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Morden Hall - Colliers Wood walk - photos!

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editor

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A rare day of winter sunshine sent us scuttling out of the house on Saturday afternoon, heading off to the hitherto unexplored lands of darkest Morden and Colliers Wood.

morden-london-walk-23.jpg


The walk took us around the attractive Morden Hall Park, past some lovely scenery before we headed north along the River Wandle.

morden-london-walk-38.jpg


Next stop was Deen City Farm, which packed a load of pretty budgies, squawking turkeys, and pocket-sniffing goats - and this fella above.

morden-london-walk-50.jpg


In the last stretch we grabbed a snack in a nice cafe at Merton Abbey Mills, checked out the waterwheel action and then headed into Colliers Wood, which can proudly boast one of the ugliest buildings in London.

More photos:
Morden Hall Park
Deen City Farm
Merton Abbey Mills and Colliers Wood

Anyone walked this way too? It's a pleasant and easy 2.5 miles walk and not far out of London - I managed it on a fearsome hangover and it cleared my head in no time!
 
All very familiar from my youth. The Wandle can be right pretty. Used to be entirely free of living stuff back in the 1960s and 70s, according to my 1985 school project research. :)
 
The Wandle was fucked for years with the mills pumping their 'prrible shit into the river, but it's been really cleaned up now.

I couldn't believe the ugliness of this tower block in Colliers Wood:

morden-london-walk-55.jpg


"voted the ugliest building in London in a 2006 BBC poll and one of the 12 ugliest in the UK in Channel 4's Demolition programme in 2005. "
 
Isn't that the tower being converted into "luxury" apartments :eek: Bet the top floors have a lovely view of the road system.
 
I saw a kingfisher on the Wandle in Beddington Park in Sutton :cool: havent investigated Morden Hall and that area but will have to venture out there some day.


ooh and go to the farm - goats!!!!
 
editor said:
The Wandle was fucked for years with the mills pumping their 'prrible shit into the river, but it's been really cleaned up now.

I couldn't believe the ugliness of this tower block in Colliers Wood:

morden-london-walk-55.jpg


"voted the ugliest building in London in a 2006 BBC poll and one of the 12 ugliest in the UK in Channel 4's Demolition programme in 2005. "
Click to expand...

We drive past that tower whenever we go to Magneze's parents, it really is awful!!!

We're not far from Morden nowadays, and the city farm looks interesting. :cool: Will look at the route and take that walk one of these days.
 
Iemanja said:
We're not far from Morden nowadays, and the city farm looks interesting.
Click to expand...
The City farm is well worth a look. There's some way cool light blue budgies there too - way cute!
 
I used to like Merton Abbey Mills, was really nice to go and loaf about on a Sunday, a little oasis.

then they built loads of identikit flats and a Virgin gym and all that gubbins :(
 
Dan U said:
I used to like Merton Abbey Mills, was really nice to go and loaf about on a Sunday, a little oasis.(
Click to expand...
Cracking bookshop too: Tlön Books. Used to drift down there and browse on the advice of the great eccentric owner. They still open in Elephant and Castle?
 
Dan U said:
I used to like Merton Abbey Mills, was really nice to go and loaf about on a Sunday, a little oasis.

then they built loads of identikit flats and a Virgin gym and all that gubbins :(
Click to expand...


Yeah - used to go there a lot when I lived in Wimbledon, loads of great little shops, fantastic food stalls. Now it's about half the size it used to be and a sad shadow of its former self.

Used to wander around Morden Hall Park and by the Wandle when we lived in Carshalton and hubby worked at Crown House (another ugly building!) in Morden. Good place to see fireworks and they would have Bank Holiday Fairs and things like that there as well
 
you do have a photographer's eye there, Ed. I have a friend lives there, and I've never noticed the backlit glass above the entrance. :)
 
Callie said:
I saw a kingfisher on the Wandle in Beddington Park in Sutton :cool: havent investigated Morden Hall and that area but will have to venture out there some day.
Click to expand...

I saw a kingfisher perching on railings just behind the arnedale cantre on the Wandsworth gyratory!

/one-upmanship




Oh and, Morden Hall park is a little gem, hidden away a bit
 
Papingo said:
you do have a photographer's eye there, Ed. I have a friend lives there, and I've never noticed the backlit glass above the entrance. :)
Click to expand...
Cheers - here's another pic:

morden-london-walk-59.jpg
 
I love Morden Hall Park, it's just so rivery and rural, specially the southern end.

editor said:
The Wandle was fucked for years with the mills pumping their 'prrible shit into the river, but it's been really cleaned up now.
Click to expand...

I've been along to a couple of the Wandle Trust's river cleanups (hoisting shopping trolleys out etc). Sadly, after all the hard work put in over the years, there was a horrible incident last year. Thames Water accidentally released a load of cleaning fluid from Beddington sewage works into the Wandle and basically totally killed it :( :eek:

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/article3054095.ece
 
i used to smoke fags near the Wandle after school :cool:

big up Beddington Park :D

RubyToogood said:
I've been along to a couple of the Wandle Trust's river cleanups (hoisting shopping trolleys out etc). Sadly, after all the hard work put in over the years, there was a horrible incident last year. Thames Water accidentally released a load of cleaning fluid from Beddington sewage works into the Wandle and basically totally killed it :( :eek:

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/article3054095.ece
Click to expand...

that's the shit farm that makes BedZed stink and the Asda on Beddington Lane ming :(

didn't know they had done that, the Wandle was noticeably cleaner the last few times i was down that way. When i were a nipper it was all shopping trolleys and plastic bags.
 
ooh, relahni and i used to walk from there to there when we was in need of some aimless wandering, when i lived in morden, years ago :cool: morden hall and the surrounding park is fab

others aimless walks included morden to mitcham, morden to sutton....morden to wherever we ended up that wasn't morden basically :D
 
Rollem said:
morden to sutton
Click to expand...

i bet that was a corker.

oh look we are on St Helier
and we're still on St Helier
oh look there's a big hospital they built the wrong way round.
and we're in Sutton :D
 
Dan U said:
i bet that was a corker.

oh look we are on St Helier
and we're still on St Helier
oh look there's a big hospital they built the wrong way round.
and we're in Sutton :D
Click to expand...

:D :D :D

The only good thing about Morden is the road out of it.

Oh alright, I suppose Morden Park was quite nice.:)
 
Dan U said:
i bet that was a corker.

oh look we are on St Helier
and we're still on St Helier
oh look there's a big hospital they built the wrong way round.
and we're in Sutton :D
Click to expand...
LOL :D we used to take a non direct route. which seemed to invlove starting off in the opposite direction and going past some ponds that always seemed stagnant :confused: yet we always ended up in sutton :(
 
Morden is one of those places when you mention it to people they have either never heard of it or say 'yeah i ended up there once when i fell asleep on the Northern Line after a night out'

I must go and check this park out at some point next time i am over that way.

Is it near the tram stops does anyone know?

Rollem - Carshalton Ponds?

they were/are often stagnant. nice little park/conservation area that round those ponds
 
Dan U said:
Morden is one of those places when you mention it to people they have either never heard of it or say 'yeah i ended up there once when i fell asleep on the Northern Line after a night out'

I must go and check this park out at some point next time i am over that way.

Is it near the tram stops does anyone know?

Rollem - Carshalton Ponds?

they were/are often stagnant. nice little park/conservation area that round those ponds
Click to expand...


if you make kissy noise at the squirrels in the park bit behind carshalton ponds the squirrels run over to you cos everyone goes there to feed them.

153638.jpg


kissy kissy!
 
Dan U said:
i used to smoke fags near the Wandle after school :cool:

big up Beddington Park :D



that's the shit farm that makes BedZed stink and the Asda on Beddington Lane ming :(

didn't know they had done that, the Wandle was noticeably cleaner the last few times i was down that way. When i were a nipper it was all shopping trolleys and plastic bags.
Click to expand...

Me too, I can remember the days when it was just a sewer. Morden Hall Park was a revelation to me. It's just so depressing :( I haven't been back to a cleanup since, it seems vaguely pointless. Which I suppose is untrue really and I should haul my arse back. They're on the second Sunday of the month if anyone's interested, dates as follows:

February 10 Sutton
March 9 Merton
April 13 Wandsworth
May 11 Sutton
June 8 Merton
July 13 Wandsworth
August 10 Sutton

http://www.wandletrust.org/
 
Carshalton Ponds are nice - lots of birds, lots of squirrels - as has been said - in the park and lovely views (if you ignore the traffic!) across to the church and the Greyhound. Plus the Heritage Centre by the ponds does a nice cup of tea!

The Carshalton Water Tower is quite an interesting place to visit. I think it is open on Sunday afternoons in summer

http://www.carshaltonwatertower.co.uk/

Oh - now you are all making me miss Carshalton :( It's only 4 months since we left and I do miss Sunday afternoons wandering around the park, feeding the swans and geese (and squirrels) before heading to the Windsor Castle, Greyhound or Railway for a couple of pints. I am sure we'll find a similar thing to do in Maidenhead but..
 
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