Boundary Ride #6 Feltham to Cheam Gravel Ride via Hampton Court & Nonsuch Park

Rivers, relics and a palace that completely disappeared.

A 29 km ride through south-west London that follows water almost the entire way. The River Crane, the Thames, the Hogsmill, the Long Water at Hampton Court. Each one a different character, each one pulling the route away from roads and into the kind of green corridor that makes outer London feel genuinely surprising.

This is one of the flattest and most accessible rides in the Boundary Rides series. Only 150 m of climbing, suitable for most bikes in dry conditions, and two stations well served by South Western Railway. It also contains more history per kilometre than almost any other ride on the circuit. A gunpowder mill, a royal park, a Tudor palace accessed through a hole in a wall, a coronation stone of highly questionable provenance, a Pre-Raphaelite painting location and a vanished palace that was once the grandest building in England. All before Cheam.

Ride Details

Ride Level: Easy (Green)
Distance: 29 km / 18 miles
Terrain: Gravel, riverside paths, parkland and quiet roads
Bike: Suitable for all bikes
Includes: GPX route file and downloadable ride guide

The Route

Feltham station is not a promising start. Within ten minutes the roads thin out, replaced by scrubby paths that feel oddly detached from the surrounding sprawl. Leitrim Park arrives first, where the remains of an old sewage works have been absorbed into the landscape, their circular walls now covered in graffiti that changes constantly. An unplanned gallery layered over forgotten infrastructure. Art without tickets, history without plaques.

The River Crane takes over from there, guiding the route through Crane Park into Bushy Park, where the landscape opens wide and deer graze with complete indifference. The Diana Fountain sits at the park's geometric centre, the long avenues stretch into the distance, and the scale of what royal power once looked like starts to become clear. A hole in a wall beyond the formal garden brings you, with very little warning, into Hampton Court Home Park. Riding west along the Long Water with the avenues either side and, if the timing is right, the fountain running at the far end, is one of the more quietly spectacular moments on the entire Boundary Rides series.

Kingston follows, then the Hogsmill river corridor, soft and slightly unkempt, threading through meadows and under low bridges toward the final section through Nonsuch Park and into Cheam.

The Shot Tower and the Gunpowder Mills

Hidden among the trees of Crane Park stands the Crane Park Shot Tower, all that remains above ground of the once extensive Hounslow Gunpowder Mills. The mills operated for over two centuries, supplying powder to the British military and, at their peak, employing hundreds of workers across dozens of buildings spread through this valley.

Shot towers were built tall for a specific reason. Molten lead was poured from the top and fell the full height of the tower, cooling into perfect spheres as it dropped. Gravity did the work. At the base, the shot was collected, graded and packed. The tower is an object born entirely of industrial physics, now surrounded by birdsong, dog walkers and a coffee caravan parked at its foot. It is barely three kilometres from the start and a perfectly placed early stop.

The contrast is sharp and instructive. London's edges are full of places where danger and beauty once overlapped, and where industry has quietly surrendered to nature.

Nonsuch Palace and the Art of Disappearing

The final section of the ride enters Nonsuch Park, today open grassland and woodland, pleasant and unremarkable. This was once the site of Nonsuch Palace, one of the most extravagant buildings Henry VIII ever commissioned. Built in the 1540s to outdo the French king's châteaux, it was so spectacular that contemporaries said there was none such like it. The name stuck.

The palace has vanished entirely. Dismantled after the Restoration and sold off piece by piece, there are no ruins to interpret, no walls to trace. The outline of the foundations exists somewhere beneath the grass. Riding through Nonsuch Park feels like moving through absence. You are cycling across a place defined entirely by what is no longer there.

It is a fitting end to a ride built on edges and in-betweens, where history is sensed rather than displayed.

Finish

From Nonsuch Park it is a short, gentle roll to Cheam station. The route closes not with a flourish but with a quiet understanding. Twenty-nine kilometres of rivers, royal parks, industrial ruins and vanished palaces, all within Zone 6, all accessible by train.

Worth noting: if you pass the Kingston Coronation Stone at Clattern Bridge, the unassuming block said to have been used in the coronations of seven Anglo-Saxon kings, take a moment to decide what you believe. The stone was not mentioned in any record before the 1700s. Make of that what you will.

What are Boundary Rides

A series of easy-going adventures exploring the edge of London, one gravel path at a time. Each route covers 20 to 40 kilometres, starting and finishing at railway stations within TfL's Zone 6, and each one links together the hidden corners, green spaces, and unexpected stories that make London's outer limits so fascinating.

Start and End Points

Start: Feltham Station (South Western Railway)

Finish: Cheam Station (South Western Railway)

Ride Details

• Distance: 29 km | 18 miles
• Climb: 150 m | 492 ft
• Percentage off-road: 65%
• Trail surface: Gravel | Riverside Paths | Parkland | Quiet Roads
• Technical Grade: Green - Easy
• Mudometer - Riverside paths can be soft after rain but the route is largely rideable on any bike year round.

Is this ride for me?

Easy (20-40 km)

Expect a gentle ride ridden at an easy pace.

With few or no hills on well-maintained gravel paths, bike lanes and shared-use paths. These rides are suitable for riders who can pedal for about an hour without stopping.

Suitable for all bikes including hybrids and e-bikes. Wide tyres recommended after wet weather.

Read more about our grades here

Is my bike OK for this ride?

This route can be completed on any bike. Wide tyres are an advantage on the riverside sections after rain.