London’s Alleys: Ransom Walk, Charlton, SE7

This short passage in Charlton that runs under the mainline railway spends most of its life as a very quiet little passage, and occasionally throngs with huge crowds. That’s because it happens to be one of the routes to Charlton football club stadium, but as a passage, it owes its origins to the thing that gives the stadium its nickname – The Valley.Long before there was a football stadium here, there was a large sand-and-chalk open-air mine excavated for building materials. And to g