Wimbledon và Putney Commons

The dirt tracks, wood, and heathland of Wimbledon Common (and adjoining Putney Heath), southeast of Richmond Park, take me back to childhood. Run beside low foliage, gorse and hedges, and on the fine yellow gravel you get beneath moorland. There are lots of different paths to get lost on for hours. Spring mornings are the best, as you break the dew with your footsteps. You feel like the first person to have charted the park. Grab a coffee in the Windmill Tearooms, under the 19th century windmill, in the centre of the common, to warm up.