Continuing our exploration of London, we visited Wanstead. Probably not high on any tourist “Bucket List”, but an interesting area (and a chance to travel on trains we’ve not used before). We had an uneventful journey to London Bridge this time and got a tube to Moorgate, intending to walk to Liverpool Street Station as it’s a fairly direct route.

Unfortunately, Finsbury Circus was closed (no reason given), which is a shame because it looked like a nice oasis in a busy part of London:

Things went downhill from there, with many road closures stopping us getting to Liverpool Street Station, but eventually after a tour of the local area, we got there:

From there it was a quick journey to Manor Park on the Elizabeth Line – interesting to see how the new trains work on older track:

We were soon in countryside, crossing Wanstead Flats (no, I don’t know why it’s called that):

There was a lake, but very low on water:

After a short trek through quiet suburbia, we arrived at Wanstead Park itself, and found a cafe:

We continued exploring the park (now part of Epping Forest), thankfully with some trees for shade:

And came to a long ornamental lake near to the River Roding. Unfortunately, this one was totally dry, and looked like it had been for a while:

After a diversion to grab a geocache, we eventually came to another lake, this time still fairly full:

From there, it was a short walk down the road back to another part of Wanstead Flats:

Part of this was fenced off to protect ground nesting skylarks (not that we saw any):

It all looks so dry:

After a short walk, we got to Wanstead Park station and caught an shiny new overground train to Gospel Oak. The last time I used this line, it still had diesel trains!

After a quick beer, we returned via West Hampstead Thameslink and Blackfriars station – the view from the platform is great:

Then back home via London Bridge. A good day!