The North to South London Trail is a new walking route launched in May 2024 by Walking Post. A 34 mile walk from Cockfosters to Carshalton in five sections. I have walked quite a lot of this before but there is also a lot of new territory.
Section 5 starts at Colliers Wood tube station and continues the walk largely along the River Wandle to its source at Carshalton Ponds.
I arrived in good time at Colliers Wood and having now chosen the correct busy road outside the station had no issues navigating to the start of the route. The very large Kiss Me Hardy pub, which the guide suggested I went around, closed recently and is boarded up.
Then across a footbridge, not across the Wandle as the guide says, but across its tributary Pickle Ditch, but very soon the Wandle itself is reached. Here I met another group of walkers who pointed out the plaque about the William Morris print works which used to be sited near here.
Soon I left the bussle of Colliers Wood and Merton and a pleasant path along the river took me past Merton Abbey Mills and down to Deen City Farm whose carpark was fairly busy.
A bit further along the tram line is crossed then Morden Hall Park, owned by the National Trust is entered.
The route goes over the long boardwalk which was built recently to improve access to the wetlands. Then the Wandle is crossed via a white bridge.
A long avenue through trees takes me out of the park and across the road Ravensbury Park is entered.
A pleasant walk through Ravensbury Park where the instructions were a bit inaccurate as I had to ignore the second bridge (which led to another exit) and carry on to the third.
Across the busy road and into Watermeads Nature Reserve, also owned by the National Trust. Here the walk deviates from the Wandle Trail and explores the other side of the reserve which is very pleasant. Lots of bridges which makes keeping track of which is which confusing.
A spectacular waterfall then a large lake close to the exit of the park. Here I misunderstood the instructions and took the more obvious path which turned out just take me right round the park again. Met the other party coming the other way, still took me a while to realise what I had done wrong so I saw most of Watermeads twice before heading where I should have done in the first place.
The path continues along the Wandle and eventually past some housing away from the river and directions at times were confusing but largely correct.
The delightful Hackbridge Community Garden is crossed then approaching Wilderness Island the river branches and I followed the Carshalton branch.
A short stretch of road walking then into The Grove via a not very visible signpost and the river reaches Carshalton Ponds, the source. I found the exit closed for works so a short diversion was needed to reach Carshalton High Street.
Now into Carshalton Park, much smaller than it used to be. A canal used to run across here to the mill higher up, this is now a dry bed. At the bottom is Carshalton Grotto which has a fascinating history. The path though did not run directly to it so I couldn't explore it properly.
From the park it was a short walk to Carshalton station, including one section of a muddy bridleway down which there were tree surgeons which made it even trickier. From the station to Clapham Junction where I had a belated lunch before heading home.