedge, a fairly narrow wooded strip with a deer tunnel underneath the M25, and up to the Warren Plantation near Crown Hill.  

We sat on fallen trees to have our lunch, but as we were about to set off again unfortunately one of our members felt unwell.   As a precaution,  we called an ambulance;  thanks very much to our Chairman who took care of that.  We've now learned how to use What3Words (very useful).  Thanks so much for the support of other members waiting and obtaining  chair and blanket from the very helpful people at the Lodge near the gate (we didn't need them eventually).  Some members had to go on ahead as they had prior engagements and a number of others went along with them to meet us later at the Forest Gate pub in Ivy Chimneys.  As it happens the ambulance was with us in under an hour (that must be a record).  They were very efficient and took our unwell member along to the hospital for further checkups  (thankfully they were feeling a bit better by then) but it was the best thing to do.  I am delighted to say that they were feeling better by the following  day.

The remainder of us then carried on the walk across the main drive and through the other section of the Warren Plantation. We then walked across the field and crossed the Epping New Road to walk along through the Forest to join the others at the Forest Gate pub.  After refreshments we carried on our walk back to Eppimg Station. 

We had fine weather and some walked a bit further than others (so I understand), having done a bit of a detour back to the Pub.

Anyway, everyone got back safely and it was a very pleasant,  if eventful, walk.

I made it round about 5 1/2 miles.

Lynne,  2nd October 2025

Chipping Ongar and the Roding Valley

Length - Walk – 6.5 miles approx

On 20th September 2025, eleven of us went in three cars to Chipping Ongar, where we regrouped near the library. As we drove into the town a couple of us saw the steam of a steam engine but the locomotive itself was hidden by the carriages behind it. By the time we’d exited the cars and headed up the road for our walk the train had left the station.

We therefore cut through the old cemetery to Lyn’s café at the sports ground for a bit of refreshment before the main walk.

Leaving the café, we turned left onto a footpath which passed the scout hut, turned left into a field, then immediately right round the edge of the field, then headed up towards a children’s play area. Tempting though the zipwire looked, we kept on through a couple of fields to reach the A414 near a bridge over the Roding. Crossing the road, we roughly followed part of the Essex way, but keeping nearer to the river than some of the official path. After crossing several bridges, mainly over dry tributaries and having covered about 3 miles, we elected to stop for lunch, using a bridge as a bench to sit/relax on. I was asked how far it was to the pub and estimated about 1-1.5miles or ½ hour. After lunch we carried on heading roughly north over a couple more bridges till we came to footpath signs marked ‘Fyfield’ and joined the Three Forests Way to head south to High Ongar and The Forresters Arms pub. On the way some fields were fairly recently ploughed so we had to go round rather than across them. In doing so we saw a sign for a Care Home up the road - the final line of which was ‘No Exit’ which was a bit ominous. Further on we saw something white near the hedgerow, some thought it might be a skull, my thought was an ostrich egg, but no it was a giant puffball mushroom. Probably the first time any of us had seen one. We were also glad we hadn’t waited for lunch as it had taken about another 1.5 hours to reach the pub, probably nearer 2 miles, where we had more liquid refreshment, then did what Google maps said was about 1.25 miles in ½ hour back to the car park, where a sign showed we were near the site of the old Motte & Bailey Ongar Castle.

The weather had started dull and there were a few spots of rain as we finished lunch, but towards the end of the walk the sun was coming out. So a pleasant walk with good company.

The length of the walk was approximately 6.5 miles.

Richard, 23rd September, 2025