London lunchtime routes

Was bored at lunch so went for a quick spin this lunchtime from farringdon down to london bridge then on to the rotherhithe tunnel roundabout and back up again.

This is essentially just doing half of my normal daily commute so while it was interesting to ride it when there was almost no traffic about it wasn't a very inspired route in the scheme of things. As I'm still new to cycling (coming up to 5 months soon) I don't venture far from the beaten track so would like to get out and see the rest of town rather than sit at my desk munching a sandwich.

Does anyone have any routes they like to ride around the central London at lunchtime they can share?

Ideally ones between 30 and 60 minutes riding at a comfortable pace (not a pootle but not sprinting off every set of lights either).

(usual new thread disclaimers apply. I did a search but nothing identical came up, reps may go up as well as down, yadda yadda yadda).

If you're starting around Farringdon Road, I would probably ride to Bloomsbury, across to Regent's Park, round, and back. Use Tavistock Place to get over to New Cavendish Street.

Go exploring. Ride the backstreets and get lost (for as long as you like) until you find a main road and then turn home. Or find a couple of nifty spots to fly by and then turn back.

I hardly ever do this but it's good fun when I do.

Skully: Cheers, that's exactly the sort of thing I'm after.

Spybot: I'd love to take my time and just go walkabout for a bit but my boss would probably get annoyed if I did that on my lunchbreak. sadly I have to devote time to the girlfriend at the weekends (don't get to see her during the week) and she doesn't have a bike so I don't often get the chance to just head out and explore on my bike especially as I've only ridden in the winter so far when it's dark and the weathers shite.

but by all means keep em coming, if anyone else has any similar requests please feel free to tack them on to this thread as well.

you can just get lost for the first 15 mins, just ride in whatever direction the wind takes you.

then spend 30-45 mins making your way back, you will find some amazing things!

actual route suggestion though -

riding down towards green park and b-ham palace at lunch is a recommendation, theres never traffic down that way, just amazing archtecture and queeny

You could head towards City Road basin and join the canal, that might be more pootle speed though due to peds, but canal riding is nice during the day.

Starting at Garys Inn Road I did a loop around Hyde Park which was really nice. A bit traffic-y at the start/end though. And yes the Mall is so quiet at lunch...

Done Bloomsbury too many times visiting my girl at lunch to enjoy it now, and still looking for something nice. Will have to be quiet back streets today unless someone's got a genius idea in the next 30 mins...

I know a few people on here go and do laps of regents park at lunch time some days, that could be fun, or either try and cycle in one
direction and try and see how far away from the office you can get before you have to turn back so not to be late!

Ever wondered when commuting home where a particular road goes to? I know I did, so I would just try them to see where they ended up. Sometimes dull, sometimes very interesting, and you get to know London away from the main arteries pretty fast this way.

plenty of cool little streets beteween London Wall and Cheapside, won't take long to explore.

One of my favourites is to go down to the river at Tower Bridge to St. Katherine's Way, make every attempt you can to be as close to the river as possible and head towards Canary Wharf. I think it's called the Thames Path, but my favourite part is just off the Path itself, where you can turn off Wapping High St. to Hermitage Wall there's a pedestrian/cycle way just behind the red van here:

Great fun. I hope some of you try it!