Soueal three

Verified Slow Way

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I walked this route from Ealing Broadway to Southall and found it relatively quiet and a nice walk overall. The route passes by amenities like shops and a pub in West Ealing and also on Greenford Avenue in Hanwell.

There were a couple of areas where the route could be improved, firstly by walking the nicely paved surface through Drayton Green rather than walking the southern half on a tree root studded path and secondly, on the exit at the western end of Brent Lodge Park, where the mapping is a bit odd, taking you through a narrow litter-lined path with a flight of stairs rather than following the main path out of the park.

We found a couple of obstacles too. Walking through a golf course which was being played on was a bit strange and the path behind the Esso station onto Uxbridge Road is closed at the moment with barriers up. There wasn't another route that we could take without a big detour, so we went around the barriers and kept to the mapped route.

A very picturesque route - especially the green parts between Cuckoo Lane and Greenford Road. Unfortunately, the route crosses two golf courses which means the danger of flying golf balls and maybe some not-so-amused golfers. The pavements are mostly ok, without significant drops, although recently planted trees on the street just after the Drayton Green station made the passage much narrower for those who choose the pavement on the left-hand side. Boles Bridge which was previously closed, now is open and safe to cross, however, there is an advance warning, so it may close again soon. There's a not-so-obvious path when leaving the golf course to emerge at Greenford Road - it doesn't look like a path and there is a flight of stairs at the end of it. That part can be avoided - there's an option to continue walking right rather than taking the tricky path - the alternative path also leads to Greenford Road. Further down, where the walker would emerge from the golf course to Uxbridge Road, the path is closed and blocked by metal fences - the path is safe to cross and the barriers can be walked around but the passage is narrow and not accessible.

A pleasant walk mostly away from traffic.
I live in the middle of the walk, so not best placed to comment on ease of route-finding, but as mentioned by another reviewer, when travelling East to West (Ealing to Southall), the two public footpaths across the golf course aren’t completely clear.
Travelling East to West…
The first golf course, direction of crossing is aided by the large “beware of flying golf ball…” signs – including the rear of the sign in the distance (see photo).
The grass can be wet and there’s a puddle in the middle of the public footpath (see photo), but it wasn’t deep enough to trouble my walking boots. You could always walk about 20m either side where the ground is slightly higher.
Where the path leads to the steps up to the Greenford Road, there are grass cuttings dumped so the path isn’t immediately obvious and you’ll need to skirt those to get to the steps (see photo).
The second golf course has the exit behind trees and down a slope, so hard to spot from a distance. I’ve included some photos that will hopefully help, with a red circle to show the exit. You can reach it either by following vehicle tracks along left of green, or heading to the bottom of the steps for start of hole 4 and climbing steps. Exit to Uxbridge Road is directly across the green from top step.

Walked as Ealing to Southall. Great walk through Ealing residential streets and through the Bunny park and golf course. Only disappointing bit was the last km that was along the edge of the Uxbridge road. Would have been better if it had been through southall park for the last bit.

A nice quiet safe Slow Way between Southall and Ealing. We actually walked it in the opposite direction but it was easy to follow.

Quiet suburban streets give way to park land through the Bunny Park and then through a golf course to Southall.

Once you arrive at the Uxbridge Road it's nice to cross over and take a short detour through Southall Park.

Plenty of bus routes to and from the Southall meeting point, although the train station is about 500 metres to the South.

I walked from Ealing to Southall.
After a short jaunt across Haven Green close to Ealing Broadway it is suburban street walking to Drayton Green. Followed by more residential streets to the edge of Brent Lodge Park which has a country village vibe. The path across the golf course is marked but not clearly (easier to find when walking East). Across the busy A4127 to the other half of the golf course, a small passage takes you to the A4020, a short section of busy road which takes you to the Three Horseshoes in Southall. Despite the roads there is a good amount of green space and it is a pleasant walk. The grassy areas and golf course were fairly wet, it had been raining recently.

I walked this route from Ealing Broadway to Southall on a quiet Sunday morning. Overall, I thought it was a great route. I really enjoyed walking through the green and open spaces and hopping among quiet residential streets and nice high street spots.

Maybe because it was a Sunday morning, but the large road into Southall actually was pretty quiet and very comfortable to walk along with wide pavements separated from traffic.

One other thing: the last connection between the last golf course and that main road into Southall: I couldn’t find. I ended up walking along the boundary of the golf course, and there were several large gaps in the fence that were easy to climb through without feeling like I was really climbing over something dangerous or arduous. I’m sure the path exists as mapped, I just didn’t quite see it and didn’t have any problem improvising.

Both ends have lots of shops and places to eat and set, and there’s a small collection of shops in the middle at Drayton Green as well.

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