a sunday stroll By Nick Oliver

N16 invites you to join some of our contributors on the first of a series of monthly walks through Hackney. The walk will start and finish at the Rose and Crown in Stoke Newington Church Street and include Hackney Marshes, Victoria Park, and London Fields. We will stop for refreshments on route, then back at the Rose and Crown hungry walkers can reward themselves with one of the pub’s popular roast lunches.

The Lea River flows for 54 miles from Luton to the Thames. After passing between Springfield Park and Walthamstow Marshes it divides into the Lea River and the Lea Navigational Canal to form the borders of Hackney Marshes, and its 82 council-maintained football pitches. We join the Lea Canal a little to the south of Springfield Park and continue through the Marshes to Hackney Wick. The Canal continues south to rejoin the Lea River at Stratford to flow through Canning Town and enter the Thames close to the East India Dock basin.

We leave the Lea Canal and follow the Hertford Union Canal along the south of Victoria Park to Old Ford Lock where it joins the Regents Canal section of the Grand Union Canal that flows inland from Limehouse Basin. The Regents Canal continues under the Angel, and through Camden Town and Little Venice, to join the main branch of the Grand Union Canal that leaves the Thames at Brentwood to flow north to Birmingham 137 miles away. The Hertford Union Canal was opened in 1834 to prevent traffic between the Grand Union and The River Lea using the tidal waters of the Thames.

Our first stop (coffee and cake) is at the Growing Concerns Garden Centre, the trading arm of The Bow People’s Trust charity on the banks of the Hertford Union Canal. Rose Greenwood, a qualified landscape architect, runs the centre that derives its main income from the maintenance of a housing association, and British Waterway’s canal sites, plus the design and building of gardens for various clients. Rose feels the Garden Centre has the most potential for growth. The centre has a broad range of shrubs, perennials, and small trees, and exotic specimens such as bananas, gingers, and palms, as well as ever-popular annuals.

From Old Ford Lock we continue along Regents Canal to steps that lead to Broadway Market. Passing through Broadway Market we enter London Fields. This is a chance for further refreshment at the Pub on the Park owned by Brendan McDonald. The Pub on the Park was his local for many years and he eventually bought the pub he spent so much time in. Brendan’s sporting passion is Rugby and that is the sport that is given prominence on the pub’s TV.Cricket has been played on London Fields since 1880 and the pub runs two teams that play their home games in this idyllic setting.

You get a warm welcome in this friendly boozer. The pub has a large veranda overlooking the Fields, including the adjacent children’s playground that enables groups of mothers to keep an eye on their charges while sipping a Cointreau in comfort. An eccentric feature of the pub is its boules pitch where locals were once treated to an exhibition in the art of this quintessentially Gallic game by His Excellency the French Ambassador. Stephen Lohan manages the pub which offers traditional ales in excellent condition, are as on able selection of wines and decent grub from its small kitchen.

The last stage of our walk is across Hackney Downs and back through Stoke Newington to the Rose and Crown. Tommy Harley was born in Torquay, and raised in Thurrock. After fulfilling various job descriptions, including carpenter, fireman, street market manager and warehouse manager, he wanted to become his own boss. His road to riches came when he punted for the tenancy of the Rose & Crown, knowingly short of the readies required by the brewery. When he described his plight at the outset of his meeting with the brewery they said that’s OK, just pay the difference in monthly instalments. 

Tommy was off and running as a publican, and now has five pubs. The Rose & Crown, built in 1934, has retained its original features, and offers the ambience of the best of traditional British boozers. Like the Pub on the Park, it has well-kept real ales, and a reasonable selection of wines. Mick and Mabel Hill manage the pub and its six guest rooms. Visitors from all over the world have made it their home when in Stoke Newington and even superior beings such as TV crews stay there when covering home games at the Arsenal. Mabel is in charge of the kitchen and responsible for the daily output of wholesome roast lunches.

The first walk, led by Nick, will leave the Rose & Crown at 10.30am on 25 April. The estimated duration will be three hours. If you would like to join in, please let us know on 020 7502 2532 or email us at info@n16mag.com