Battersea and back

Sometimes it's important to make a change and today I just felt like doing something different, something I haven't done for a while. Really it was a toss-up between going out and drinking tequila until I fell over or heading out on a run down to Battersea Park. You can guess which option won as I'm physically able to type at this moment! So at lunchtime I headed out into the fog (or smog) and down the Thames Path on the south bank of the river. In many ways this isn't the most picturesque route but you do get a good view of the Houses of Parliament, Lambeth Palace and a good number of bridges. Eventually though Battersea Power Station starts to loom in an iconic fashion:

Nowadays, of course, it's just a husk surrounded by wasteland (and officious security guards) but there are grand plans in place to develop the huge site. If it means that I'll be able to run along the river rather than the A3025 then that's good enough for me. Fortunately just around the corner is Battersea Park and this is quite definitely an oasis of calm that feels set apart from Central London - not quite Richmond Park but close enough. Of course what goes up must come down and I usually choose to return along the north bank which means following the A3212 until gawping tourists mean that you can't go any further. In other words when you cross the Victoria Tower Gardens and come across this hunk of masonary:

Victoria Tower

It's an impressive building alright, and I expect that the view from the top is very fine, but it's a right bugger to get past. For a start the area outside is clogged by anti-terrorist barriers but then these, like giant pinball flippers, funnel the teeming hordes of foreign schoolkids and capricious tourists directly into the tight spot that you'd like to pass through. It's a total nightmare and I think that I'd take a taxi if I thought that it'd help! Either way it was great to get past and finish off quite an enjoyable mid-week run; maybe I'll venture this way in another six months or so!

Distance: 8.3 miles

Time: 1h 2m 3s