Thames Path: Kew Bridge to Fulham

We had planned to walk the next leg of the Thames Path through London on Sunday, but were too tired after doing lots of walking in Brighton and spending the day before on the boat. This is my week for working at home and as I didn't have anything time critical to do I managed to rearrange it so we could walk on Monday instead. 

We took the train down to Shepherd's Bush, then caught a bus to Kew Bridge. Fortified with a coffee we set off at about 12pm (to get cheap train tickets we can't catch a train from our local station until after 10). The first section was along Strand-by-the-Green in Chiswick, where Georgian houses look over the Thames. The area is obviously prone to flooding, as many had gates and walls obviously intended for flood protection. One of the beautiful things about yesterday's walk was the number of profusely flowering, scented rose bushes we passed. 

After the Strand-on-the-Green the path went inland onto a road for a while, then back to the river and past a couple of boathouses. We stopped after a mile and a half to eat a picnic lunch overlooking the river. A lot of the path was very green. I think the picture below was taken as we were walking through Dukes Meadows, a public park in Chiswick. 

It was hot and we were thirsty, so after walking along Chiswick Mall we stopped at The Black Lion for a refreshing glass of Pimms and lemonade - a bonus of taking the train was that we could have an alcoholic drink! We reached Hammersmith and passed William Morris's home, Kelmscott House, which is now owned by the William Morris Society and open to the public some of the time. Probably to M's relief it was closed! A little further on we also passed the site of the Dove Press, operated by Thomas James Cobden-Sanderson. 

The story of Dove Press is an intriguing one. Around the turn of the 20th century Cobden-Sanderson designed a type face of particular clarity and beauty, but following a dispute with his business partner he decided to destroy it. Under cover of darkness he took all the metal type to Hammersmith Bridge and tipped it into the Thames. Occasional pieces of type were found by mudlarks (I learned this story from Lara Maiklem's book Mudlarking) and a few years ago a dive was organised to find as many further pieces of the type as possible. The Doves Press typeface was recreated and is now available as a digital font. 

We walked on towards Hammersmith Bridge, resisting the temptation to stop for another drink at a riverside pub - to be fair, we probably only resisted because we were aiming to get a particular train home!  Hammersmith Bridge is currently closed for repairs, so we had to skirt round the end of the bridge instead of under it. 

Towards the end of the walk we passed a statue which turned out to be the great 18th century landscape gardener Lancelot "Capability" Brown. One of his most famous gardens is one of our favourite local National Trust properties, Stowe - though the scale of Stowe makes calling it a garden very much an understatement. Soon after Capability Brown we found an unexpected bonus in the form of an ice cream stall. I have decided to try eating mostly plant-based again so opted for a vegan coconut cream and apricot ice, which M had his usual plain vanilla. We ended this leg at The Crabtree pub in Fulham, caught a bus up to West Brompton station and were home soon after 5 o'clock. 

In other news yesterday was TG's 15th birthday - hard to believe! We had planned to go out for a family meal in the evening, but R is in self-isolation. She spent the weekend before last in London catching up with a group of old school friends, then after they got home one of them tested positive for Covid. Fortunately R and the others all seem to be fine, and all being well her isolation should be over tomorrow. TG decided she would  rather postpone the meal than go without R, but H came over for a while in the evening to wish her happy birthday and to make plans to take her on a birthday shopping trip on Saturday. Rather than a birthday cake I made an experimental giant chocolate birthday cookie using this recipe. My icing didn't look as pretty but it tasted good - possibly because it included three large bars of chocolate!