Six lines, six walks: we explore London’s Overground reboot on foot
In a major rebrand, London’s six (previously all orange) Overground lines have been given new names and new colours to reflect the identity of the neighbourhoods they run through (and make the system easier to navigate). It’s also a way to celebrate the capital’s diverse communities and histories. For those wishing to explore further, I have walked six routes using stations on each line which take in dozens of landmarks with connections to the themes, from gardens and galleries to historic houses and monuments.
Mildmay Line: take in LGBTQ+ history
The blue line (Richmond and Clapham Junction to Stratford) is named after a Victorian mission hospital that, from the 1980s, pioneered treatments for patients with HIV. Mildmay honours both the NHS and London’s LGBTQ+ histories. The area round Dalston Kingsland station is gloriously full of queer venues such as Dalston Superstore with its drag brunches. A meandering loop to the hospital and back through Hackney is packed with fabulous sights.
The walk: Dalston Kingsland to Hackney Central (5 miles)
Kick off with a visit to Dalston Eastern Curve Garden, an oasis of flowering green in the middle of one of London’s most densely populated boroughs (free). Cross the railway and main road to explore De Beauvoir Town with its distinctive architecture, rose garden and canals. Head down Hertford Road and turn left through the arch labelled Norway Wharf to find the Kingsland Basin, where waterlilies and nesting moorhens thrive among urban high-rises. If you didn’t have pizza in the Curve Garden, the Route cafe is good for lunch.
Amble along the canal towpath and back over Haggerston Bridge to the newly extended Museum of the Home (free) with one of the capital’s best museum shops and an excellent selection of books on Queer London. Near 18th-century Shoreditch church is the hospital that gives the line its name. Calvert Avenue leads past the church to Arnold Circus, one of London’s first social housing schemes. Columbia Road is bursting with blooms on Sunday and with charm every day. Carry on up Goldsmiths Row to Broadway Market with trendy cafes and rainbow road crossings. Finally, through London Fields to Hackney Museum, another champion of London’s LGBTQ+ history. From here, it’s a short walk past the art deco town hall and palm-treed gardens to Hackney Central station. This walk is also accessible from Dalston Junction on the Windrush Line.
Don’t miss The Museum of the Home’s atmospheric, newly reimagined Rooms Through Time (1878 - 2049), which includes a flat shared by early 21st-century LGBTQ+ renters.
Refreshments Molly’s, the Museum of the Home’s fab bar and cafe, serves all kinds of local delights.
Weaver Line: fabrics, clothes and immigration
Several waves of immigrants living in areas where the Weaver Line (Liverpool Street to Enfield Town/Cheshunt/Chingford) now runs have textile connections: silk-weaving Huguenots, Irish linen workers, Jewish and Bangladeshi tailors and fabric sellers. The line, now maroon, heads up through Walthamstow, where Victorian craftsman and designer William Morris grew up.
The walk: Liverpool Street to Bethnal Green (3 miles)
Spitalfields Market, next to Liverpool Street station, was once the heart of London’s weaving quarter, and still sells vintage and designer clothes, alongside food and art. In Dennis Severs’ House, round the corner on Folgate Street, the lives of a Huguenot family have been imaginatively recreated in lifelike detail (book ahead, from £16). Nearby Nantes Passage recalls the arrival of Huguenot weavers in the late 17th century, fleeing religious persecution in France. In Princelet Street , look out for a blue plaque at number two commemorating silk designer Anna Maria Garthwaite. Number 19 is a museum of refugee stories, open by arrangement. Brick Lane is home to fabric shops and a fashion school. The faded sign for Ch. N. Katz over one window recalls a twine merchant based here for half a century. Head on past Whitechapel Gallery (free) and Whitechapel market to reach Weavers’ Fields. In the middle is a tall sculpture called Weaving Identities, with interlocking figures around unspooling ribbons of coloured silk.
Don’t miss Exhibits in the Young V&A (free), near Bethnal Green station, include a little 1960s children’s loom, a faded Victorian sampler, centuries of children’s fashion.
Refreshments Townhouse Gallery and cafe on Fournier Street serves coffee and queen cakes from a kitchen in the basement.
Lioness Line: we’re going to Wem-ber-ly
Passing Wembley Stadium, the yellow line (which runs between Euston and Watford Junction) celebrates the England women’s football team and their 2022 Euros win.
The walk: Stonebridge to North Wembley (3½ miles)
Brent River Park, a short walk from Stonebridge Park station, is one of London’s many surprising green areas, barely registering on the map but providing a peaceful corridor for people and wildlife. When the riverside trail reaches Atlas Road, head west to Wembley Stadium. There are several daily guided tours of Europe’s largest stadium (from £25), taking visitors through hallowed corridors and changing rooms and out on to the pitch. The tour kicks off, under the actual wooden crossbar from the 1966 World Cup, with a trip through the new Lioness bar with the first of many displays of photos and memorabilia, including signed balls, match-worn shirts, historic boots. In the Press Room, there’s video of the Lionesses dancing on the press conference table after their 2022 Euros victory. On the way back to North Wembley station, check out the London Designer Outlet, one of several local arcades, and stop in Edward VII Park up the hill, where you may hear the drumming of great spotted woodpeckers.
Don’t miss the stone lion’s head in the grassy space by Wembley Hill Road; it was once part of a flagpole in the British Empire Exhibition, which took place here 100 years ago.
Refreshments Boxpark Wembley on Olympic Way offers everything from veggie bao buns to Brazilian churros.
Windrush Line: Caribbean and African flavours
This line (Highbury & Islington to West Croydon, New Cross, Clapham Junction/Crystal Palace), now bright red, links areas associated with Caribbean communities, such as Lambeth and Croydon. The arrival of HMT Empire Windrush from Jamaica in 1948 with more than 1,000 people on board has become symbolic of wider diasporas, before and since. This walk has flavours from all kinds of London life.
The walk: Peckham Rye to Clapham High Street (4½ miles)
Peckham, affectionately nicknamed Little Lagos, is home to one of the UK’s largest Nigerian communities. Shops and markets at each end of this route are stacked with okra, yam, plantain and chillies, next door to hairdressers, record shops, fishmongers, nail bars. Heading west along Peckham Road, visit the South London Gallery (free, ). The gallery has mapped features of the area’s past and present like the Bouncing Ball Club, which hosted Jamaican reggae stars, including Bob Marley. There’s an eclectic sculpture trail above the railway in Denmark Hill with a memorial to Una Marson, who created the BBC Radio programme Caribbean Voices. Walk on through Ruskin Park and follow Hinton Road under the railway to find the Platform cafe, run by Loughborough Farm. There’s plenty to see around Brixton, including a Windrush mural in the village market, the Ritzy Cinema and the Black Cultural Archives on Windrush Square with changing exhibitions (free).
Don’t miss The African and Caribbean War Memorial on Windrush Square, which commemorates the contributions in both world wars of more than two million servicemen and women from the Caribbean and Africa.
Refreshments Plenty of choices in the Brixton markets.
Suffragette Line: powerful women down the ages
Green on the map, this line (Gospel Oak to Barking Riverside) pays tribute to Annie Huggett, a suffragette who lived in Barking. The area is known for the 1968 equal pay campaign of Made in Dagenham fame. And Barking’s history of pioneering woman goes back hundreds of years: Ethelburga led Barking Abbey from the seventh century, the first in a line of powerful abbesses and creative nuns.
The walk: around Barking (7 miles)
It’s 10 minutes through the market from Barking Station to the abbey ruins. Beyond them is a welcoming new Women’s Museum on Barking Wharf Square (free). The first exhibition explores the abbey’s history alongside works by contemporary artists. This longish route also takes in local destinations like the National Trust’s tranquil Eastbury Manor House (£7, free for members and residents), Mayesbrook Park and Valence House museum. One exciting artefact at Valence House, alongside plenty of info about Barking’s influential women, is the nearly-5,000-year-old Dagenham idol, a wooden figure carved from scots pine. The route also crosses King Edwards Road, where Annie Huggett’s family moved into an early council house in 1903. Twenty years later, she moved to nearby Greatfields Road, where she lived until her death in 1996, aged 104.
Don’t miss Near the Barrage, a new mosaic by Tamara Froud represents the area’s jute workers.
Refreshments You don’t need a ticket to visit Eastbury Kitchen, where the menu can include herbs from the manor gardens.
Liberty Line: gateway to the countryside
The Royal Liberty of Havering, as the borough was historically known, was created in 1465 on the orders of Edward IV. Liberty is a grand title for a relatively short suburban line (Romford to Upminster), but these stations are the gateway to miles of rural rambling. Medieval Havering belonged directly to the monarch rather than a local lord of the manor so people who lived here had an unusual degree of freedom.
The walk: Romford to Upminster (14 miles)
This long, easily divided hike is quite different from the other routes. It gives walkers a sense of space and liberty, mostly following the epic Loop long-distance walk. There are huge views from Havering-atte-Bower, waterbirds in Raphael Park, and (reopening in 2025) Upminster’s Museum of Nostalgia in a medieval tithe barn (free). There are busy road crossings but also some great wild areas. Walk north from Romford through a series of parks, nature reserves and wide-open green spaces. Then loop back through Harold Wood, mostly on stream-side paths and pavements, passing wooden sculptures and flowering meadows.
Don’t miss A herd of deer have taken up residence on a grassy area in the middle of suburban houses near Tees Drive.
Refreshments There are lots of excellent cafes along this route, including the exemplary Station Pantry at Upminster.
