I love spending time poring over London’s classic ‘A-Z’ street atlas. There’s so much to discover in its pages, so much to imagine and so much to plan for future exploration.

Last month I was intrigued by a sliver of a park shown near Rayner’s Lane underground station. I decided to investigate Roxbourne park.

Situated in the south west part of the London Borough of Harrow, the park is traversed by a rivulet, the Yeading brook. I forsook the park’s broad manicured lawns to follow the rivulet’s course.

The Yeading brook is a tributary of the river Crane which, in turn, is a tributary of the Thames reaching it at Isleworth. Originating in Pinner, the Yeading follows a meandering course through North Harrow, Rayners Lane, Ruislip and Hayes where it joins up with the river Crane.

It’s possible to follow these rivers through a continuous path as shown in this sign I came across in the park. A journey through the Crane valley is on my agenda for future walks.

I found Yeading brook remarkably unspoilt. With its lovely willows and mossy banks it seemed worlds away from the busy roads which surround the park.

A nature reserve protects its varied wild life.

There’s even a special place for bees:

Roxbourne park has a variety of facilities including a miniature (one foot gauge?) railway located at the Field End Road side of the park. One can usually enjoy train rides on it during the summer on Sunday afternoons; I look forwards to this opportunity once the present health crisis is over.

There’s so much to discover in London that, as is said about Rome, one life is not enough. The metropolis’s walks are great for those like me who are beginning to feel that walking those considerable differences in height as found in Italy, for example, is becoming increasingly tedious. At least at the end of my walk there was an elegant example of one of the fine thirties art deco stations designed for the London underground and, in particular, its Piccadilly line, by that great architect Charles Holden.