The Best Roast and Walk Combos To Enjoy This Autumn

In London, we’re blessed with beautiful parks and cute canals – many of which have standout pubs new and old conveniently nestled nearby – making leaving the house in the colder months much easier.

So, if you’re contemplating wrapping up warm and venturing for a stroll, consider ending up at one of these cosy institutions where, every Sunday, you’ll stumble upon plates piled high with succulent meat, crispy potatoes and glistening gravy.

Sprawling between Camberwell, Walworth, Peckham and the Old Kent Road, Southwark’s largest park makes it easy in which to spend 45 to 60 minutes working up an appetite. Fuel up with a very good coffee at Fowlds, before roaming around the lake to admire the dapper ducks, stopping by Chumleigh Gardens, an ode to planting traditions from around the world, including the Mediterranean and Caribbean.

Once you’ve reached The Camberwell Arms)), you’ll be welcomed by chef Mike Davies’s hefty plates of spiced roast chicken with cavolo nero; beef, ale and bone marrow pie with buttered greens; roast Tamworth pork with cider braised red cabbage with burnt apple; and roast lamb with purple sprouting broccoli – all accompanied by roast potatoes, of course.

Double up on scenic views with a 90-minute walk around Victoria Park and along the Regent’s Canal to end up at The Marksman). Explore the park’s western lake and pagoda, then follow the houseboats towards Broadway Market before heading to 254 Hackney Road. Here, the set menu offers walkers the option of two courses for £42 or three at £48. It’s a good one for those dining with roast deniers, due to its range of non-trad Sunday dishes. There’s beetroot, goats curd and pickled walnut salad or pig’s head terrine to start; Hereford beef, roast Sutton Hoo chicken, grilled sole or a sharing pie for mains; and brown-butter-and-honey tart or lemon and almond cake for pudding.

A circuit of Crystal Palace Park gives you an impressive amount to discuss over lunch, including why you don’t make the trek more often. Allow an hour to amble around the lake and its newly restored Victorian dinosaurs, before climbing towards the terraces of the long-vanished palace and taking in the park from above.

From the upper end, it’s another 10 to 15 minutes to The Alma on Church Road, where Sunday lunch is served from noon until 9pm. The Sunday menu promises half a roast chicken and pressed Middle White pork belly, as well as 32-day dry-aged British sirloin. There’s also a vegetarian wellington, which can be made vegan if you’d like, and everyone gets roast potatoes, carrots, greens and a Yorkshire pudding. Don’t forget to order the cauliflower cheese for the table. Children must be aged 10 or over.

With its ancient oak trees and vista of the city skyline, Brockwell Park is a pleasing place to stretch your legs – especially after an invigorating dip in the lido. Enter from Brixton, Herne Hill or Tulse Hill and carve out an hour to take in the ponds and walled garden before making your way towards Norwood Road to 2210 by NattyCanCook).

Nathaniel Mortley’s Caribbean Sunday lunch menu offers up jerk chicken, 15-hour confit pork belly, oxtail, lamb, and a vegetarian roast. Whatever you choose, it’s served with generous mounds of rice and peas or jollof rice, chimichurri roast potatoes, Yorkshire puddings, honey-roasted veggies and crisp tempura broccoli.

Sometimes, the prospect of getting a group of people to gather from disparate corners of London is just too much effort. In which case, central London might be the answer. Opt for an hour’s stroll following the Serpentine around Hyde Park, before having a grand old time at The Connaught Grill.

From the park’s eastern edge, it’s a 10- to 15-minute walk through Mayfair’s handsome red-brick streets to the hotel on Carlos Place, where roast beef arrives with plenty of pomp on a silver carving trolley. There’s also black-leg chicken, a squash medallion for veggies, and a staggeringly good looking wild seabass en croûte, as well as crepes suzette flambeed tableside in Grand Marnier for dessert.

For a walk that might just about convince you that you’re in the countryside, give yourself 90 minutes on Hampstead Heath before lunch at The Bull & Last. We’d suggest winding past the ponds and climbing Parliament Hill to admire the views, before making your way down towards Highgate Road and the atmospheric pub.

Once inside, the latest Sunday menu features shorthorn sirloin, Old Spot porchetta and an aubergine parmigiana. There are larger dishes to share including Suffolk chicken and a rib of beef for two with roast potatoes and the usual trimmings. For pudding, look out for prune and almond tart with creme anglaise.

For a more leisurely stroll, take a turn around Queen’s Park. Spend 30 to 40 minutes exploring its woodland, ornamental gardens and bandstand, before the short walk towards Salusbury Road and The Salusbury), around five to 10 minutes away.

The pub’s modern British Sunday menu begins with parmesan churros and chicken liver parfait with spiced apple chutney and brioche, before moving on to aged beef sirloin, porchetta, chicken or and roast delica pumpkin. All come with roast potatoes, carrots, greens, Yorkshire pudding and cauliflower cheese. Should you fancy something sweet afterwards, there’s also The Salusbury’s own irresistible take on a Snickers.