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Getting around London

Every single one of these walks is designed for public transport. Almost wherever you are in the capital, you will find it is the best way to get around. Car parking can be very expensive and road congestion horrendous. Even residential areas can have very restricted parking, although things might be easier on Sundays.

Most of the time, London’s public transport works fantastically well. There are some excellent smartphone apps, such as Citymapper, which give real-time information, as do the websites www.tfl.gov.uk (tube and bus services) or www.nationalrail.co.uk (National Rail services).

Off-peak services are rarely more than 15 minutes apart; the few exceptions are mentioned on each walk. Sunday services are generally less frequent, and in some cases may not run at all, and engineering works on both tube and rail can lead to bus replacements that take far longer. Check before you go.

The Croydon tram network features on Walks 19 and 21

If you are a visitor, either arm yourself with an Oyster card (a pre-loaded smart card valid on almost all tubes, trains, buses and trams within London), a contactless debit card (but it’s unlikely to be sensible to use cards in foreign currency because of the transaction fee), or use a major mobile phone payment app. All come with a price cap promise, so they are a far better option than buying individual tickets or daily travelcards. Only one walk (Walk 1) starts outside the zonal system, by one stop, but it does take Oyster and contactless cards.