Chris Guy | Charlie Brown’s

By Chris Guy posted on 21 Dec 2014 in Urban

We start at the end of my walk on 9th February and dusk over Ilford. I was heading towards the Pioneer Point Towers – a pair of tall (33 and 25 floors respectively) but skinny modern tower blocks in the centre of Ilford. These had been ever present on the horizon since I had wandered into Little Ilford Park a few hours earlier.

But first, the North Circular Road Flyover, looking moody in the winter sunshine.

Underpass view: concrete bridge supports and brick walls flank stepped pavement, strong leading lines and light draw the eye toward a clear, bright blue sky.

The North Circular Road Flyover at Ilford

Two glass towers with angled roofs rise above a dark billboard for 'BRITANNIA Ilford' showing a woman holding a Union Jack mug.

Pioneer Point Towers, Ilford

Across the street from the shiny new Pioneer Point Towers is this rather charmingly old-school Sainsbury’s supermarket. It reminds me of the one in Debden, near Epping Forest.

Sainsbury’s Supermarket Ilford

The light was now fading, an so for the end of my day I headed into Ilford centre and the station to catch a train home – without running on the stairs, obvs.

Wide urban junction with low-rise shops and office blocks, streetlights, a NatWest branch on the left, pedestrians on pavements and cars at the intersection.

Ilford Town Centre

Train platform under a bridge with a hanging sign: "Please do not run on these stairs. It's better to miss your train than break your leg." A blue train waits at the platform.

Don’t break your leg at Ilford Station

The next time I got out to continue the walk was over a month later – a bright spring day at the end of March. I began by wandering through the backstreets of Ilford finding neat rows of suburban semis, a modern Cathotic Church, the Black Stag Archers Club and a Bentley Mulsanne.

Quiet suburban street lined with terraced houses and parked cars, lampposts and overhead cables under a clear blue sky.

Empress Avenue, Ilford

Sunny suburban UK street lined with similar bay‑fronted semi‑detached houses, low brick walls, small front gardens and parked cars.

Highlands Gardens, Ilford

Sunny park with a green lawn and white blossom trees, framed by a tall brick church tower and rows of houses under a clear sky.

St John the Baptist Catholic Church, Ilford

Group practising archery on a sunny grassy field, lined up aiming bows towards targets, with instructors nearby and bare trees behind.

Black Stag Archery Club

Bentley Mulsanne

Leaving Wanstead Park Road I walked up past Redbridge tube and stopped for a lunch at the Red House pub at the start of Roding Lane South.

Colourful terrace of shops with ornate upper facades beneath a clear blue sky: Rima Tandoori, The Great Wall Chinese takeaway and Sandra Davidson estate agent.

Shop Parade on Roding Lane South

Roding Lane Free Church

After admiring the shop fronts and rather quirky architecture of the Roding Lane Free Church, I walked down onto the Roding Valley Way and alongside the River Roding.

Calm river flowing between overgrown grassy banks and blossom trees, a small weir ahead and a tall electricity pylon with power lines beneath a pale sky.

The River Roding

Concrete bridge casting shadows over a riverside pedestrian path with metal railings and graffiti, light visible at the far end.

North Circular Road vs River Roding

Result of Youth Boredom

Further up the valley is the rather splendid Roding Lane South Pumping Station – built in the mid 19th century it is no longer in use, but the building itself is listed.

Large Victorian brick pumping station with arched windows stands behind overgrown scrub, with houses and pylons under a pale blue sky.

Roding Valley Park Pumping Station

Black-and-white view through a concrete underpass lined with columns and ceiling lights, opening to a sunlit scene of trees and a house beyond.

North Circular Underpass

Leaving the Roding Valley Park I head back onto Roding Lane South and walk through the industrial estate up towards the Southend Road and Charlie Brown’s Roundabout – where the North Circular and M11 intersect.

Suburban street of Tudor-style semi-detached houses with front gardens, parked cars and a telegraph pole on a sunny day.

Mock-Tudor on Roding Lane South

Gated industrial yard with parked cars, signs for Car Valley and Premier Autos, and a large white warehouse labelled Kilroy House.

Kilroy House, Woodford Green

Row of suburban semi-detached houses behind metal railings, with bare trees and hedges beside a broad road under a pale winter sky.

Southend Road (A1400)

Three semi-detached suburban houses with tiled roofs and bay windows behind a hedge and metal railing in front of a dual carridgeway road.

Housing on Southend Road, Woodford

A red telephone box stands in a quiet concrete courtyard beside pale blue single-storey buildings under a bright sky.

Red Phone Box, Unity Trading Estate

Charlie’s Brown’s Roundabout is named after the pub that once stood on the junction of the North Circular and Southend Road. The pub was run by the son of Charlie Brown – ‘the uncrowned king of Limehouse’.

Black-and-white view beneath a concrete road bridge, two central support pillars, textured underside and trees at the edges.

Beneath the flyovers at Charlie Brown’s Roundabout

Concrete motorway flyovers curve above a roundabout sign and chevron barriers, sunlight casting lens flare and long shadows across the road.

Charlie Brown’s Roundabout

From Charlie Brown’s it’s a short walk to the suburb of South Woodford and the tube home.

Suburban view of semi‑detached 1930s brick and stucco houses with bay windows, tiled roofs and chimneys, under a pale sky and distant power lines.

South Woodford from The Viaduct

Red-brick Victorian shops and flats along a suburban high street, parked cars, small businesses and a quiet junction under a pale sky.

South Woodford from The Viaduct

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