🚲 Cycling across the whole of central London without traffic - from Kensington to Liverpool Street
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- Опубликовано: 2 дек 2024
- You can cycle from Kensington in west central London to Liverpool Street east central London, entirely on quiet streets and protected cycle lanes.
The route is 9.2km long (5.7 miles) and makes use of Cycleway 3 along the Embankment, Kensington Gardens, and the new traffic restrictions at Bank.
If you find this video useful or you just enjoy watching it please remember to subscribe to the channel and hit the bell icon so you're alerted to new videos, as I try to post new ones like it every week.
And if you like what the channel is doing, you can also contribute to the London Cycle Routes Patreon below. It really helps keep the channel going:
/ londoncycleroutes
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...
And you can find a viewer-created and maintained map of all the London Cycle Routes videos here:
www.google.com...
I also highly recommend the Safe Cycle London map for route planning, which is compiled by @SafeCycleLDN on twitter:
www.google.com...
As someone who lives and works in Manchester, I am so jealous of what London has done - compared to what we are used to up here, this is world class and seems to keep getting better year by year. It makes me want to move to the capital!
In my opinion, Manchester is by far the best non-London city in England and has a lot going for it. I believe that the council there plans to pedestrianise Deansgate and a lot of cycling improvements are underway at the moment.
Manchester is the only other place in the UK I could ever see myself moving to if I ever for some reason have to leave this city :)
@@lordgemini2376 Don't get me wrong - I love Manchester very much, and there are improvements under way - but nothing to the level of cycle superhighways or big improvements to the city centre like London has done. While things have definitely got better over the last decade, we're decades behind the capital - and I'm getting older so I'm anxious for things to speed up a bit! With all the council tax receipts MCC have received from the boom in residential building, it's a bit disappointing to see so little changing at street level in the city centre, and even less happening in the suburbs.
it's definitely improved a lot in the last few years! fwiw I do sometimes see stuff in Manchester that I'm jealous of - much better at doing protected junctions for example!
As a lifelong Mancunian cyclist I agree. I watch these videos with a little envy at how good it would be if we had anything as good as this up here. Sadly,in spite of some improvements to cycling infrastructure in recent times in Manchester, I still don’t see any noticeable increase in the numbers of bicycle commuters riding in from the outer southern suburbs..And apart from some protected cycle lanes down the Oxford Road corridor and some short stretches in Chorlton, Didsbury and withington ,most cycling provision , where any exists at all, is just painted white lines on the road.
@@aerowilly65 I got a look at the Oxford Road corridor in person a few months ago, really not bad! but totally take your point. One thing I think Manchester has going for it is how the trams have kind of encouraged the council to close large parts of the centre to cars which is pretty sweet
Thank you so much for this channel! Your weekly uploads is something I look forward to every week! Just went out today, hopped on a Santander and went from St John's Wood to London bridge, crossing the Thames every chance I got, all by piecing together your videos! Had a blast! Working towards a run starting from Hammersmith bridge all the way to London Bridge one day!
Glad you had a good time! And thanks for the kind comment about the channel
Great video! I used to love renting a bike and cycling through that bit of Hyde Park in the evenings in summer when I lived in London!
Starting to miss the summer a bit myself now!
Not yet but I swear I will spot myself in one of your videos one of these days. You are riding some of my regular routes! Love 'em! 🤩
Haha I’m sure it won’t be long!
So it has come to this. I knew this day would come. The ultimate end of level boss of London cycle routes
Haha thanks for for watching! I’m sure we’ve cycled across central many times it just struck me as a good video title!
I had a think of the "fast route" i would have taken... Hyde park - Baker street - old street - liverpool street.
You're route avoids the killer hill up to Angel. (never easy on a fixie)
Excellent work sir 🫡
It is quite a buzz cycling through that tunnel.
Thanks very much glad you enjoyed!
Have to say, you've an infinitely more diplomatic turn of phrase than me!
Another great video ... 👍'd.
Haha I try! And thank you
This is great. I need to get onto a bike and try and get healthy- admittedly I am nervous and ashamed of myself for lacking discipline. What a great way to see the capital city. I will have to book a train ticket and then grab a Boris bike from Euston and try these cycle routes!
Don’t feel bad about it! It can seem a bit daunting at first but once you’re out there you’ll love it if you’re cycling the right routes! Wishing you good luck with it
Thanks for the video. So helpful and the 'network effect' that you mention is very interesting.
thanks for watching, glad you liked it!
Wow, It’s amazing around Threadneedle street now!
when I cycled for work around London in 1992-2008 that area was very heavy with buses heavy construction lorries. What an improvement!
It’s a huge change! Just finished in the last few months
Great route + a good alternative if travelling from West, via the Grand Union Canal via Bayswater!
I hadn’t thought about linking to the canal!
@@Londoncycleroutes I'll only do the canal before 10 am after that they get too busy, and there isn't enough space. Though as a training run, I go Little Venice, Southall Uxbridge, on the canal, then back in on the A40 paths
That was great 👍
Thank you!
When pedestrians amble at random onto cycle paths goggling into space or staring at their phones it’s helpful to wear hiviz & use a very loud bell / hooter to warn them of your approach.
Noted!
very gud, thanks man 👍
thanks!
Amazing video, if not a little scary, mainly due to the speeded up video (it is fast motion!). There does seem to be lots of people about criss crossing the cycle lanes, and people cycling outside the lanes as well. Your other routes do seem more controlled. Another great video - thanks.
Yes there were a lot of people stepping out today! Maybe it was the sun haha
Glad you said that about Parliament Square. The cycle lanes are a mess. It’s even worse coming East from Millbank and trying to go up Whitehall.
Yeah getting sent around the houses is really annoying!
I’d love to live in London , as a cycle commuter I could ride round that city all day , coffee stops etc . Hi from wales.
You’re welcome any time!
Although I tend to avoid very touristy areas like that around Buckingham Palace, this could be a useful route for me when I've just been to the big Wholefoods Market on Kensington High Street. I don't find the rumble strips painful. Of course, if sit on the saddle like a sack of potatoes, you're going to feel every jolt. You have to move with the surface.
Pitfield Street is good for approaching Liverpool Street from a more northerly direction, as you can cross a nice wide crossing to Paul Street. Also, although the roads approaching it don't meet your criteria of quiet back streets/protected cycle lanes, the Old Street roundabout is now very cycle-friendly, and can get you down City Road in a southerly direction. You can then turn left down Worship Street or Finsbury Square towards Liverpool Street.
Yea Pitfield street is a good one - it’ll be even better if Hackney gets around to doing Hoxton East LTN!
Great video! Thank you for making it. Really interesting to think about how individual routes 'network' to create far larger connections like the 'London grid' idea. So many places used to be really heavily car dominated (Elephant and Castle for example) before getting cycle upgrades and it seems like Kensington High St is one such spot that would benefit from similar modernisation. The whole stretch feels like a weird remnant of 1990s London currently ... I guess some influential locals, or the local authority really want to keep it that way? 🚲🌳
yeah both of those basically!
huge fan of the channel! would you be able to do a route for Finsbury Park to shepherds bush?
I'd love to do this but it's one of the ones that runs into the issue with west London being severed from the rest of the network so it's hard to do it to the quality I try and do routes on here to... fwiw if I was making the journey I'd probably follow C38 past Arsenal tube etc, then follow C27 across Marylebone / Paddington etc... then from Prince's Square onward you sort of have the choice of Holland Park Avenue or wiggling your way through the backstreets (the backstreets arent exactly lined up well). If none of that makes sense have a look at the Safe Cycle LDN map linked in the description and I've also recorded most of the eastern section in previous videos... I hope that's slightly helpful!
Great video . Lived in Hammersmith until mid-last year and took a large bit of this route almost daily, to Westminster and along the river either to Tower Hill of Greenwich... lovely piece of infrastructure. Personally I actually liked Kensington High Street to cycle through (those few months there was a cycle lane were not particularly better and created quite a lot of issues for tax'si, food delivery etc...
The temporary lanes were very basic tbh there was a nice visualisation floating around of what TfL wants to do which is similar to the lane on south carriage drive basically
@@Londoncycleroutes The dream of cycling from Ilford (hopefully beyond) all the way to Hounslow might one day become a reality if that is built 😍
Thanks for shooting this. When are you coming over to bluesky?
Thanks for watching! I’m not planning on setting up any more social media accounts to be honest
I was gonna ask this too, I made a Bluesky account 2 days ago and Jon is one of my favourite follows on Twitter. But it's understandable tbh
*Lovely route!*
🤙🏽⚡️🤟🏽⚡️👌🏽
Thanks for watching!
One of my favourite routes, I continue it down Cable Street and towards Canary wharf. Shame the bit around Buckingham Palace is so frequently closed for one reason or another.
Also the tent city in Puddle dock is expanding, it used to be a few tents now there's loads.
Yeah it’s really sad to see the Puddle Dock situation, I remember seeing tents in San Francisco 10 years ago and being horrified - not sure I would be now, would seem totally normal given how bad it’s got here
Around the tourist heavy areas, I find it much quicker and safer to use the roads. Drivers tend to be much more predictable than camera wielding pedestrians. Congestion calms traffic wonderfully ;-)
Haha i can see the appeal!
It's a fab route. I'm very much looking forward to the end of the super sewer sites so we get the safe spaces for people back from the road. At Blackfriars the way the lighte work for cycling is poor, I assume as they are designed for the cycle path you point out is due to be restored. At Westminster, massive pedestrianisation with cycle paths and very limited vehicle access has to come. The crossing Westminster bridge on a cycle path being used for big ben pictures and illegal ice cream vans is just not working.
Basically nearly everything from Horseferry Rd to Charing Cross Road should only have vehicles on it in very exceptional circumstances (buses in some limited cases like Victoria st)
They definitely need to pedestrianise a lot of the area around Big Ben + Westminster Abbey. One of the most popular tourist attractions in the world and they're all packed into the narrow pavements like sardines 😭
I sometimes wonder what tourists think
I’ve moved now so I don’t have to deal with them, but they put rumble strips on the Thames Path in Wandsworth just before the summer and I hated riding on them SO MUCH. Surely there must be better ways to slow people down! Sad to see so many tents in the tunnel by Upper Thames Street, seems like there are more each time
Yes there’s basically no evidence or basis for rumble strips among anything better it’s just the kind of thing organisations reactively install when they get complaints about people cycling
The amount of pedestrians walking into the lane without even looking is just.... Arggghhhh
Yeah I don’t know what people were up to today! Lots of oblivious people
You are right. It is just heavily overcrowded and i'm so glad living in the countryside. Our village has 130 inhabitants, six of them go outside.
Looking forward to getting back on my bike, almost off crutches now. I've never found the people on the mall too much as it's so wide (unlike Westminster bridge, once & never again) but I do find the lights confusing. I come in via Victoria ISH if I turn left to Buckingham palace first I don't know what lane I'm supposed to be in and then turning right if I wanted to go to pall mall I mess up every single time 🤷♀️ I honestly don't understand it, once I was in the wrong lane of an incoming motorbike and had to scoot over quickly another there were bikes coming down so I couldn't turn right. I don't get it. And I've now been cycling since 2019. So 5 years on & off. Going straight up to parliament is no issue, but in the other direction the lights take as long as cable street 🥱on constitution hill I don't even use the cycle path the road is empty I bike up wait for the lights to change then swing around on the road into Belgravia. Tho the lights changing a couple of seconds too quick is terrifying.
Will now visit bank, as I've worked there twice leadenhall & spitalfields, and I'd get so lost trying to find the 211 stops. It's a maze.
For future videos I have friends at London fields once you leave the Thames and turn left it's 😬 I can make it to the coop with the trough outside (already don't know where I am, near the wall before a big n-s rd. After that I have no clue x
Hope your injury heals soon and you can get cycling again!
@@Londoncycleroutesthanks. My chiropractor is in Kingston & without my bike 😬 the 170 to Clapham junction takes all day, then trains were cancelled & I had to get an Uber. So I now bus to south Kensington tube to Richmond bus Kingston so 2x20 yet it's 2 blimmin' hours 😱 I can't do it. My cycle limit is Mortlake so I am still going to need to cycle some form of transport. Maybe cycle to earls court, tube Richmond lock bike and bus. I can do 20 minutes on a bus. It's an hour from Putney bridge so that is a no and Im not leaving my bike at earls court! & I'm not sure about cycling to Kingston the main road south of the park is too narrow, maybe the path around will be okay but we are heading into winter this weekend & if I overdo it Im back on crutches. Any suggestions welcome x
@@LondoncycleroutesI just had a look at your Surbiton one... Lower ham road does look like my dream, long stretches on concrete, low in cars - tween the Thames and the motorway so you know exactly where you are, once it's on to more bumpy ground & dismounting and chicanes, and bridges I LOVE that area, I just know it pushes my limits. As does getting bike up and down stairs like Clapham junction station 😱 the lift has been broken at Richmond most of the year. And TFL left rubbish which my bike slipped on dragging me down... It shouldn't be this hard x
I cycled along that path on constitution hill the other day I find my new extra loud bell, I have on my Hybrid comes in very handy. I noticed sone new signage at the end with blue pedestrian/cycle arrows and there wasn’t as many wayward pedestrians this time. Westminster bridge cycle path, on the other hand, was completely unusable so I just went down the bus lane (even that had pedestrians and pedicabs in it). That seriously needs sorting.
The Westminster bridge design is just awful, classic example of police interfering in infrastructure design and screwing it up badly
@@Londoncycleroutes The westbound cycle lane is OK riding in to work of a morning, but the eastbound lane is not even worth trying on the way back in the afternoon or evening.
Nice route. I don't know London very well, so I'm probably missing something, but looking at the map there appear to be other roads running parallel(ish) to Kensington High Street. Could TfL not use one of those to link the west London cycle network to the rest of the network in the centre/north/east?
They did try this with Holland Park Ave (which isn’t quite as convenient an alignment, but would have been something) and RBKC basically strung them along for ages, there was a consultation, design etc, and then the borough pulled support as soon as someone predictably moaned, effectively blocking it and wasting everyone's time. Cromwell Rd is basically the only alternative candidate as it's a red route but it wouldn’t really connect with the already built C9 or South Carriage Drive lanes we were on and it doesn’t really go to the destination of Kensington High St. Plus frankly and less positively I think TfL probably doesn’t want to take capacity out of the strategic road network (which is another argument I don’t really agree with)
Holland Street/Duchess of Bedford's Walk is pleasant to cycle along. You can then ride north along Holland Walk. You then, however, get to Holland Park Avenue, which is not so nice. Even just making it easier to cross to get to Notting Hill/North Kensington would be welcome.
Unfortunately, all the parallel roads in that area will all come under the same council (RBKC), so the same council people stopping the Kensington High Street lanes will also put a stop to them sadly
Even when cycle lanes are very clearly marked I’ve had pedestrians yelling at me for being “on the pavement”. Bad signage shouldn’t happen. But there’s a lot of idiots out there as well.
Yes some people could probably benefit from looking where they’re going - whether bikes are involved or not!
best ride in london
It’s a good one!
@@Londoncycleroutes what would you say is the best, ?
@@benyoyyoyo8381 depends where you need to get to haha! this is definitely in the running
@@Londoncycleroutes Woolwich ferry to tower bridge in fun , along the river
Why is it that even though there is a segregated pedestrian path (on the run from Hyde Park Corner to Buckingham Palace) you have so many ignorant walkers in the cycle lane.
Sorry for the rant, but it grinds my gears.
Better signage would fix a lot of it I think!
Is there a good way to get from Chiswick to Marylebone/Euston area? How about to South Kensington around the museums, or the Royal Brompton/Royal Marsden hospitals?
Not really to be honest - you can follow Cycleway 9 to Kensington Olympia which is great but onwards it’s a mess in every direction as you’re in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea
Thanks for watching!
Same Komoot link in the description twice
Fixed! Thanks for flagging
Just note: NO photographs when cycling up Palace Green. Very pleasant, especially in the early AM, where the only people to talk to are the policemen/women at either end. Makes you want to become filthy rich.
Oh yes there are signs up
Thank you, warning, I have taken one of those speed limiting things and punctured, and kudos to the Corporation of London aka The City, for its infrastructure, it may be the best London borough Aso if I was a cyclist from somewhere other than London with an interest in London I'd watch these
Ow yeah I’ve not been punctured there myself but can totally see it happening. I definitely think the shaking will have an effect on general wear and tear either way!
Every time I watch you go down the section, I think about how the entire area around Castle Baynard Street needs to be demolished and built to a 2020s placemaking standard with great architecture fitting its prime location. It's just so miserably car-designed 1960s .
Honestly, a lot of the buildings near the river along Lower Thames Street are a disgrace. It all needs a redevelopment framework badly, preferably creating a vibrant medium density district along the river.
Totally - I think there are plans to redevelop it actually
Could you do New Cross to Fitzrovia as I’ve had a collision with a pedestrian who crossed and stopped in front of me giving me a minor concussion. The result of this is that my coordination is off. I cannot position my bike properly and keep swerving at low speed which makes other cyclists slow down and confuse other motorists. Cycling through central London at rush hour is so risky. Not only because of cars but the unpredictable pedestrians who just walk out and follow other pedestrians without checking it’s clear for them first.
It was these extra wide crossing that took me out. I was approaching the junction and it just turned amber. The pedestrians saw me and didn’t show any consideration as some of the pedestrians stepped into road as I got to the crossing blocking my view from the man I hit. I had less than a second to react.
After the incident these pedestrians were one of the most ignorant, entitled and apathetic people I’ve ever met. No one even asked me if I was ok or checked if I had any injuries. They were talking to me as if people are translucent. It was a red man and he couldn’t even see me. What was he thinking? I tried explaining it was dark, it was raining, hes carrying a lot of gear and he couldn’t see me so you shouldn’t be crossing on a red man. If you cross on a red man without making proper observations and you get hit you only have yourself to blame. They didn’t want to hear it or even apologise to me sincerely for what happened. Next time I am going to stand and shout as I go through. I’m not getting another concussion
The police were a joke as usual. Telling me to wear high vis which is scientifically proven to not make a difference. If people don’t look you will miss everything.
Very sorry to hear about that, sounds like a horrible experience. Check out the New Cross to Covent Garden video, it should cover most of the route! Will see if I can extend it
@ Thank you very much. It could only get to Elephant and Castle or Waterloo in low traffic. I did try experimenting by going towards Blackfriars bridge and using CS3 But Covent Garden is close enough. But I do wonder how much time a quieter route can add to my journey. My commute is around 25-35 minutes depending on different factors.
The tents appearing along Castle Baynard Street is a concerning development.
They have been there for some time now. If people cannot afford somewhere permanent to live, you end up with tents in the middle of our cities. Very sad.
They've been there for a couple of years now, it's definitely expanding though. Sign of the times.
😮😢
Very much so, that seems to be the way this country has been going for some time
Sad to see people having to camp out there, but most of them seem like they’re just trying to get on and live a quiet life.
Too right about Kensington High St- it's horrible for cyclists and really stands put compared to majority of the rest of London
and crucially there's no way around it
Never has there been a better example of nimbyism where central government needs to step in. Kensington & Chelsea is the most arrogant and self-centred borough that you could imagine. It's one thing having local oversight, but to actively block safe cycling routes for over a decade is a disgrace. The idea that they have the right to block routes between Westminster and Hammersmith is an absolute joke and a complete over-reach of what local transport powers should be about.
The new government needs to quickly pass new powers for the Mayor in order to override the boroughs' powers when it comes to key strategic routes. Kensington themselves will never change. They actively lobbied Boris to remove the congestion charge area extension, even though it meant their residents had to pay to enter the original zone as a result. They will literally cut off their nose to spite their face to prove their 'power' to not be told what to do.
Yes they’re a terrible borough. The government should absolutely give TfL the powers - as they’re done with Oxford St and Westminster etc
Layout at Blackfriars is too complicated- cyclists just ignore the infrastructure and lights
some of those lights should be zebras imo