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@Professor_Tim
I'm sorry if this is well known - don't know how much TfL publicised it but my mate built a lot of the stuff that went into the Routes system that works out the here-to-there calculations, so I got to hear about this very early on. Apologies if there are any grannies out there who aren't into egg-sucking.
On the TfL website, they have an A-to-B route planner for cyclists. It's not perfect but it's bloody good for something that's free to use.
Go to www.tfl.gov.uk and under the Journey Planner is a link to Advanced options. Stick in your Travelling From... and Travelling To... plus time of day and scroll down a bit. Either untick everything and tick Cycle as your preferred mode of transport, or go further down for the "I want a cycle-only route" option.
It'll generate you a route which it stores on PDFs you can read using Adobe Acrobat Reader (which is free to download if you haven't got it). You can save the PDF to your PC for routes you're likely to do again. You can print out and carry with you, if you have a colour printer as well. It works out journey times and distances for you etc. Plus, it has roads on the map marked to show where you're cycling along a canal or park, quiet roads recommended by cyclists and roads which have marked cycleways on them.
So if you want to have a furtle about with different routes from here to there, it's a great utility and you don't want to pore over a cycle map for ages. Oh, and TfL will send you cycle maps for free as well, if you ask them.
Enjoy.