Distant city: the LOOP walk offers lots of views north towards London
WANDLE WANDERER: Crunching through the dried leaves of autumn makes this one of the better times of year to go off on a ramble. But avoiding the worst of the weather is something KEN TOWL discovered is essential
Timing was never my forte.
I’m standing in the middle of the Mayfield lavender fields and, since it is November, I am surveying rows and rows of the dullest brown shrubs that smell of nothing. A few short weeks ago this field, with the LOOP, the London Outer Orbital Path, running right through the middle, would have offered one’s nose a riot of purple fragrance.
It’s not all like this. I started Section 6 (of 24) of the LOOP at Coulsdon South Station. The LOOP is a series of connected paths that describe a rough circle around England’s capital city. In total, the LOOP is around 150 miles long. The stage between Coulsdon South and Banstead Downs is four and a half miles, including a short path off the trail to Banstead station.
You spend the first half hour of Section 6 climbing through residential streets up to the Clockhouse neighbourhood of Sutton. Up-to-date and detailed directions, with a map, are available here – and recommended. The route is mostly, but not comprehensively, well-signposted. At the top of the hill is the Jack and Jill pub. I wouldn’t normally stop this early in a walk, but it was raining and I was getting very wet. What did I say about timing?
Inside, the place was laid out more like a restaurant than a pub, with perfectly straight rows of oblong tables.
It was not long before 1pm on a Friday. Two locals were chatting over a couple of pints of lager.
I went up to the bar:
“Do you have coffee?” I said.
Poor timing: the lavender fields are ready for winter
“Coffee?” It sounded like I was being asked to confirm what I had said. So I did.
“Coffee.”
The barman explained that there was no machine but that he would make me some of the staff coffee.
Doing it with stiles: the walk is not without its obstacles
I sat warming my hands on the paper cup for a while and then noticed they had a menu of mostly Indian food. I had the vegetable samosa chat, little samosas covered in yoghurt, tamarind sauce and pomegranate seed. It felt like good value at £5.90.
Warmed and filled, I carried on past a sodden union flag on the lamppost across the road and into a sunken path that took me into a more rural environment and, after a while, some great views over London’s tallest buildings, glistening in the sun to the north-east.
After the route turns sharply left, you cross Carshalton Road – taking great care not to be killed – and follow the signs that take you over a double set of stiles into the lavender fields. In November, all you can do is imagine how wonderful this would have been at the right time of year.
Across the road, the LOOP arrows point you in the direction of Oaks Park, now a public park and golf course which was once the grounds of a stately home which lent its name to one of horse racing’s Classics. It has a café, but I did not try it, satiated as I was, from my recent stop at the Jack and Jill.
I am, therefore, unqualified to comment on the standard of catering, so here I reproduce highlights from the last three entries on Tripadvisor:
30 September 2025: “A little over-priced. The sausage wasn’t the best quality, a little disappointing for the price. Coffee wasn’t very nice. Wetherspoons breakfast much better and value for money.” They rated the café as ***.
23 September 2025: “Always love the food here, staff are also really nice and friendly. A really nice place to come for food or just a coffee while relaxing.” *****
21 August 2025: “It is nice a little café with indoor and outdoor seating options, a range of hot and cold foods, On busy days the ordered food service has a bit of a delay.”
Helpful signage: someone had other walkers in mind with this helpful scrawl
So, there you go, probably worth a stop, especially if the weather is good.
You walk through the grounds and down a track to Fairlawn Road where you turn right. Along here, on your right, is a rather stunning flint-faced house which has been modernised in a very bold and sympathetic way.
After this there is an (unsigned) turn off to the right. Well, not entirely unsigned. A helpful predecessor has scrawled the letters LOOP on an otherwise anonymous wooden post.
Much of the rest of the walk is through Banstead Downs golf course, which is huge and divided by the busy A217. After crossing the road, you are expected to find the track off the LOOP to the left that takes you to Banstead Station. I missed it and blithely walked into Section 7 and had to make a mini LOOP of my own to get back to where I was supposed to be. To avoid this, stay alert for the left turn (and also for golfers teeing off).
On the right track: don’t miss the turn for Banstead Station
If you don’t lose your way, you can comfortably cover this (mostly flat) walk in three hours, with a break at either the Jack and Jill or the Oaks Park café. Trains leave Banstead for West Croydon at half-hour intervals, even on Sundays.
So, if unlike me, you are a master of timing, you won’t have long to wait to get home.
- It’s been a little while since Ken Towl set off on his wander around the LOOP. So some of the details may have changed, but you can follow in his footsteps with these previous rambling guides, all of them accessible by public transport from central Croydon:
- Click here to catch up with Ken Towl as he sets off on Section 3 of the LOOP
- And click here for the second LOOP walk, from Farnborough to Hayes
- For the start of LOOP Section 4, from Hayes to Coombe Lane, click here
- The second part of LOOP Section 4, to Hamsey Green, is here
- Section 5 of the LOOP from Hamsey Green to Coulsdon Common
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Another great read from IC’s all-purpose correspondent. Whatever KT’s being paid isn’t enough. The Clock House area is an island lost on the fringes of London – paying rates to Sutton but without a link, or bus, to that middle class island. They DO, however, get a bus to Croydon, in the shape of Coulsdon who provide their post codes but precious little else. Might KT, as the Swiss Army knife of Inside Croydon, enlighten us how this dichotomy came about?
I did the Loop (followed by the Capital Ring) as my retirement project 7 years ago. The stretch described does have some challenges in navigating the exact course, but difficult to get completely lost (as I did on other sections north of the river). Highlights of your section were the signs across the lavender field threatening summary execution (almost) if you took photos of their lavender without paying and the signposted cycle route to Paris pointing north. As the old joke goes, I wouldn’t start from here and cycling over the North Pole does seem a little extreme.