10 of London’s best long walks to try

If you’re in London and yearning for a long walk, the capital has an astonishing range of long, signposted trails for ramblers.  

They range from less than 10 miles to more than 100 miles, with plenty to discover in between.

So strap on your walking shoes and see a side of the capital without the crowds.

The Capital Ring starts and ends at Woolwich Foot Tunnel, and is divided into 15 sections, bursting with bucolic places where you can pretend you’re in the countryside. Sights on the way include the gloriously glass-domed Syon Park; the reed-fringed Welsh Harp (Brent Reservoir); the Grand Union Canal; and Walthamstow Marshes, where geese, swans and kestrels dot the wetlands.  

The Thames Path starts at the source of the Thames, in the Cotswolds, and hugs the river all the way to the Thames Barrier, only a few miles from the sea. It passes through rural villages, past palaces and post-industrial waterside. 

For a London section, you could choose any stretch from Hampton Court to Woolwich for a memorable amble: the west is the greener, lusher end, where you’ll pass the bulk of the paddleboarders and canoes, while to the east there’s a greater sense of the history of the working river. There’s a 10 mile extension from the Thames Barrier to Crayford Ness, where you can join the London LOOP.

Encircling London, the London LOOP, also known as the London Orbital, is the walkers’ version of the M25 (though far better than that suggests). There are 24 sections from Erith station to Purfleet, crossing open land such as Hainault Forest Country Park and Bushy Park, where wild deer flit through the trees, as well as through the suburban “heart of darkness” (golf courses, retail parks and industrial estates) as JG Ballard describes in his review of Iain Sinclair’s London Orbital. One of the more scenic sections is Stage 8, along the Grand Union Canal.  

Southeast London’s Green Chain Walk has 11 sections linking over 300 fields, woodlands and meadows. As the name suggests, it’s not a linear walk, but links hilly pathways through ancient woodlands, parks and cemeteries, with highlights including the 18th-century Gothic folly Severndroog Castle, Art Deco glitz at Eltham Palace, birdwatching at Southmere, and the ancient deciduous trees of Oxleas, Dulwich and Sydenham woods.  

Sixty kilometres long: adopting a metric measure for each year of the Queen’s reign, the celebratory Jubilee Greenway was inaugurated at the time of the 2012 Olympics and links the main sites of those glory days. Starting at Buckingham Palace, its Olympian route passes Little Venice, Camden Market, Greenwich Park, the O2 Arena, HMS Belfast, the Tower of London and the Tate Modern.

If you’re looking for a central London walk that takes you past a roll call of the city’s landmarks, the Jubilee Walkway is it. The five sections of the route cover most of central London’s grandest features, including the Tate Modern, Houses of Parliament, St James’ Park, the British Museum, Lincoln’s Inn Fields, Fleet Street, St Paul’s and the Tower of the London, to name a few.  

London’s biggest swathe of countryside is hilly Hampstead Heath, and the longer version of its Circular Walk (there’s a shorter 4.5-mile trail) takes in Highgate as well as the wilds of the heath. It starts at Hampstead Underground, from where you may mosey around the architecture of Hampstead Village, skirt the ponds and ascend Parliament Hill for big London views, before continuing past Highgate Ponds, 18th-century Kenwood House, and the tangled romanticism of Highgate Cemetery.  

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The Wandle Trail runs along the fast-flowing chalk stream Wandle from concrete Croydon to the lush greens of Wandsworth (hence the name). It’s recorded in the Doomsday Book as having 13 mills on its banks, and by the 19th century there were more than 90. By the Sixties industry had turned the stream into a sewer, but it has been rescued in recent decades by the Wandle Trust, and the route runs through more than 10 green spaces and parks.

Those fresh from series four of The Crown will especially enjoy the Princess Diana Memorial Walk, a scenic trail that passes Kensington Palace (the Princess’s former home and now official residence for the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge); Buckingham Palace; Clarence House (Charles and Camilla’s gaff); St James's Palace; and Spencer House, the Spencer family’s 18th-century neoclassical mansion.

The Lea Valley Walk commences at Waltham Abbey in Essex, from where you’ll meander southwards along peaceful towpaths. The route crosses Cornmill Meadows, with its dragonfly sanctuary; past the King George V Reservoir, favoured by wintering wildfowl such as grebe, goldeneye and teal; the glass and steel of Canary Wharf; several historic locks; and the Tottenham Marshes, with over 100 acres of wetlands.  

Short but sweet, this is worth including as an entertaining art walk. The Line starts at Anish Kapoor’s twisting red metal ArcelorMittal Orbit, built for the 2012 Olympics, with Carsten Höller’s slide added in 2016. Walking southwards, you’ll encounter works including Abigail Fallis’s double helix of shopping trolleys, Richard Wilson’s section of a sand dredger, and Antony Gormley’s Quantum Cloud. Integrated into the walk is a trip on London’s cable car, with an audio artwork by Larry Achiampong.