Richmond Park forms part of the Capital Ring
Credit: Howard Pugh
When I was arranging to walk a chunk of London’s Capital Ring with Colin Saunders, author of the main guidebook to the route, we sought a rendezvous point that was convenient for us both. Our best bet looked to be Manor House tube, by the grand gates into Finsbury Park, where we could pick up section 12 of the Capital Ring.
I have previous history with this spot. Invited to a party up here not long after moving to London, I emerged from the underground to a cold psychological blast that I’ve never forgotten. What a scene! Here surely a motorway had been cruelly grafted onto suburbia, the junction of Green Lanes and Seven Sisters Road a desert of tarmac, and street lights that seemed more like distress signals than twinkles of after-dark possibility. And I’d come here to have fun?