Route Waterloo - South Woodford

As per title - any recommendations?

Fewer traffic lights would be a preference.

So I came up over Blackfriars, up past the Bank, then my Garmin tried to route me through the back of Liverpool Street station and to make various impossible right turns (I found out later it was set to pedestrian mode).

Ended up somewhere in Hackney full of warehouses called things like 'Blood and Fire Ministries', but the roads weren't bad for cycling. As I came into the Leyton area it got much worse, there was Ruckholt Road, which seemed expressly designed to put cyclists at risk - cars parked all the way along, a door-sized 'cycle lane' then a lane for traffic doing 30mph or so (I can't cycle that fast), and then after the road got wider but the cars just drive faster and closer

Went cycling towards Newbury Park along the Southend Road/A12 as well. Not fun, drivers around here seem to hate cyclists, assume they are out to kill you and it will be ok. Decided to cycle back on the shared use pavement thing: that was shit, lots of tactile paving slabs, risk of being run over at every side road as cars come turning off the dual carriageway at speed, so cycled on the dual carriageway instead.

Still not sure which route back to Waterloo.

How you deal with the first bit is up to you (I prefer Waterloo Bridge, round Aldwych, Fleet St, Fetter Lane, Charterhouse St, St John's St or Aldersgate), but after that I've never found much better than Old St, Hackney Rd, Queensbridge Rd, Dalston Lane, Pembury Road, Lower Clapton Rd, Leabridge Rd, Snaresbrook Rd, Woodford Rd.

Much of the time these days, however, I'm only using that route at about 7am on a Sunday morning, but still stopping at the reds. #righteous

I normally cycle in Surrey, where it's six miles between towns and there's one set of traffic lights en route.

It's a bit easier to be a righteous red-light stopper-at there.

It's fairly easy in town too. You just have to accept London for what it is, and plan accordingly. Still quicker than car/public transport. Plus there's so much to see while you're waiting, it's great.

I need my fix of unbroken pedalling too though, don't get me wrong.

Yeah tbh I find it much easier cycling in London. Flat as a pancake, road surfaces good despite what the 4x4 arseholes might claim, and doing 12 miles on Friday felt the equivalent of doing 5 miles in Surrey.

The first bit:
I do Upper Ground, Southwark St, London Bridge, Fenchurch St, Aldgate & Aldgate East, Vallance Road.....and that's where I leave you.
I found that staying South is faster than cutting North early.

Yes, I agree with BMMF, you need to do ride on an arc that avoids Leyton and Ruckholt rd and the whole lower lea crossing ..

I tend to go further N and ride up Roseberry Ave from Holborn to the Angel, but you can also go up Kingsway to Theobalds Rd and head east that way. I live @ Whipps X btw..

Welcome to Newbury Park! Every thing you say about the A12 is true and it gets worse the further East you go.....

If you want to learn the routes out of east london then PM me

I took this route:

http://connect.garmin.com/activity/231438678

I'm not sure I took the best route to cross the Central Line. Google Maps suggests taking the footbridge a way south of South Woodford station. Obviously a stupid idea.

The Garmin however told me to go down to the Green Man roundabout and take the fourth exit (not much fun), and then up Whipps Cross Road past Whipps Cross. Turning right past Snaresbrook station would have been shorter/quicker, so not sure why it did this.

Lea Bridge Road was a veritable cycle superhighway compared with Ruckholt Road - faster by bike than car and not many traffic lights. Did gesture at one driver who was trying to block my lane so he could turn right across me. Brakes a bit dodgy and I don't want to stop anyway.

Came through Dalston and shouted at a couple of girls crossing the road in my path.

Down Essex Road, Rosebery Avenue, Farringdon Road, Blackfriars Bridge and right on the Cut. Coming down Blackfriars Road, signalled right getting ready to turn right, cunt in a white van didn't want to let me in, but I was going faster than him, and pulled in front of him anyway, he then pulled into the left lane and cut me up back into right lane, then 40 yards down the road went back into the left lane as it was moving faster.

Got the train then went to pick my kids up from school. Came down the hill, oops not going to stop (brakes still dodgy), we bailed into one of those plastic beacons. Scraped my knee but no harm done otherwise. Brake service was booked on Saturday, for Wednesday....

Welcome to the Lea Bridge Road, that sounds like a normal ride!

If you go up to the Woodford Rd , ie Waitrose and then go down to the Eagle Pub and turn R up past the pond up to Whipps X then you can miss out the green man. You can also cut through Leyton from the Green Man up to the Bakers Arms, but it needs a bit of work...

Took much the same route this time (towards S Woodford), except Snaresbrook Road (past Eagle Pond, then down past Snaresbrook Station) instead of Whipps Cross Road (better, but turning right onto Snaresbrook road it seemed like, despite the presence of the ASL, the traffic lights to turn right onto Snaresbrook Road would never go green, so I went through the red light), and King Henry's Walk/Downs Park Road instead of Dalston Lane.

Passed secondary school with 12-foot high fence. Fuck that place looks scary. Apparently it's one of the best schools in the country?

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/education/8341428/Mossbourne-Academy-A-tale-of-high-expectations.-.-.-and-no-excuses.html
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/education/education-news/mossbourne-academy-a-class-act-thats-hard-to-follow-7758183.html

Won't be moving to Hackney any time soon, I didn't even want to stop at the traffic lights never mind send my kids to school there.

Not a bad route.

I still need to try Mile End Road, but my GPS is flat so probably next time.

Shouted at a driver today, car stopped up zebra crossing to let peds cross, he came steaming up the inside (towards the side the pedestrians needed to meet), then pulled out again cos he was turning right at the red light, and stopped right inside the ASL (traffic light was red when he got there, so no excuse, just a cunt). I gestured at him, he wound down his window, I told him that it was for bikes, and he said 'you shoudn't ride on the pavement', I said 'it's not a pavement, it's a crossing' then he said 'where's your helmet' I said 'what's it to got to do with you?', and he said 'health + safety'. I probably could have been a bit more articulate, and said 'I'd be turning right here but you're blocking the way, you cunt' but I had had 3/4 of a bottle of wine for lunch, and didn't mention about him driving like a cunt at the zebra crossing either.

Oh Hackney is not that bad.

You have just ridden down what was Murder Mile at Clapton. Riots only happen once in 20 years ....

The Hackney Central end of Dalston Lane now has a branch of Borough Wines; I nearly fell off my bike when saw that.

BTW

Its S Woodford that scares me most.....

Well today was epically shit.

I had my brakes serviced on Wednesday last week, the chain was fine before that, but after I got the service it seemed clunky, anyway, I was planning to take it back to them when I got home to get it looked at.

Unfortunately I didn't make it.

I left at 3:30pm from South Woodford, up Hermon Hill, a bit blowy and I wondered if I was going slower than last week if it was just because it was uphill.

I made it passed Snaresbrook station going up the hill, and my chain snapped.

Fuck. Not had that happen before.

So I pushed my bike up Hollybush Hill to the Green Man, push it round the roundabout, I wait till there's no-one in the left-turn lane before crossing the sliproad for the A12, but some arsehole in the wrong lane and not signalling beeps his horn at me, so I shout abuse at him, doubt he can hear me though.

Made it to Leytonstone, met a lady at the lights on a folding bike, asked her if she knew where there was a bike shop. 'I'll show you', she said. 'Er, my chain's snapped'. So she explained, just by Wanstead station. Called them up, yep we can sort that.

Scooted along there, got the bike in, they said 'look this chain is worn, see here's the wear tool'. I said 'I did ask them to check it in the other bike shop, but it seems they don't like to replace things till they are completely worn out'. 'Well it might be a good idea on a bike that gets as much load as this one does', he said. Anyway, he fitted a new link, £5, bike fine, slightly jumpy, but now an hour late.

Decide I can't make it to Waterloo before the 4:45-7 pm cycle blackout, so I tell my GPS to take me home.

I call my wife at work 'you need to pick the kids up'. She ain't impressed, but tough.

Satnav takes me on the A106 (Grove Green Road/Ruckholt Road/Victoria Park Road). It's even worse than I remembered, next to the thundering A12, I take primary mostly to stop the people trying to get past, and I pass the same coach several times at lights.

Turn up Victoria Park Road, decide that I will use the cycle lane, as there are, unusually no cars parked inside it, and it would be polite to let the car behind past, rather than blocking him, especially as it's uphill and my bike weighs 25kg.

Streetview here:
https://maps.google.co.uk/maps?q=e18+1rh&hl=en&ll=51.544614,-0.033538&spn=0.012757,0.026157&sll=52.8382,-2.327815&sspn=12.706523,26.784668&hnear=London+E18+1RH,+United+Kingdom&t=m&z=16&layer=c&cbll=51.544537,-0.033622&panoid=noT9-tIJbFWk25lKjsugRw&cbp=12,218.98,,0,6.05

Unfortunately if you follow the streetview you'll see the cycle lane lasts about 50 yards, and just as it is petering out the coach overtakes me and by the time it's completed its overtake the cycle lane is gone and it's just inches from me. Not fun.

Realise that I'm heading towards Bishopsgate, so might as well try my luck at Waterloo.

Journey from there, not bad, although there's a man wearing what appear to be swimming trunks who keeps jumping lights and at one of the lights fails to get off cleanly, and as I'm behind him I have to abort with a taxi up my backside.

Head into Waterloo station and approach the staff member near platform 12. Just as I do some arsehole comes past and says 'get your fucking bike out of the way'. His mate follows this by slamming it into me. I tell him he's going to get arrested if he carries on, but he doesn't seem very worried.

Woman tells me you can't get on, ask over there. So I ask over there, they say you can't get on, I'll get a leaflet. I don't need a leaflet, I just want to get home, after 7pm they say. So can I get a refund? '£10 charge' (the ticket cost £10.) So is there anywhere I can go? They say I can go to Basingstoke. 'So if I buy an extra ticket to Basingstoke I can go home?' They say yes but don't seem sure, and when I ask where to buy the ticket, it's in the ticket office with a mile long queue.

So I buy something from Costa Fuckingfortune, and drink it while trying to buy a ticket on my phone, but fail, and decide I can't be arsed to hang around till 10 past 7, or queue in the ticket office for some odd ticket (Farncombe) for a train that will probably have left by the time I've got the ticket and I'll just get going.

So I head over Westminster Bridge, down the Kings Road, over Putney Bridge, Lower Richmond Road, then make the error of turning up Roehampton Lane (satnav gone flat). That was stupid, it's all uphill and leads onto the A3.

Nevermind.

I stop at petrol station and buy two Mountain Dews for £2, and drink both. Polish bloke driving a Europcar van approaches me, looks at my tyres and asks if I have a pump. I do. Apparently he's got a bike in his van. He's not gone very long, considering what a shit pump it is, I'd be surprised if he got 20psi out of it. Anyway.

Go hell-for-leather down the A3, I find it a bit scary, and have to cut across two lanes of traffic to turn right towards Kingston.

Safely navigated, I keep going, I'm heading towards Surbiton station, i can't be bothered to cycle all the way home, especially as I already have a ticket. Suddenly I realise, I've lost my glasses (prescription Oakleys). I wonder if I left them in the petrol station when I was helping the Polish bloke. Or maybe they fell out on the A3. Anyway, I cycle back, on the pavement, headlight pointing in the cycle lane. I find them only 1/4 of a mile or so down the hill. Hurray.

Make it to Surbiton, haul the bike up 36 steps and then down 28 steps to the platform.

Having done this I'm told that there are signal problems in the Surbiton area. Wait there for half-an-hour while they say this. Drink beer (always come prepared). Then they announce that the train on platform 2 is now going the opposite direction. I ask the man on the platform how long before it goes, as I don't want to be hauling my bike onto the wrong platform and then miss the train. 'You'd better hurry' So bike goes up 28 steps, then down 28 steps.

I make it. Yay. Only took five-and-a-half hours.

This is the route I did daily for 3 years.

http://www.gmap-pedometer.com/?r=5707994

You can go under the Green Man roundabout in both directions. On the way in the entrance is on the right by the traffic lights at the junction of Holly Bush Hill and New Wanstead Road.

On the way out it is on the left handside by Hanbury Drive.

High Road Leytonstone is a quieter route in, as most traffic uses the A12. Don't be put off by the A11 and the Bow flyover it is not any worse than any other road.

But Basingstoke isn't anywhere near either Waterloo or South Woodford.

Are you sure you got to the correct home and your wife and kids aren't sitting around in your actual home wondering wtf you are?