London's Toughest Hills

On the way to Tyson Rd in Forrest Hill puts hairs on my chest. Jearningham/Pepys, New Cross also buggers.

^ ^^ ^^^ awesome, thanks all, will have to go exploring at some point! Are any of those roads particularly busy?

Eliot bank, Canonbie Road and College Road are all roads I find very quiet. The four ways up sydenham hill to my recall aren't crazy busy and there's a bus lane in at least some of them. Gipsy Hill and Anerly Road are both busier than I'd like, but you might be fine with them, it depends on your comfort levels. I also seem to remember the roads around the Horniman having actual honest-to-god cycle lanes on them (but could have faulty memory)

Discovered brasted hill a couple of weeks back, towards the end of a 80 miler. Seriously thought for a while that I wasn't going to make it over- which on a fixie is fine, on a racey roadie is an issue.

Eliot bank, Canonbie Road and College Road are all roads I find very quiet. The four ways up sydenham hill to my recall aren't crazy busy and there's a bus lane in at least some of them. Gipsy Hill and Anerly Road are both busier than I'd like, but you might be fine with them, it depends on your comfort levels. I also seem to remember the roads around the Horniman having actual honest-to-god cycle lanes on them (but could have faulty memory)

Cool, cheers. It's as much with regards to descending if I'm doing early morning reps or something... Don't fancy going blasting downhill with half awake drivers going the other way. Looking forward to investigating!

Yeah, I don't really like going down Gipsy Hill as it's a fast descent and there's a lot of minor roads that feed out onto it and a petrol station on the right hand side of the road as you're coming down, so they're not just dozy and half awake, but all they're thinking about is putting petrol in their cars. Terrifying. Going down Anerley is ok, though, it's nice and wide.

I took the bike this afternoon and somehow I ended up in Canonbie Road. It was quite tough climbing it with the 47x16, especially the last part, which I had to zigzag all the way up.

Anyway, it´s worth climbing it just for the view.

Nice pic

I live just off Gipsy Hill and hardly go down it due to the things bothwell's mentions. The second half of the road after the train station is horrid. Nasty patch of road just past the curry house followed by a nasty bend near the end of the road.

Has anyone posted up West Hill? Starts near Southside shopping centre and ends up in Putney Village. Not too steep but a long drag.

Is it possible to ascend the climb to cadence in Crystal palace, but actually inside the park if that makes sense? Ie, can you ride in the park, and is there a steep hill in the north west corner of it!?

The entrance to the Sports Centre is almost opposite Cadence at the top of Anerley Hill. I'm not sure if you can get into the park from lower down on Anerley Hill though? The only way I've gone is from the Sydenham side. Anyway, there aren't any serious climbs in the park. The bit where they do the crit racing is fun to go around too!

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I just found this great site for easily showing gradients and elevation
(Looks like it has been around since 2008 but have never come across it).

Intro: http://www.bikehike.co.uk
Course creator: http://www.bikehike.co.uk/mapview.php
(On right in mapping control, tickbox: 'show elevation data'. You can then see 'elevation' or 'gradient'.

I find the problem with steep hills in London are the constant traffic lights, vehicles that always race from side streets then brake at the last second making you think they're gonna hit you side on, mong-peds stepping out and other shit that breaks up your rhythm.