Catbla one

Verified Slow Way

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I walked this route from Catford to Blackheath. I found it a very nice route, mostly on quiet residential streets and through two parks. The only busy streets were near the start and end. The route was accessible throughout and you passed a number of cafes and small shops if you needed refreshments. When crossing Lee High Road both potential crossings required a very slight detour down the road - many like me will prefer to cross without the use of a crossing where it is most convenient (perfectly possible on a quiet Sunday morning but perhaps not at other times). The cafe in Mountfield Park was particularly nice. I live in the local area but had not visited these parks before so discovering them was a joy. I am not sure if the parks are necessarily open after dark which may be a consideration if walking late/early.

Walked from Blackheath to Catford. An enjoyable, quiet and direct route that makes the most of what green spaces are available.

From Blackheath station, we head south along Lee Road, cross the junction and continue down Lee Park, a quiet tree-lined residential street. After crossing Lee High Road we use more residential streets to reach Manor House Gardens, where I discovered that this is my second SlowWays route to pass an outdoor ping pong table (see also Catlon 2!). We are soon out of the small park using more quiet streets to reach Hither Green station, where we cross the railway using a pedestrian underbridge.

More pavements take us to our second park, the larger Mountsfield Park, where preparations for some sort of festival seemed to be underway. Fortunately for me the paths through the park were unaffected. We exit the park through some rather impressive iron gates and follow Ringstead Road into the centre of Catford.

I do have one slight quibble with the GPX here - barriers mean that it is not possible to connect the two outer eastern pavements of Rushey Green directly over Brownhill Road and it makes more sense to cross Rushey Green at the near side of this junction using the pelican crossing. This is too small a change to justify a new route or a flag.

From here we follow the pedestrianised Catford Broadway, where a street market was in progress, and follow Catford Road past Catford Bridge station to the meeting point at Catford station.

This is a short and sweet suburban route. It's amostly entirely on quiet residential terraced roads plus two medium sized parks. I tested it on a sunny summer afternoon going from Blackheath to Catford and it was great. I do know the general area a little bit but some parts were quite new to me, so can make a decent guess how it'd work. It's well designed, well plotted and makes the best of the area. The autumnal photos aren't from that first visit, I've been through there a lot now that it's on my radar.

There are moderately steep bits particularly Blackheath Village and Mountsfield Park. All of the surfaces were paved, except when I took a shadier detour round the edge of Mountsfield Park.

Both parks are technically closed at night/dark but I've seen them open later. It's easy to find a way around.

It's very short but has loads of good midway rest/eat places on Staplehurst Rd and Hither Green Lane. The cafes inside either parks are also nice options. Hither Green station has very frequent trains going to London, Tonbridge, Dartford and more. Loads of buses intersect the route too.

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