Fulham Palace parkrun (#128)

This week I spent Parkrunday much closer to home, visiting Fulham Palace parkrun. This came after some medium-distance touring last week at University Parks parkrun in Oxford and also after my first visit to Harrow parkrun two weeks ago.

This week I had a doctor appointment early afternoon, so I had a choice: skip Parkrunday or somewhere close to home. The choice apparently was pretty obvious: a local parkrun. I’m trying to cover local venues I’ve already visited several times to add them to this site and to my YouTuve channel, so this came handy.

I had been to Fulham Palace parkrun only once after the covid suspension and I don’t think I have been there at all after this specific event was suspended for nearly one year for resurfacing work. I was curious to see if anything had changed, since I also heard they had made some changes to the start area. Spoiler alert: nothing really changed.

Let’s dive into some more info about Fulham Palace parkrun, then!

Trip to Fulham Palace parkrun and parking

As far as London parkrun events go, Fulham Palace is pretty central and very well connected. Make sure you don’t get confused by the name: while at the Southern border of Fulham, this is not very close to Fulham Broadway station. The closest tube station is Putney Bridge, which can be reached using the District Line.

Once you are at the station, keep close to the river and cross the busy road in front of you and you will soon be in Bishop’s Park.

If you want to go by car, you can and there will be parking, but it will be expensive. Technically, there is no dedicated parking area, but there is plenty of payable on street parking along Bishop’s Avenue, just in front of the main entrance to the park. Payment can be finalised using the RingGo app.

As I found out this time, since my last visit the council have introduced a 110% fuel surcharge to this location, meaning that a 90 minutes stop is charged at £8.8. As always in London, if you can, use public transport.

Fulham Palace parkrun: start and briefings

The meeting area is by the Bishop’s Avenue main entrance to the park. So, if you are coming from the car parking area, you only have to walk through the park gates pictured at the bottom of this post and you will see it. If you are coming from Putney Bridge tube station, enter the park and keep walking along the Thames until you see an open square to your right, after I guess about 500 metres.

Attendance numbers grew a lot at this event before covid and they also recovered quickly after the stop. It is a very popular event, with attendance levels hovering between 500 and 700 per week. On the day of my last visit, there were 583 parkrunners in attendance. This, even if it was the first Parkrunday morning of 2023 with temperature below zero. Celsius, obviously… I cannot deal with that weird F degrees. And the only time I experienced negative Farenheit was when I spent a year studying in the US Mid-West. Long story, I am digressing…. But one day I will be back there, they have a parkrun in my old University Campus!

The start here is crowded, very crowded. The meeting area and briefings are in a large round square by the children playing area, so you won’t immediately realise how many people are there. Then the recommendation is to walk the long way around to position along a short and narrow stretch of the riverside path to get going. There is a cut through across the long funnel to get to the same place and some locals will use it. The strong recommendation is to position yourself by expected finish time. There will be signs on the path: as an indication, if you expect to finish in 25 minutes, you will be about 40/50 metres away from the start, easily adding nearly one minute of walking to your running time

The First Timers briefing was particularly nice, with a very enthusiastic young girl welcoming the many tourists and genuine first times at the event. It was fast, personable and comprehensive, held at the side of the round square where everyone met.

About the main briefing, well, different story. The megaphone did not work, so given the amount of people, I could not hear a word. Not sure if anything particularly funny or engaging was covered: all I can say is that after a few minutes, people started moving towards the start. So, I guess, something was said. 🙂

Fulham Palace parkrun course review – star ratings

Fulham Palace parkrun course review – route highlights

There were 583 parkrunners on the day I visited. Looking at historical results, it looks like attendance swings quite wildly between 400 and 700. Even on ‘quiet’ days, it is a busy one and the start area design makes it a very crowded one, at least at the beginning. People tend to arrive late, so it might seem a quiet day until 8:50 and then boom, the square fills up. It is quite a sight.

3 laps with these numbers are bound to be fairly busy throughout and they are. But the paths are usually decently wide and the field spreads out quickly after you get past the start bottleneck. I think the only other spot where bottlenecks can appear is the first left turn into the playing fields by Craven Cottage. It’s share and narrow, so you might get stuck there. At any lap.

Surface is mostly tarmac, with some sections of hard path along the Thames. It is well maintained and drained, road shoes will be fine in any weather here..

Elevation-wise, this course is one of the flattest you will ever run. According to Strava, the elevation gain is 3m: combined over 3 laps. 1m each miles sounds pretty flat to me! And it is all at the corner after you leave Craven Cottage and join the riverside path.

In terms of course design, it is pretty simple: 3 laps with one long straight along the Thames and a loop-back within the park. Half way through the loop back, the ‘return straight’ is broken by a long curve alongside the round square where the initial meeting point is.

A quick Relive route plot is on my YouTube Channel, with longer video highlights embedded below.

As said, after listening to the briefings, people are asked to walk towards the riverside path the long way around the square. This might seem illogical, but there is a reason: it is likely that there won’t be enough space for people to line up all within the riverside section. So you will have a long queue across the bend and people at the back might be at more than 200 metres from the start when the timers start. The start here is slow, messy, potentially frustrating if you came hoping to take advantage of the flat and fast course to try for a good time. Unless you start up front, give up and expect a meaningful ‘Fulham-penalty’ to your time.

Once you reach the actual start line, you have probably less than 10 metres to go straight before turning left and starting to run along the outer edge of the round square where you had previously been standing to listen to the briefings. On one side you have the square, on the right side you have the cafe and the toilets buildings. It is fun here because the path is large and the turn is gentle. It’s a beautiful, green park and the enthusiasm is pervasive: one of the benefits of large numbers.

Once you have completed the semi-circle, you start going straight towards Craven Cottage. Here you will first pass a small landscaped garden with a nice fountain on your left, then start running besides large playing fields.

At the end of this straight, you reach Craven Cottage. At the time of writing, it is not visible, due to refurbishment works, normally, it would be. This is where you will find the other potential bottleneck: a sharp left turn into the side of the playing fields, Not only it is sharp, but it is also a short but steep(ish) descent, so be careful. After, about 150/200 metres straight towards the Thames. 2-abreast is the maximum number of people this section can accomodate, unless you want to stray towards the fields.

At the end, left, baby 1m climb and on you are by the Thames. The views are beautiful, but it can be very windy here, unsurprisingly, since there is no tree cover between runners and the river. One third of the way through, the straight is broken by a small inlet where you need to turn sharp left, go 1m, go straight 3m and then sharp right again and back on the path. It is not hard, but it could occasionally get busy here as well.

Then it is again straight alongside the river. It looks great with the sun rising in front of you, which helps to mitigate the boredom from a long straight. At the end, left again to cross the central meadows and then left again for one more straight that will bring you back to the starting round square. At the beginning of this section, you can often find big puddles if it has been raining a lot.

Once you reach the starting point, you start the second and third laps. The funnel can be very busy here, and I have experienced queues getting well beyond the entrance of the funnel at times, affecting you time again. No big deal, but worth knowing it is possible to avoid disappointment.

Congratulations on completing Fulham Palace parkrun!

Facilities at Fulham Palace parkrun

Welcome to a park in a fancy part of town, facilities are plentiful.

Even if a sign on the door says they open at 9am, toilets were open just after 8:30am. They are located 20 metres walk away from the meeting area, in a building just by the Bishop’s Park cafe.

You are spoilt for choice when it comes to post run refreshments. Two cafes, a smaller one in Bishop’s Park just by the start and a bigger one in the Fulham Palace side of the park, about 200m walk from the start. The latter is bigger and fancier, set in a secluded area that also offers outdoor tables in good weather. And it is also the ‘official’ one recommended on the official course page. The former is where I went, just because it is more convenient, even if it would never be able to accomodate a large share of the parkrunners attending Fulham Palace parkrun on an average day.

As a competitor to the McDonald’s index, I am continuing to collect data for the parkbreakfast index: how much is breakfast at each location?

At Harrow parkrun, I ordered a single espresso, a diet coke and a chocolate brownie. This cost £7, which is very much in line with average prices in London so far.

Fulham Palace parkrun: Video Highlights

As usual, I’ve taken a few video snippets during the run to give an idea of the course. If you like it, please subscribe, it’s a fun past time for me 🙂

The other parkrun videos on my YouTube channel are all linked on the course review and video highlights summary page.

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Achievements and performance

Conclusions

I enjoyed my return to Fulham parkrun after more than one year.

It is a beautiful venue: great well tended park and surface and unrivalled views of the Thames. Just be aware it can be very congested, but it is part of its charm and identity at this point.

This is one my ‘locals’, since my base is Wimbledon Common, so I have no doubts I will be back. See you next time, Fulham Palace parkrun.

And obviously, thank you, Fulham Palace parkrun team for your hospitality once again!