River Cray

The walk from Slade Green to Crayford is also part of the London LOOP. We walk to of Moat Lane and turn right, enjoying the view of the Dartford Crossing, and reach another river confluence; this is for the River Darent and its tributary the River Cray – the Darent continues on to Dartford in Kent whereas we follow the Cray to Crayford in Greater London.

We pass through another industrial area and reach Thames Road - the Jolly Farmers Pub stood at the corner, but is now gone - before crossing over to rejoin the Cray Riverway Walk (as this section is known). As we proceed through Barnes Cray, there is a lot of building development on our right; we reach Maiden Lane and cross this road to join the other side of the riverbank. Barnes Cray Road runs parallel to the river and much to my surprise we see from the bridge that some of the modest houses here have rigged up moorings for small boats at the ends of their back gardens.

We reach Crayford and its lovely Waterside Gardens, a landscaped small park either side of the river in the centre of the town; they were refurbished in 2009 and now feature a large modern sculpture and a footbridge - the excellent Penny Farthing micropub beckons on the right hand side of the river from behind a signpost and the footbridge. On the right of this is Vintage Lindy Lou, a family run vintage tea room set in Waterside garden; it has beautiful internal decor now - a vast improvement on the building's previous life as a Crayford public convenience!Read more