social cycle ride 10am Saturday June 10th

[Sally Eva]

Tour de Rotherhithe, 2017

However, don't get excited, anything less like the Tour de France or even the Tour de Yorkshire would be difficult to conceive. This is a two hour, slow-paced, easy, chatty cycle ride around the Rotherhithe Peninsula. Perambulation would be a better description if it could sensibly be applied to a bike ride.

The ride starts at 10am outside Canada Water Library SE16 7AR. When Surrey Docks were redeveloped in the 1980s a network of off-road paths was created, so it is possible to design a 10 mile ride that is almost traffic free with many points of interest. Highlights include the Salter statues modelled on the family of young Dr Salter who dedicated his life to the impoverished people of Bermondsey, a slum area overrun by squalor and disease in the south east of central London. http://www.independentlabour.org.uk/main/2013/03/28/ilp120-alfred-salter-and-the-bermondsey-revolution/

Then there's Surrey Docks City Farm, the new Surrey Canal Linear Park, and the Barry Mason Memorial Bench beside Greenland Dock. Barry was a great Southwark cyclist and the man behind so many great cycle projects now coming to fruition.

Everyone is welcome on all these rides. Southwark Cyclists is the borough branch of the London Cycling Campaign and most of us belong to the LCC but no one has to. Similarly most (but not all of us) live in Southwark but wherever you live you are welcome on our rides. Route at https://goo.gl/5pFd9b.

Finally, this ride also forms part of Bike Week so if it were possible to get more welcoming and open it would be. Get more info on Bike Week at http://bikeweek.org.uk/