Always a pleasure to be back running again in the capital and today I attended Charlton that is in the Royal Borough of Greenwich.

History of Charlton House & Park

Charlton House was built in 1612 by Sir Adam Newton and this Jacobean mansion is unique in London. The adjacent Charlton Park is what remains of the house’s original grounds.

Be great to have visited their house and gardens in the summer as I am sure it would to a beautiful place to explore and relax in after the parkrun link here

Football Memories

Last time I was here at Charlton, was when my hometown team Luton Town play them in the FA cup on 27th November 2011 that ended up as 2-2 draw, but sadly we lost the home replay 1-3 😦

I do love this Addicks mural adorning the bridge as you leave Charlton railway station this was commissioned to commemorate 100 years of playing at The Valley.

Course

The course consists of three clockwise laps of the perimeter of Charlton Park that almost has no real elevation and running surface is a mixture of mainly grass with small sections of linking tarmac footpaths.

Points to note.

• Even though this is largely a grass course, I have been told by one of the locals that it drains well and never gets to muddy.
• Very easy to overtake on this course with no real pinch points.
• Love the long gentle decline from furthest point away of the course down to the border of Charlton house 🙂

My time for the event was 33:24 very happy with that on a very cool blustery day.

Facilities

I decided to take the train from Luton with one change at London Bridge to Charlton, then there is a 15 minutes walk to the park.

Driving there does seem to be free street parking for maximum stay of two hours on the road leading up to Charlton Park.

Always good news is there are toilet facilities available inside the park that are open before the parkrun starts.

Post run coffee

We retired to the lovely community cafe inside the park called The Old Cottage Coffee Shop and I can say as well as great friendly service they do a delicious bacon & sausage roll 🙂

They guys need to be championed for all the brilliant work they do for the local community from supporting elderly residents having a Christmas meal to charity fundraising for local good causes. You are a true inspiration to all of us! link here

Conclusion

I would like to thank this week run directors Gavin Hose and Martin Edwards and their team of Hi-Viz heroes for making as all feel very welcome on the day.

For the record this was Martin’s first stint as run director and I think we can all agree he done a splendid job on event no 73.

Also thank you for giving me a volunteer credit for the small part I played in course set up for the event it was greatly appreciated.

So, if you want to run on a fast flat course with a lot of room for overtaking, friendly community to welcome you then Charlton parkrun must be high on your tourist to do list, you have been told!

Best

Mark aka Silent runner