sociable cycle ride to Walthamstow Sat Feb 15th starts 9.30am

[Sally Eva]

Walthamstow! Why should anyone want to go there? Well, Waltham Forest Borough Council have won a hat full of awards for their ?Mini-Holland? project to improve walking and cycling. So this is a ride to see what all the fuss is about.

The group will meet at 9.30 at the Southwark Needle (located on SE corner of London Bridge, at top of Duke St Hill, adjacent to London Bridge Station see pic) for a 3.5 hour easy ride to Walthamstow. There's walk-on access for bikes at East Dulwich station and then a 14 minute journey by train to London Bridge (no steps in or out). The London Bridge trains are running on Saturday. A cycle route map is here: https://cycle.travel/map/journey/133449

The route out will cross London Bridge and then head through the City to Shoreditch, where riders join Q13. This takes us to London Fields where we join Q2 all the way to Lee Bridge Rd. The group goes along the mostly new segregated cycle lane on Lee Bridge Rd for 2 miles before turning off to Walthamstow Village and stops for coffee in the newly pedestrianised bit of Orford St.

The return will be via Lee Bridge Rd agaon and then through Leyton to the river Lea at Leyton Jubilee Park. The group will follow the segregated path on Orient Way to Temple Mills, then off road past the Tennis and Hockey Centre into the Olympic Park next to the Velodrome, across the top end of the park, out past the Copper Box and over the bridges across the River Lea and the A12 into Victoria Park. There's a nice wide path round to the Gunmakers Gate, then quiet streets to Mile End Park along the Regents Canal. From there the route joins CS2 to Aldgate where it turns left down to Tower Bridge and along Tooley St to our starting point at 1pm. A lot of the route is on Cycleways, some in parks and some on quiet streets. The route is here:

These regular Saturday rides are organised by Bruce Lynn and friends on behalf of Southwark Cyclists https://southwarkcyclists.org.uk . We are the borough branch of the London Cycling Campaign https://lcc.org.uk. The LCC campaigns for more cycling for more people. Cycling has to feel safe and enjoyable before more people will be comfortable doing it. That's what we want. Like everything else we do these rides are free and open to all. You don't need to book, just turn up, but if you want to contact us them you can email us at [email protected]; tweet us @southwarkcycle or text Bruce on 07729 279 945.