Richmond Station has been voted as the best place to start a walk in London.

The news comes on the eve of Ordnance Survey’s new hand-illustrated map called ‘Walk London,’ which has been designed to find all the capitals ‘hidden gems of walking routes’ that people can explore such as the River Thames or Hyde Park.

Ordnance Survey were able to work out that Richmond Station was the number one destination by analysing data that was taken from its digital mapping app called ‘OS Maps’ whereby users kindly recorded and shared their favourite walking routes.

Nick Giles, OS Managing Director for Leisure said: “It is no surprise to us that Richmond station is where Londoners go to start a stroll in the city, especially when you consider Richmond Park, Kew Gardens and the Richmond and Twickenham Riverside walk can all be reached easily by foot.

“It is also why Richmond Park is one of the featured walks in our new Walk London map, along with Kensington Gardens and Hyde Park, Greenwich Park and the Thames Path.

“Richmond’s got good transport links, is easy to walk around and a wonderful starting point for getting outside.”

The data showed that train and tube stations dominated the top ten starting points – with nine out of ten chosen as the location to start a walk.

Top ten places in London where people start a route:

1. Richmond Station

2. St Pancras / Kings Cross Stations

3. Waterloo Station

4. Coulsdon South Station

5. London Bridge Station

Charlie Partridge, Assistant Manager at the Fox, said: “Normally on a Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday we get loads of groups of walkers and cyclists, anything up to groups of 80 people, that come in for a sandwich and an ale.

“They have normally been to Happy Valley Park, or out in the green belt which is nearby.

“We are located right on the green – you don’t have to walk up another road to get to us – and we are a local, country pub. It makes us a destination to come to.”

Richmond also topped the list as the number one destination to finish a walk in London.

Top ten places in London where people end a route:

1. Richmond Station

2. Cutty Sark

3. Coulsdon South Station

4. St Pancras / Kings Cross Stations

5. London Stadium

The data also revealed that Richmond has 1008, walking routes making it the highest number of walking and cycling routes in London:

1. Richmond upon Thames (1008)

2. City of Westminster (947)

3. Bromley (837

4. Wandsworth (736)

5. Tower Hamlets (694)