The Lee Navigation
Although this is a short leg, it's delightful, following the gentle flow of the Lea Valley Walk for most of the day. The River Lea also forms the backbone of day 13 of the London Loop, and as with that day, the river provides a pleasant walking companion as the Ring starts turning south, back towards the Thames.
This section of the Ring starts off in the middle of Stoke Newington, surely one of the most successful multicultural areas of London. Walking east from the train station, the suburbs are leafy and pleasant, but the most interesting aspect is the way the different cultures nudge up against each other without even blinking. Walking past the Stamford Hill Masjid-e-Quba mosque on Cazenove Road, the Ring turns left into streets where black-hatted Jews stride past the gates of schools whose playground screams come from beneath a sea of Islamic headscarves, while the homely smell of curry wafts from an open window on the corner with the A107. It's a delight to walk through, it really is, and it's a very comforting sight in this age of extremism, terrorism and street violence.
The 'Ackney 'Enge
The suburbs don't last long, though, and after crossing the A-road, the Ring dives into Springfield Park and past a pretty little pond. The best aspect of this enjoyable little park is the view across the Lea Valley, which is where the rest of this section meanders along. Dropping down into the valley, it's a short hop over a bridge to the other side of the Lee Navigation (the man-made canal that merges on and off with the River Lea). Suddenly, things are much more rural, as the Lee Navigation is only built-up on one bank, the one opposite the route of the Ring. This means you can yomp along on the grassy banks of the river, enjoying wide expanses of greenery to your left while still being close enough to the buildings of Upper Clapton to have a good old nosey into people's back gardens and life on the estates. It makes for good walking.
This tone continues for the rest of the day, though it isn't long before trees spring up and hide the sweeping views of Walthamstow Marshes to the left. The River Lea breaks off from the Lee Navigation in Lea Bridge, as Hackney Marsh approaches on the left. Not long afterwards, there's a gate in a wall by the canalside that leads to the remains of the Middlesex Filter Beds, and it's well worth taking five minutes to visit the strangely charming 'Ackney 'Enge, a ring of stones from the old pump buildings that makes for a good lunch stop. It might not quite be Stonehenge, but that hardly matters...
The Lesney Industries factory
Further along the Lee Navigation the Ring passes the rather dreary industrial building of Lesney Industries, erstwhile manufacturers of Matchbox toys. The letters might be falling off the factory – 'LESNEY INDUSTRIES LTD' has been reduced to 'L SN N STR' – but it's unlikely that the dilapidated Lesney works will remain in this state for long, because from this point on, the theme is regeneration. New-build houses nudge shoulders with rotting, graffiti-strewn factories, and after the Ring ducks under the A102(M) bridge, the entire left-hand side of the path is blocked off by bright blue boarding, behind which heavy industry bumps and grinds its way towards 2012. Yes, this is Hackney Wick, and while the Capital Ring guidebook points out the 'mournful grey stand of Hackney Greyhound Stadium', these days the stadium has gone, and the Olympics have arrived.
And so this section of the Ring ends in slightly uncertain territory, that's perhaps best summed up by the graffiti scrawled on a bench just after the Lesney works. 'In loving memory of my beloved Hackney,' it says in an empty hole left by a removed dedication plaque, and it's probably a fair point. Enjoy the old Hackney while you can...
