Walking the Hogsmill River

The walk shares other walking routes including the London Loop

 I have walked the Hogsmill River before and always in two sections. This time was no different. It was a lovely day and I wanted to get outside and walk. This was a last minute decision to visit the river, and I had no idea how much of it I would walk. For me, this is a local walk. I took a bus down the A3 and got off and Manor Drive and walked down to the Hogsmill from there and headed towards the source at Ewell. 

Near Malden Manor

The Hogsmill is approximately seven miles in length, and I walked probably five miles of it, at a guess. It springs up in Ewell, by Bourne Hall and flows into the River Thames at Kingston. The first part of the walk always confuses me as there is a figure of eight walk around the Worcester Park section, from where a path takes you St John's Church, Old Malden. This river also has a place in my heart as it's the place where John Millais and William Holman Hunt painted their famous paintings (Ophelia and The Light of the World). Strangely, a week before my walk I'd attended a talk at Kingston Museum about the Pre-Raphaelite connection to the Hogsmill River and I bought a booklet all about it. The author had done lots of research to pinpoint the place where the background to Ophelia was painted (the form of Ophelia was painted in London while Lizzie Siddal modelled for Millais in a bathtub warmed below with lanterns). These days there is a plaque and a bench marking the place by the river, as well as a mosaic under the railway bridge, though sadly it has deteriorated lately.

Under the railway bridge

The spot deemed to be where John Millais painted the background to Ophelia

Six Acre Meadow

Parts of the walk was muddy in places since there had been rain, but I've tackled worse and at least I had my walking shoes (new ones I'm still breaking in!). There is a point where you leave the river and have to walk down hill to the pub. It always seems a long way and you begin to wonder if you've made a mistake. Then at the junction you rejoin it as you turn right over the bridge and immediately left. It was at that point I realised I was going to walk to Ewell! There are some busy roads you have to cross, but the sign posting is generally good, though it helped me that I walked it before!

Rejoining the river from the walk down the hill.

I'd forgotten this! Yes, I have to cross it.

Walking on water, well over the river!

There are some nice open green spaces on this walk,and when I was unsure which way to go, it was good to know where the river was and to just follow it!

I arrived in Ewell around lunch time and had a walk around the grounds of Bourne Hall before having lunch and catching buses home.

Almost there

Boundary walls of Bourne Hall

Bourne Hall entrance

Grounds of Bourne Hall

For more photos and history of the river I can do no better than to direct you to the excellent website of Paul Talling, walking guide, writer and photographer of London's hidden/lost rivers. Enjoy!