Extra Walk 38 – Whyteleafe (Upper Warlingham) to Hayes Length: 16.6 km (10.3 miles). Toughness: 4/10
10:21 East Grinstead train from
Victoria (Clapham Jct 10:28, East Croydon 10:39), arriving
Upper Warlingham at
10:51. If it's more convenient the Caterham section of the stopping
09:54 service from
London Bridge crawls into
Whyteleafe at
10:44. Starting from this station is covered in the directions, but it would be more sociable to meet the others at Upper Warlingham (a four-minute walk, signposted). Buy a
Zones 1-6 Travelcard or use your Oyster card.
This year is the centenary of the RAF and this is being celebrated at events like the
Biggin Hill Air Show with flypasts by Spitfires and other historic aircraft, as well as the usual displays by the Red Arrows, etc. There would be better views of all this from the Hayes-Knockholt walk but Network Rail have thoughtfully scheduled engineering works on
both these lines, so that's a non-starter. It still means that you won't have a simple return journey by train but there are many other possibilities from Hayes, including:
- A rail replacement bus to Lewisham at xx:05 & xx:35
- A 10-minute bus ride to Bromley South (138, 2/hr & 246, 1/hr)
- A 25-minute bus ride to East Croydon (119, 4/hr)
- Divert to New Addington for a shorter walk and Tram to Croydon
I hope this doesn't put anyone off: it's no worse than the standard one or two trains per hour on most of our Sunday walks. This is a much more rural walk than you might expect for something well inside the M25. It hardly gets any summer postings but I seem to remember a fair amount of shady woodland sections. Lunch is at a very attractive 16thC country pub, the popular
White Bear in Fickleshole; it has a large garden but it might still be advisable to call ahead. For tea, there's a large Harvester pub and several small cafés near Hayes station. There's more information about the walk (and a link to download the directions) on the
Whyteleafe to Hayes walk page. T=swc.38
As ever, the White Bear proved to be an excellent "olde world" pub with open fires and attentive staff. Some hardier types even sat out for lunch. Most set of for Hayes and the standard afternoon leg, but rumour has it that two headed off to Addington and were whisked back to East Croydon on the tram.
Many thanks to CH for posting this delightful walk so near to London