Crossings of London Part 2, West Ham to Blackfriars Bridge

With the UK's early summer-like weather continuing and a late change to my university schedule giving me Friday off I decided to crack on with my challenge of crossing every one of London's bridges, tunnels and ferries.
On my first stage a few weeks ago I got as far as the Woolwich ferry before I called it a day- this meant my first crossing today would be the Woolwich Foot Tunnel.
I had a nice chat with another cyclist on the train who was using a very different cycle, called a recumbant cycle. It looks like a reclining chair on wheels and I was very intrigued. Would love to try one out one day. I left West Ham mainline station and rode the five miles down past City Airport, Silvertown and the lovely Royal Victoria Docks area on my way to the tunnel. They have retained the now defunct cranes here as a visible reminder of the Dock's former life and they make for a very impressive sight.

  The Woolwich Foot Tunnel entrance is a elegant circular buidling and a grade two listed building. I nearly missed it again as now it is completed encased in scaffolding and coverings for major renovations. I had to carry my bike down the spiral staircase which was very uncomfortable but I was on my way back south of the water again.

Crossing Five: Woolwich Foot Tunnel.

It's a 504m walk through the tunnel to South Woolwich with annoying barriers to prevent cyclists from riding through the tunnel. Next on my crossings list was the little known Hilton Hotel Docklands ferry, although the author of the website I found that inspired this ride advised against it. It's £4 for a 2 min crossing and is only really used for hotel guests so I thought I'd just make up my mind when I got there.

 Whilst riding along the Thames Path I began thinking about this ride and how to get as much out of it as possible. Sure I could just ride between crossings, take the obligatory photo and move on to the next. I considered that a waste.There were so many sights and attractions on the way I made a decision there and then to stop as often as I liked at places of interest on the way, otherwise my ride would just feel like a 'tickbox' exercise. I was about to ride through Greenwich but what caught my eye next gave me an idea for a little detour, a sign for Charlton Athletic Football Club's ground, The Valley. I thought I'd pop in and try to get a photo inside the ground. I rode up and put their reputation as one of the friendliest clubs in England to the test. Within two minutes a friendly security guard ( itself a rarity) was escorting me through the stands to the pitch. Try doing that at The Emirates!

In the home team Dugout.

With glorious sunshine making for perfect cycling conditions, I made my way along to my next crossing, the Greenwich foot tunnel back to the north side. I also made a short stop to have a look at The Thames Barrier.

. Whist riding through Greenwich, and past the eyesore that is the O2 arena formally The Millennium Dome, I fancied dropping into the Royal Observatory in Greenwich. I stopped for a nice packed lunch of bananas, grapes and coffee on the lawn at Greenwich Park. It's a beautiful park and on this summers like day it was glorious.

 I went up the impossibly steep hill on which the observatory sits and really struggled to push the bike up. I felt like the boy in the Hovis ad pushing his bike up Gold Hill...

It was obviously very touristy at the observatory and the tour parties of Japanese and Americans didn't take long to get on my nerves. The view though back over Greenwich Park took my mind of them though...

I took the obligatory shot of me standing either side of the Greenwich Meridian Line, the point of which all of Earth's time is calculated.

The rest of the world to my left, the rest of the world to my right.

 To be honest, aside from the Meridian Line the rest of the observatory wasn't that good. There's some interesting exhibits on the history of time but I decided to move on. An employee told me of a hill which led back down to the park, I wish I'd known about it earlier! I got up to 28mph on my way down and rode on to the nearby Cutty Sark which wa right next to my next crossing, The Greenwich Foot Tunnel. Major renovation works are going on by the ship, presumably connected with the tragic fire in 2007 that almost destroyed one of Britains's best loved historical ships. The Cutty Sark was Britain's last built clipper ship built in 1869 and was a merchant vessel.

Again, this area was swarming with tourists, and I was glad to leave them behind and move on to the Greenwich Foot Tunnel. This tunnel, opened in 1902, links South Greenwich to The Isle of Dogs on the north side and is an almost carbon copy of the Woolwich one. It's 370 metres long.

Crossing Six: Greenwich Foot Tunnel.

I briefly stopped at the Hilton ferry but just like the website author, decided to skip it. It just wasn't worth the money.I carried onto past a impressive and very expensive looking Isle of Dogs riverside apartment complex along the north side Thames Path to my next crossing, and one that filled me with some trepidation, the Rotherhithe Tunnel.  According to that website listing all the crossings this isn't one to be enjoyed but as it's legal to use as a cyclist and a footpath exists it had to be done. although I really wasn't looking forward to it.

Looks like everything is banned apart from cyclists, I quickly wished they were...

I entered the tunnel and and into a merky world of loud reverberating engine noise and air thick with exhaust fumes, it was a very uncomfortable experience through the 1481 metres back to the south side and Bermondsey. The tunnel itself isn't straight, its a long twisty succession of sharp bends, apparently designed to prevent spooking horses back in olden days.

Crossing Seven: The Rotherhithe Tunnel

Upon leaving the tunnel, and doing all of 3mph disaster struck. There was a tree coming out of the pavement that that had a circle cut into the pavement for it to grow out of. I didn't notice that this circle was reinforced by a ring of metal that was impossible to see. My front wheel just slipped into this circle and I fell off. Well fell off sounds dramatic, I was going so slowly I basically lowered myself to the pavement. But being caught in this ring of metal acted like a train wheel on a  track and it caused catastrophic damage to my front wheel- it was buckled almost beyond use.I just couldn't believe so much damage could be caused when going so slowly. I asked a local guy if there was a cycle shop nearby and he said there was, literally two minutes away along Jamacia Road. Problem was, it was 1715, would he be open? I was able to ride very slowly to the shop with a comically shaped wheel to the shop. All I needed was a yellow wig and a red nose and I would've perfected the clown on a bike look. Luckily the shop was still open and the owner offered to sell me a reconditioned second hand wheel for £10. I was very lucky and also very grateful that I wouldn't have to carry my bike home and I could carry on my ride. 

Next up was a Bridge I was looking forward more than any, the iconic and world famous Tower Bridge, only five minutes away from where I was. It was a great experience riding over this bridge and I stopped to take in the view.

Crossing Eight: Tower Bridge.

View down the River.

I knew now that the bridges would come thick and fast compared to the miles gaps of the ones downriver, I could look along and see the next few. I was now in Central London and the chaotic travel. It was too busy and dangerous to listen to the radio like I like to do when I was cycling, so I put it away and had the noises of London as my soundtrack. I rode past the Tower of London, stopping for a quick photo.

I rode along Upper Thames Street to my next Bridge, the rather non descript London Bridge, no more tunnels now! A famous Urban Legend exists that when the previous London Bridge was sold to an American Billionaire to be rebuilt in the Arizona desert in 1962, he mistakenly believed he was buying Tower Bridge. It's completely false but does make for an interesting story, one of those that you WANT to be true but quite simply isn't. 

Crossing Nine: London Bridge

Next up was one of what I consider to be one of London's prettiest bridges, the green and gold Southwark Bridge. I took the cycle superhighway back to the north side of the Thames.

Crossing Ten: Southwark Bridge.

With time running out I decided I only had time to do a few more so settled on two more and then I would go in search of some dinner and carry this on to another day.

Next was the newest Bridge to be built over the Thames, The Millennium Bridge, famously known as The Wobbly Bridge after some early technical problems led to users feeling that the bridge was bouncing underneath them as they walked over. It closed for some time whilst engineers tried to solve the problem.

It's a beautiful steel structure linking Bankside on the south side with the City on the North, close to St Paul's Cathedral.

Crossing Eleven: The Millennium Bridge. 

With my energy sapping and my stomach rumbling I set off for for the few hundred yards to my final bridge of  the day, Blackfriars Bridge.

I rode past thousands of City Workers spilling out on the streets from packed bars, enjoying the warm Friday evening. 

A nice Japanese tourist offered to take my photo and I completed my last bridge of the day.

Crossing Twelve: Blackfriars Bridge

With my bridge crossing finished for the day, my attention tuned to food. I decided I'd go to the only pub in London I knew that sold cheap food- a Wetherspoon's pub just off Trafalgar Square. I had a great time riding down The Strand in Central London, past |Charing Cross, through Trafalgar Square and to the pub. They were still serving food but I had a problem- nowhere to lock up my bike. The manager had no secure facilities and could only recommend locking it at Charing Cross station, 400 yards away and totally out of eyesight. I couldn't take that risk or lock it to a lampost outside as the police remove all locked bikes immediately for security reasons- Parliament and Downing Street are only minutes away. I even got thrown out of a McDonald's for wheeling my bike inside! They reluctantly agreed to let me buy a takeway before showing me the pavement, and I sat on a bench in Charing Cross eating what I'd been trying to avoid all day, McDonalds. Annoying thing was the pub food would've been nicer, cheaper and healthier.

So that was my day. I'd made Central London by the end of day two and had twenty more crossings to look forward next time. It was time to go home.

Crossings of London Part One

As all of my posts on my travel blog have been cycle trips recently, I thought it was about time I set up a specific cycling blog, so here it is.
One boring evening last week, I was on the net looking for the website for the Dartford Crossing so I could charge up my dart tag, the results of my google search also brought up the following site; http://www.bike99.com/thamescrossings.html.
Intrigued, I forgot all about my need to save 50p per crossing and clicked on it. Amongst other splendid ride suggestions the first one was a ride which incorporated every method of crossing the tidal Thames- from Teddington Lock in West London to the Tilbury Ferry in the east- which are legal for cyclists.  I'd been looking for a ride with a difference for a while and I'd found it, quite by accident and I was excited by the challenge.
The site recommended doing the 40 mile ride from west to east, however living in Essex I decided to do it in reverse and start from Gravesend in the morning.

I woke up to glorious spring weather, bright sun but a slight chill in the air and made my way to Tilbury via the C2C train, looking forward to my day. I was wondering if I'd manage all the crossings in one day but quickly came to the conclusion that that would be too ambitious, and knowing my penchant for getting lost in search of bike routes considered it highly unlikely. I had an invite from my mate Rick in Bethnal Green for a beer in the evening so the distance between Gravesend and there being around 25 miles considered that a good chunk of the route. 

First Crossing: Tilbury Gravesend Ferry

I got off the ferry and immediately hit the unfamiliar territory of turning right, as opposed to my usual route of left towards Rochester.

 There were no defined cycle paths in this area so it was on road riding along the A226, however I was convinced a cycle path existed that followed the river. I stopped and asked a bus driver standing by the side of the road. He seemed to agree although wasn't entirely sure but suggested I take a flight of steps down from the road to the river that was about a mile up the road. I found the steps but had to carry my bike down the steps. The steps dumped me in the middle of Northfleet cement works. Immediately I doubted the existence of cycle routes in this area following the Thames along to London.

After riding around in circles for a while I decided to ask a bunch of lorry drivers if they knew of a a cycle path heading west. I approached one driver and enquired if they knew of the cycle path. The guy I asked simply looked at me at said" Check?"  Clutching my google map print out I replied that I had several times but couldn't find it, to which he replied again, this time more assertively, "Check!" I asked him where again to which he replied and pointed to his lorry with 'Praha' on the side, " No, Czech!, Czech Republic, no speak English..."
 Embarrassed I turned around and asked a guy on the gate to a cement works where to go and he pointed me to another set of concrete steps back up to the road I needlessly had left.

Approaching the Dartford Crossing.

I followed the road through Northfleet and Bean, stopping for lunch at a MacDonalds and a coffee in a park in Dartford on the six mile leg down to my next crossing, the Dartford Tunnel back to Essex.



 Officially being an A road the highway authority are obliged to maintain access to cyclists over the river and provide a free escort service across the Thames.

Dartford Tunnel and Queen Elizabeth II bridge.

I called up the Highway staff for my escort over and awaited to make my second crossing of the Thames.

I asked the Highways bloke to fasten it for me, didn't want my bike to fall off halfway through the tunnel...

Crossing Two: Dartford Tunnel

I had nothing to do back in Essex, all I wanted to do was turn back to Kent via the bridge, but thinking this wouldn't please the Highways boys,( " thanks for the lift, now can you take me straight back please?"), I decided to kill half an hour by cycling around to Ikea.

I returned to the waiting area and requested a ride back over to Kent, whilst waiting I stood chatting to a another cyclist who was riding from Dagenham to Sevenoaks. He asked what I was doing so I told him of my plans. He seemed genuinely interested about my ambitious plan, but he too shared my doubts that it would be possible to finish it- and enjoy it in one day.

Our patrol arrived, strapped both bikes to the back and transported us back over the Queen Elizabeth II Bridge. The patrol guy was very friendly and knew his stuff about the bridge, apparently every leg of the bridge contains a lift up to a walking platform, never knew that!

Crossing Three: Queen Elizabeth II Bridge.

Back in Kent, I set off on the longest gap between crossings; the 12 miles to the Woolwich Foot Tunnel and ferry. This is by far the longest leg.

After leaving the bridge behind I checked the cycle routes app on my phone, this time convinced I could access a Thames hugging cycle path. So I followed a bumpy path in the direction of the river, only to come to a solid metal gate blocking the path. There was a opened part allowing pedestrians to walk through that I could have carried my bike through but my attention was drawn to a sign saying " Warning -Dartford Shooting Club Area". This put me off from proceeding, didn't want to get caught in some friendly fire; I didn't know, they could have had American members for all I knew...

I retraced my steps back to the main road and continued on to Erith. I had misread the cycle path location on the phone and now I knew it followed a pretty clear path from Erith train station all the way to London.

I saw my first NCR ( National Cycle Route) sign for ages on the approach to Erith and followed it all the way to the train station and the first time I had seen a cycle route with Woolwich on it. As I passed it my eye just caught a sign saying " Alternative Thames Path Cycle Route". Now I had a dilemma! After finally finding the NCR route to Woolwich should I follow it or gamble on this alternative, which if I was honest was the one I really wanted to do? I took the second option, backtracked and joined the Thames Path. And I was so glad I did.

Quite like the lighting in this photo...

The path was a wonderful, purpose built cycle path following the contours of the Thames as closely as possible and far enough away from the roads that it was impossible to hear any car noises. I could pedal along in the pleasant spring evening, taking in the sea air and watching boats going along the Thames.

Thames Riverside Cycle Path.

This was the ride I'd envisaged when I first discovered that website and I'd found it. With the new Bruce Springsteen album providing a nice soundtrack the miles along the river to Woolwich tumbled by.

After an hour or so I found myself in the very trendy areas of Thamesmead and Woolwich, under the flightpath of London City Airport on the opposite banks of the Thames.

With the light failing and time running short to get to Bethnal Green by eight, I decided I only had time to do one more crossing today, and that would be the Woolwich Ferry north back over to London. It wasn't immediately obvious where the Woolwich foot tunnel was so I decided that would be the starting point for Part two of this trip when I pick it up next.

A friendly cyclist showed me where to wait for the ferry and my final crossing of the day.

Crossing Four: Woolwich Ferry.

It was the first time in my life I'd used the Woolwich Ferry so I was quite excited about it!

I now had an eight mile ride via Canning Town and Stepney Green towards Bethnal Green and  a well deserved pint in Rick's lovely but quite expensive local pub. Three quid for a bowl of chips? No ta!

A lovely wheat beer in The Carpenters Arms, Bethnal Green.

My nearest train station home was Fenchurch Street so I headed off there via one of the most iconic streets in England, Brick Lane.  The traditional home to generations of immigrants to London over the centuries, it is now known as Banglatown due to the huge Bangladeshi community that reside there. Over the years it has been the first settlement to Irish immigrants, followed by Jewish settlers and now the current inhabitants. It was also the scene of the first murder of Jack The Ripper in 1888, a Martha Tabram.  The area didn't disappoint, for half past ten on a Wednesday the place was alive with an incredible atmosphere, I rode down the street almost at walking pace, taking in the smells, sights and sounds. The sensory assault led me not to notice I'd been riding the wrong way up the street, it was one way!

All I wanted to do now was a get a photo under the sign, so I approached a couple of American tourists who gladly took the following photo...

So that was my day, I was tired but had had a great day out, 12 hours and 45 miles later I was ready for bed, looking forward to whenever I manage to finish off this Crossings of London tour.