From Kingston to Mayfair

This year's BCSA Annual Dinner was held at a new venue, The May Fair hotel in, er, Mayfair so it was an easy decision to walk there.

As with all walks north of the river the big decision I had to make was where to cross and I chose Barnes Railway Bridge because the walk from there to Hammersmith is pretty direct, follows the river all of the way and is car-free for large sections.

It had rained heavily and I was dressed smartly so I avoided Richmond Park and took the more practicable but less interesting walk along the road instead.

At least that gave me the opportunity to walk along Clydesdale Gardens in North Sheen (probably) which I had not done before which means I have now walked 36% of the roads in London Borough of Richmond (three people have done 100% so I still have a long way to go).

The second decision was where to stop for coffee and as I was looking for somewhere upmarket and trendy that rules out a surprisingly large amount of the route and I was not able to have my break until I got to Orée Kensington High Street. They have a branch in Richmond so I knew what to expect and that the Raspberry Croissant was a good option.

The cafe was welcome but the number of pedestrians was not and the section along Kensington High Street was quite slow. I would have gone down side streets as I usually do but I had to tick off the street sometime and this was the day to do it.

The final quarter quarter also meant a depressing amount of time waiting at pedestrian crossings, as it always does in Central London. Cars still get far too much priority over the far greater number of people trying to get around using more sensible methods.

The final statistics were 21.38km walked in 4 hours and 43 minutes.