Length: 10.4 km (6.5 mi) [shorter circular walk possible, see below]
Ascent: 50m
Net Walking Time: 2 hours 15 minutes
Meet at Osterley Underground at 18.30. Travel time on the Piccadilly Line is 33 minutes from Green Park, 22 minutes from Earls Court and 16 minutes from Hammersmith.
Return trains from Hanwell: every 15 minutes on xx.04, with 16 minutes journey time to Paddington. Both stations are in Zone 4.
This varied route of many delights initially meanders through the publicly accessible parts of the landscaped Osterley Park, while limiting the exposure to the noise from the M4. Some parts of the park show fine displays of bluebells in season. On an extension through the ticketed part of the park, more bluebell areas can be seen, and a flower garden and a walled garden can be explored.
From the café in the Stables Courtyard right by the grand Osterley House, you leave the park in a northerly direction to cross the M4 and a field into Norwood Green, where the fine bluebell wood of the Tentelow Woodland is passed through, before you cross the Grand Junction Canal and walk through the Glade Lane Canalside Park to join the towpath along the canal. Pass the famous Three Bridges site, an engineering feat of its time where railway, canal and road intersect, and walk along the former Hanwell Insane Asylum (now Ealing Hospital) and past the Hanwell Flight of Locks to the junction with the River Brent.
Turn left upstream along the river and through a large riverside hay meadow to the picturesque, grand Wharncliffe Viaduct, which carries the Great Western Main Line 20m above the Brent Valley. Another small park lies between the river and Hanwell Station with its vintage (and heated) waiting room.
Walk Options:
A Circular Walk (returning to Osterley Station from Osterley House) is 5.9 kilometres long.
Tea: plenty of options, both on the Hanwell and the Osterley ending. See the walk directions for details.
For walk directions, map, height profile, and gpx/kml files click here. T=short.50