London—walks in quieter neighborhoods

I really enjoyed the Hampstead Heath area. Wonderful large park and side streets. I sat on a bench and wrote a grad school application essay on one of the benches in the park (in the margins of my guidebook!). I felt inspired.

I could suggest Islington. Upper Street from Angel tube station is a bustling road, with plenty to see. Some great choice for food to sit down or to go.

Just off Upper Street is Chapel Market. It's a daily street market, just for locals with regular market stuff and a few food stalls.

If you go right up Chapel Market and cross Pentonville Road it takes you into the charming little neighbourhood of Barnsbury. There's some nice terraced squares with little public gardens. I've been to Myddleton Square Gardens and there's also Joseph Grimaldi Park, in memory of a very famous clown of yesteryear.

If you were to continue all the way along Upper Street to Highbury Corner, you have the option of heading left and north to Holloway Road, a grittier, but still interesting part of town, or south to Canonbury. Canonbury is a very attractive neighbourhood to stroll around. I'm not absolutely sure, but some of the buildings are much earlier than a lot of London neighbourhoods. It feels quite well preserved but still vibrant.

Essex Road is a good way to get back to Angel. From Angel, the west end is a do-able walk via Roseberry Avenue, passing Sadlers Wells Theatre.

Greenwich (pronounced Grinich!) is an interesting area with the Royal Observatory and the Meridian line; the Royal Naval College now the National Martime Museum; the Cutty Sark, in its day the fastest tea clipper; a large, beautiful park with great views over to the City of London; a lovely village vibe with pubs, restaurants and interesting shops. Also recommend, depending on where your hotel is, that you take the boat to get there or back and pass a lot of interesting sites, after all the Thames was the main highway through London for centuries.

I've done several self-guided walks from the blog A Lady in London. The only thing is that there are a lot of ads to navigate by in her text.

The first walk I did was thru some Mews to the North of Cromwell Rd because I was staying at the Radisson Blu Edwardian Vanderbilt hotel and did the walk in the reverse (the route, not me, lol.). I was surprised how just a few steps away from Cromwell Rd and Gloucester Rd there was very little traffic. These are residential areas so shops on the main streets and residences on the side streets. She does have good pictures so you might find something you like there that is near to where you are staying.

https://www.aladyinlondon.com/2018/08/london-walking-tours.html

I liked walking around Kensington

When we visited last December we walked from essentially the Gloucester tube station to Battersea Park to see the Peace Pagoda. It is mostly residential but very quiet. Going there we walked across the Battersea Bridge and on the return we crossed the historic Albert Bridge. It has been used in numerous movies and tv series.

One park I’ve yet to get to is Victoria park with its historic 1862 Burdett-Coutts Drinking Fountain that provided fresh drinking water to the poor. The park is 1.1 miles from the Bethnal Green tube stop.

I don't know west London much at all, so I'd like to get out to walk a little by The Thames from Chelsea through Fulham and Hammersmith. I'd be interested in seeing a bit more out that direction too. Out in the other direction I'd like to walk a bit more of The Thames past Rotherhithe or Wapping. Pretty much everywhere you go in London is like another little ancient town with its own nuggets of history.

Victoria Park is a good one. There's quite a few reasonably well preserved Victorian features and its layout is very much of its time. It reminds me of Kelvingrove Park in Glasgow, which is of the same era. I mentioned on another thread recently that Victoria Park is a good combo with nearby Broadway Market, especially on weekends. London Fields or Cambridge Heath Overground stations from Liverpool Street are a bit closer than Bethnal Green. 55 bus from Tottenham Court Road too.

Hampstead Heath, Victoria Park, Thames River Path, and Richmond Park.

Thanks for all these great ideas!
We have never been to Kew Gardens and I am wondering if people have found it worth spending a whole day or less time than that.

I love Kew and for myself it was a day well-spent. I took my brother (retired forester) and SIL (retired ag extension agent with a horticulture degree) and we did not see everything.

The “worth” question is always hard to judge for others. It depends on level of interest, # of days in London, etc.