Running The Circle Line
Start & Finish: Marylebone Station, Melcombe Place, Marylebone, London, NW1 6JJ
Distance: 23.9 km (14.8 miles)
Elevation change: +/- 190m
GPX File: get via Buy Me a Coffee
Other routes touched (Walk): Thames Path, Jubilee Walkway, River Fleet Walk, River Westbourne Walk, Jubilee Greenway
Other routes touched (Cycle): CS3, CS6
Pubs / Cafes on route: Loads … it’s London.
Map:
- OS Explorer Map (161) London South, Westminster, Greenwich, Croydon, Esher & Twickenham
- OS Explorer Map (173) London North, The City, West End, Enfield, Ealing, Harrow & Watford
The idea of navigating above-ground trips along the London Underground lines is not exactly new. Mark Mason's brilliant 2011 book Walk The Lines is perhaps the best example, and many other running geeks have also attempted them. Needing to escape the house and clear my head on a cold mid-December morning, I set off to conquer the Circle Line.
The Circle Line is a great starting point for above-ground Tube adventures. All the other lines have incredibly distant start and end points that stretch deep into the suburbs and require quite a bit more logistical planning. At just over a half-marathon, tracing the Circle is an easy, self-contained half-day adventure.
My start point was Marylebone Station. Although it is not actually on the Circle Line itself, it sits perfectly on the walking route between Edgware Road and Baker Street, which were my true start and end points. I set off clockwise with the strict aim of marking each station with a selfie. (A quirky bit of history: when the classic loop first opened in 1884, it was operated by two fiercely rival companies, the Metropolitan and the District railways, who ran their steam trains in opposite directions!).
Despite knowing London pretty well, I still needed a bit of navigational help. The north and south sections of the route are pretty straightforward to navigate, but the east and west boundaries become significantly trickier. Using walking directions on Google Maps, alongside a simple Google Keep checklist of all the stations, was a massive help.
The official distance of the tracks underground for the classic loop is 14 miles (worth noting for the transport geeks that I stuck to the historic loop, rather than the modern "teacup" extension out to Hammersmith!). However, the trains have the distinct advantage of cutting straight under buildings. Negotiating the streets, traffic lights, and pavements above ground adds at least another mile to the journey. Missing Temple station and having to run all the way back to it from Embankment added yet another mile on top of that. Don't do that.
Once I arrived back at Marylebone, I had covered just over 16 miles. At around 3 hours, it was certainly no Personal Best, but speed is not really something to be aimed for while dodging pedestrians on a working day in central London. It was a brilliantly fun trip, though, and a highly satisfying way to link up some very familiar places across the capital.
More London Posts
If you enjoyed reading this post, there is plenty more to explore across the capital. I have put together a dedicated London Outdoors page where I keep track of all my other adventures around the city. It is a handy index where I group my posts by the different types of places I have visited: including historic boundary lines, canal towpaths, and some surprising urban high points.
The collection covers a bit of everything: from long-distance cycling routes to tracing the underground network on foot, and ticking off another Saturday morning parkrun. If you are looking for some inspiration for your own weekend outings, head back over to the London Outdoors page to see what else I have been up to.