Hikes ~1 hr from London?

I'm looking for a bit of an adventure this weekend, and my OH suggested we go for a hike.  So long as the weather's nice, I'm totally down.  I wouldn't mind around 6 hours of walking with a picnic somewhere along the way.

Any suggestions from folks here?? 

We're based in North London (Highbury) and neither of us drive, so anything would have to be accessible by public transport, and ideally take <2 hours to get to/from.  Double bonus if there's a pub along the route!

How about the Thames Path?  You could take a train a bit out of London to maybe Windsor or Henley.  Then start walking.  Lots of pubs along the way.  Then take a train back from wherever you end up!

http://www.nationaltrail.co.uk/thames-path

How about local walks?

http://www.islington.gov.uk/services/parks-environment/sustainability/sus_nature/walks/Pages/default.aspx

http://www.islington.gov.uk/islington/history-heritage/heritage_borough/bor_sites/Pages/localhistorywalks.aspx

A picnic in Alexandra Palace is lovely.

Wonderful suggestions. Thank you both!

MLG-- looks like I've accidentally managed to do most of the local walks already, just in getting to know the area when we moved here. I didn't realise the council had such handy information though! I'll keep this in mind for future reference!

KFdancer- I was looking at the Thames path yesterday after posting this.  I reached a similar conclusion as you -- start in Windsor (check out the castle) and head east towards Staines.  It looks like it has plenty of train stations on the route, so distance can be decided on the day, depending on how we feel.

The other option I'm considering is on the coast-- Eastbourne to Seaford in Sussex.

Wonderful suggestions. Thank you both!

MLG-- looks like I've accidentally managed to do most of the local walks already, just in getting to know the area when we moved here. I didn't realise the council had such handy information though! I'll keep this in mind for future reference!

Cool! I would suggest looking at the surrounding councils, as they might publish local walks and hikes to promote healthy living. 

look here:
http://www.walkingclub.org.uk/book_1/
the best list of nice walks around London with detailed directions that I have seen so far

Thank you for sharing that resource, PapaGus.  I've bookmarked it for future reference.

In the end, my dear OH stayed up till 3am last night, and didn't wake until noon, so we opted for a local walk -- followed the New River path down to Essex Road, then took the Regents Canal path to Victoria Park, wandered up to the Olympic Park and had food at Westfield before taking the overground home. 

Not a bad way to spend the afternoon