Ireland day 1468. Sunday 05 October 2025- London 4

Today’s summary	Val was still away for most of the day so I had arranged to meet up with a former work colleague at Victoria. From there, we walked through the parks to Primrose Hill (again). Lunch at Lemonia (again) then finished up at Chalk Farm tube. Val returned about 7pm and we had a quiet evening watching TV, finishing off the toasties from yesterday, and catching up on the news.
Today’s weather	Dry and bright and much calmer than yesterday. Light north westerly wind. Appx 16c

Today’s overview location (The blue mark shows the location of our route)		Close-up location (The blue line shows where we walked) (Click button below to download GPX of today’s walk as recorded, or see interactive map at bottom with elevations corrected): Victoria to Primrose Hill

Commentary

I had another day largely to myself in London today, as Val continued her sojourn in Bristol. But I wasn’t at a loose end as, like yesterday, I had arranged to meet up with a friend – my former work boss, actually – for a stroll and lunch in London.

That meant I had time in relatively relaxed morning to linger over my coffee and toast before heading over to Victoria to meet his train. I set out on foot but part way there he texted to say he had arrived early, so I pivoted midway and caught a tube instead.

That in itself was more complex than I expected as my route to the nearest station was blocked by a road closure in Whitehall, outside Downing Street. Then when I got to the alternative station at Embankment I discovered that all westbound circle line trains had been suspended. So I had to re-pivot and go via the Bakerloo and Victoria lines instead. I eventually got to Victoria station about 11:15am, which was probably a bit quicker than if I’d carried on walking – but only just.

Eventually we managed to meet up so set off for our northbound stroll through town. The route today took us through Belgravia to Hyde Park, then across Oxford Street and through Marylebone to Portland Place. From there we crossed over the Euston Road, walked through Regent’s Park, past the zoo, then up and over Primrose Hill. We duly pitched up at Lemonia restaurant (again!) just before the table booking time at 1:30pm.

I do like these cross-London walks. There’s always so much to see and lots going on. You could spend a lifetime just learning about the history and architecture of London’s streets – and there’d still be plenty left to learn. And the restaurant was enjoyable, as always. Though much busier than when we were there on Friday, so very noisy. Not quite at the Irish restaurant level of hubbub, but getting close.

We spent an enjoyable couple of hours putting the world to rights and enjoying our souvlaki. Then we headed to Chalk Farm tube station where we turned south on the Northern line. He got off at Euston, whereas I carried on to Tottenham Court Road.

The rest of the evening was fairly quiet, again. Val returned from Paddington at about 7pm and then for dinner we finished off the “TooGoodToGo” toasties from yesterday (I was glad to see the end of them, frankly) and watched some TV. Another good day: great to catch up with an old fried, and great to have Val back again!

Today’s photos (click to enlarge)


Setting out through Broad Court this morning. Sadly, the phone boxes are all faux – the originals were removed a couple of years ago and were of two different heights. These new non-functional ones are just street decoration and are all the same height. They are round the corner from what used to be Bow Street Magistrates court, so in days gone by, I guess they were used by reporters anxious to phone the latest scoops back from the court to their editors as fast as possible	*Tired-looking Catalpa bignoniodes* leaning heavily on its supports in Embankment Gardens this morning**

Regents Canal, from by the warthog enclosure	Back at Tottenham Court Road – I think the bus lurking under Centrepoint is purely decorative. Certainly the colour doesn’t look very natural



Disconsolate camel in Regents Park zoo. Mind you with camels its hard to tell if they are really disconsolate or just naturally grumpy looking