Central Line – part 6

17th September 2022

London is a strange place at the moment, even more so on the day I walked this eastern section of the Central Line. The Queen had died nine days previously and the city was in mourning. Thousands of people had travelled in to see her lying in state, to lay flowers at Green Park, or just to be there. You don’t have to be a patriotic flag-flying royalist to appreciate the impact the Queen had made on our lives, she’d always been a part of it for most Brits. I’d thought of getting the Jubilee Line done on this walk, but with central London facing road closures and huge amounts of people, back to the Central Line we go.

I’m seeing a lot of these posters at the moment. The one on the right puzzles me. Are e-unicycles a thing?

First station of the day, Epping. Technically Epping isn’t in London at all; outside the M25, it’s a market town firmly in Essex.

I was pleased to see such an old-fashioned bus. Felt like we should have been in a black and white film. Epping never used to be the last stop on the Central Line; it used to continue to Ongar. A heritage train runs the route now, assumably this bus was the equivalent to our modern-day rail replacement buses.

I am normally fairly well-organised when it comes to these walks. I rely totally on Google Maps but I’ve usually worked out how long it’s going to take me to walk between stations. I hadn’t this time, so I was a bit shocked to realise it was the best part of an hour’s walk between Epping and Theydon Bois. It only took 3 mins on the tube. Better get on with it then.

Nah, I’m good thanks.

It felt countryside-y as you can see from the sign above. I walked past a bus shelter, had a glance in; they only run every two hours! Can you imagine?! I get cross if I have to wait more than 8 mins where I live. Eventually made it to Thaydon Bois, which was the most English place I’ve been to. Parish church and village hall, a green where I bet cricketers play. A notable characteristic of the village is its almost complete absence of street lighting. Villagers have consistently voted against the installation of such lighting for decades, fearing that it would damage the traditional village ambience.

Condolence book in the village hall

My relief at having made it to this station was soon replaced with mild vexation when I realised the next station was another 55 min walk away.

I need this in my life

Debden is one of those stations that has had several names, firstly Chigwell Road, then Chigwell Lane, before settling on Debden. The stations, thankfully, started getting closer together, about 30 mins walk separating the next two.

I’d been walking for four hours now and was getting hungry. I headed off to a pub; stopping briefly to take a few pics along the way.

Several estate agents changed their displays to this.

Food! No dessert this time.

Woodford Green

Woodford and South Woodford next.

I passed an interesting looking synagogue, which looked like it might have been a church. Did a bit of research when I got home (well, just now in truth). It was once the chapel of an old orphanage, called Merchant Seamen’s Orphan Asylum Then onto Snaresbrook station.

The film director Alfred Hitchcock was born in Leytonstone in 1899. There’s plenty of evidence of this in and around the Tube.

Pub called The Birds

Rebecca

Vertigo

It was getting dark now, and my legs were aching so I didn’t linger for too long. Leyton station was next, and the penultimate station of my walk.

Pretty mosque

Loads of people around now, I don’t imagine the streets of Theydon Bois would be as busy, especially with their lack of street lighting. 20km from my start point, and almost 8 hours later, I finally reach Stratford.

That’s most of the Central Line done now, just the pesky Hainult loop to go. That’s an adventure for another day.