🚲 London's north-south cycling spine: Gospel Oak to Kennington
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- Опубліковано 3 лют 2024
- You can cycle from Gospel Oak in north London to Kennington in south London, entirely on quiet streets and protected cycle lanes.
The route is 10.4km long (6.5 miles) and makes use of protected lanes on streets like Midland Road and Gower Street as well as the Grafton Road LTN in Camden and other quiet streets.
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You can see a digital map of the route and download a GPS/GPX file to use on whatever device or app you want here:
www.komoot.com/tour/142865260...
And you can find a viewer-created and maintained map of all the London Cycle Routes videos here:
www.google.com/maps/d/u/0/vie...
I also highly recommend the Safe Cycle London map for route planning, which is compiled by @SafeCycleLDN on twitter:
www.google.com/maps/d/viewer?...
I was surprised by how easy it was to cycle from Kings X to Waterloo. Good to see the route on video. Thanks.
A handy bit of knowledge if you need to change from a train from the North to a south coast bound train at Waterloo and the Tube isn't working for some reason. I know a couple of folk who take folders with them for the journey either end, so this would be useful for them.
Thank you for tuning in!
Try going south on Westminster bridge in that lane, in the summer, on a weekend afternoon. absolutely crammed with clueless tourists that don't understand what a ringing bell on a bike means 😅
it's really dire! when it first went in it was still just about the pandemic and it was pretty bad but usable as fewer tourists. But now tourism is back the whole thing is rammed constantly
Love that James Smith & Son Umbrella shop at 9:22, incredible it's still trading there since 1825.
Amazing bit of history, I should have pointed that out!
Great route much of which I used to use when communting across London from Kings Cross to Waterloo. I used to use Malet St and Montague Place rather than Gower St as there was no cycle route on Gower St backin those days.
It’s still not a bad quiet way the way you went! Don’t think I’ve ever seen any traffic on mallet st before
I'm also a Malet St fan - avoid perhaps three sets of lights that way
yeah I almost feel like it's a better route sometimes though it just seems a shame not to use the tracks on gower@@christopherlane5198
Way more pedestrianizations are needed for sure! < 3
Soho should be top of the list!
Pulling at my heartstrings there! My old neighbourhood (Gospel Oak, Grafton Road). My sister still lives nearby so I use this exact route a lot when coming back to South London, but with some slight changes:
1. At entering Judd Street, I turn left to Budborough Street and then right, to that street that has 3 names, and turn right to Tavistock Place.
2.At Tavistock Place, I turn left into Woburn Square, cycle through the Birbeck College compound and join Russell Square, taking advantage of the two way system that wasn't there before (life saver this is!). Then, continue down Montague Street, right into Great Russell Street, then left to Bury Place. Cross Bloomsbury Way at traffic lights, continue down Bury Place, and then turn left on New Oxford Street and join the short cycle lane (painted green) that ends at a dedicated cycle traffic light. Cross High Holborn and down Newton Street, turn right into Great Queen Street, cross Drury Lane and continue into Long Acre. Then left down Bow Street.
3. Westminster Bridge - I gave up on that cycle lane. Not worth the hassle. And about that ice cream van, the police also gave up, which makes me a bit suspicious as to who it belongs to.
Interesting I’ll have to check out this Birbeck route!
That High Holborn/Craft Beer Co. Intersection can be very tricky, especially with wondering tourists and students! Good beers there, onlooking from previous visits! 😊🍻
Yes it’s a bit tricky indeed! always something going down there
I think the best solution to Westminster Bridge for this ride is to use Waterloo Bridge and Belvedere Rd instead. Never seen Westminster bridge that mobbed before, maybe they'd heard an influencer was making an appearance !
Haha- I do like going Waterloo bridge myself and Belvedere/upper ground is good now there’s a new filter. However northbound the junction can be a real mess and I worry about sending people that way, you can get stuck between two walls of buses quite easily. But maybe it’s overall worth it! Junction needs fixing imo
Waterloo bridge then Cornwall road then right along to Lambeth North then down Kennington road pretty good and avoids westminster bridge which is very often crammed with tourists looking the wrong way !
Great work
Thanks for watching 🙏
The Torrington/Byng/Tavistock Place/Gordon Square upgrade has now moved to the junction with Woburn Place. Not only did the cycle tracks get protection but the sidewalk was widened which is a brilliant development given the volume of pedestrians and the previously very narrow sidewalks. I suspect stepped tracks were also chosen for this very reason -- the high pedestrian traffic. It's tempting to walk out on a stepped cycle track to overtake slower pedestrians, less-so to do so on the carriageway and by extension a carriageway-level cycle track.
Helpful update thank you, and really good point about a difference between stepped tracks and segregation in this spot
Fantastic route, especially for cyclists just visiting London. Look forward to trying this one out in the summer. Cheers!
Enjoy your visit!
Great video as always👌
Thank you!🙏
This is part of my commute! Very nice route
Thank you! It’s a nice commute to have!
Funny I used to live in Kennington then now live in Gospel Oak! Never attempted to cycle it though.
You could have moved house in a cargo bike haha!
First glance, I thought this was going to be too busy, and edgy for an old bloke like me now acclimatized to the right side road cycling. But you chose wisely. I ended up enjoying that, and felt able to deal with most of the challenges of London cycling, oddly mostly other cyclists and pedestrians rather than vehicles. When you passed St Pancras, I was into territory I basically know, and now know what lies north of there!
Excellent ride!
Glad you enjoyed it! I try and do the routes so more or less anyone who can ride a bike can do them! Takes a bit of planning but it’s worth it
I've said it before and I'll say it again, never been there for real, but love seeing midland Road!
Haha I thought of your last comment as I went down there!
It's a very direct route, but I would have used C6 and Blackfriars Bridge to avoid Westminster completely. Not just because of the bridge but the tourists on hire bikes and Holborn too.
Yeah I can see the attraction of c6, though it’s a longer way around
I'd love it if London had more trams like Vienna. So much more efficient than buses in spaces like Westminster Bridge.
Yes definitely! they’re nicer to ride too generally
I think your route of using Castle Street to join Royal College Street is better than going through the car park of an estate nearby and dismounting which you did in old videos. Although in the opposite direction the junction can be slightly uncomfortable because there are big potholes to avoid, but still not bad.
I found it interesting you choose to use Goldington Crescent, it is very useful going Northbound, but not as badly needed southbound.
Thanks for the great videos as always! Really enjoy your channel.
Thank you! Yeah I tend to go Goldington - I was mid flow talking about something else but I meant to mention it would be cool for that zebra on Pancras Rd to be turned into a cycle zebra to make a right turn out of Goldington a bit easier
@@Londoncycleroutes Ok. I find it just as easy to turn left off Royal College Street onto Pancras Road, although there is an extra set of lights to sometimes wait at.
Gower street is so much better than it once was. I worked in Fitzrovia and cycling south back towards Waterloo, this was always the worst part (that and the cars parked on Waterloo bridge after 7pm. remember that?!). I remember once, a few years back, having a Taxi driver (really) close passing me at speed and then saying to me (when I called him up on it) at the next traffic lights: "Did that scare you?", when I replied yes, it was far too close he said "Good, you shouldn't be cycling then should you?". Times like that I wish I had a camera. The whole route is so much better now (and hopefully that Taxi driver got reported by someone else!).
Wow that is incredible behaviour by the cabbie. I wonder if they'd be so open about it these days
regarding the time this video was shot: you actually happened to go past quite a large clock showing 3:05pm
haha a very good point!
11:54 Along this section there is always someone jogging or walking through in spite of multiple signs telling them not to.
It’s true!
Look out for Black Books at 6:36 :)
I always forget to mention it!
Nice one, I actually used some of this route today to get to the Wellcome Collection. I was wondering if you were going to make any videos using Lea Bridge Roundabout since I saw the cycle lanes were open now.
I definitely am! I’m waiting for the cycle tracks on Lea Bridge Rd to finish construction as they’re a good way of getting to it, and also ideally for Dalston LTN to go in nearby as that’ll open up quiet routes to the west of it(plus construction of a new A10 crossing)
Keep up the great work on the map btw!
Hello, I love these videos! I’m moving to London from Australia soon. Does anyone have some suggestions of places to live with decent cycling infrastructure / LTNs? I think Hackney / Islington might be a bit expensive for me but maybe zone 3 places like Walthamstow?
There’s a lot of good stuff happening in Lambeth though it’s still at early stages. Walthamstow is great, slightly out of the centre but there are increasingly good links in if you don’t mind a slightly longer cycle into town
Quick question - why did you go around Goldington Crescent Gardens when coming out of Royal College Street and not just turn left staying on C6 onto Pancras road?
I just prefer it! Going in the opposite direction especially i find it more comfortable, although going the way we were it’s probably slightly more hassle
This is so weird as i live very rurally and cannot imagine so much no greenery ! Its like being in a steep valley most of the time .
Interesting perspective!
May i ask how strongly ebike laws are enforced in london in your opinion ? For example there are plenty old semi disabled people like me that struggled on , even on ebikes but then found the throttle option a godsend only to find out your effectively all of a sudden legally riding a motorbike . Rurally there is no risk of enforcement but i wondered what city life was like doing the same . I have spoken to a couple local policemen and they said unless there was a particular operation going on because of people doing 60mph up and down the local street , say, then yes i would be open to prosecution if caught up in it but other than that was not on their radar if riding sensibly .(not condoning illegal riding but common sense in what are now very outdated ebike laws )@@Londoncycleroutes
Great route and really interesting, helpful tips! Just curious why you didn't turn left off Judd Street and use CS6 to go to Kennington via Blackfriars, would it not have been quicker?
It’s a bit longer to go that way I think, Farringdon road ends up quite far east- totally legitimate way to do it though if you prefer the infrastructure
Great video, as usual. What camera do you use please?
I have a GoPro Hero 11 black! I used to use and 8 in earlier videos, and the very earliest few a generic £20 one from the internet
I don't think that pedestrianising the entire bridge would make sense. Closing the mixed traffic lanes would probably be enough to make the pavements wide enough so that people are less likely to walk in the bike path. Maybe the bike lanes could be consolidated into a two-way 4 metre wide path as well so that it is even more obvious to pedestrians.
Yeah I think my preferred solution is probably just buses and cycles. That’s an interesting idea re having a bidirectional path- one issue is that the security services apparently take an interest in the design (which is why the lanes are so narrow)
There are works on Lambeth Bridge to make that a much safer river crossing so that may divert some people on cycles away from Westminster Bridge, but that's no help if the paths are blocked. Maybe a solid fence along the cycle path each side is needed so the rickshaws cannot pick people up at all and the ice cream van cannot trade as it's window would be blocked?
When you look at how much traffic is actually using the four lanes available, compared to the hundreds of people on the pavements, it is a bit of a bizarre use of the space.
Two way tracks on the south side (less busy with foot traffic) might have been a better idea yeah. I don't think major changes to the layout will be considered again for a few decades though, even though this clearly isn't working, because they won't want to spend a load of money on it again so soon after the the 2021 works.
yeah agree with your assessment about the space, and you're right about the fact we probably won't be getting any changes. unless it comes as part of parliament square pedestrianisation or something in a time when money is a bit more free flowing for local authorities @@liamness
Good avoidance of cyclist emerging from left @2:07.
Thank you!
Do you not consider yourself a social media influencer? 😅
Haha, you’ve also got to watch out for the influencers on the bikes I suppose!
Jon is both old *and* new media mate
8:09 that boxbike cyclist is in way too much of a hurry. They'll hit a pedestrian eventually if they keep behaving like that. She needs to obey the road markings.
Important to obey the road markings!