Cycle Route ED to Wimbledon

[jimbo1964]

Does anyone commute to Wimbledon by bike? I'd like to avoid the South Circular as much as possible.

[hendrie10]

Hi Jimbo,

I used to run that route, bascially, went via herne hill/Brixton/Clapham Common down to Tooting Broadway, cut into Garratt Lane then via plough lane till you come up by the station at wimbledon.

Hope it helps.

Paul

[christgill]

I used to commute from Forest Hill, which involved using the South Circular as far as Lancaster Avenue. Coming from the East Dulwich direction there are plenty of back routes to get you to Rosendale Road - then a right turn onto the SC for about 100 yards before turning left onto Lancaster Avenue.

After that I went via Lancaster Avenue, York Hill, Knollys Road, Leigham Court Road, Culverhouse Gardens, Gracefield Gardens, Newcome Gardens, Pendennis Road, Becmead Avenue, Garrad's Road, Tooting Bec Road, Upper Tooting Road (this is part of "Cycle Superhighway 7"(!)), Garratt Lane, Wimbledon Road, Plough Lane and Gap Road. Which is as far as I needed to go.

At the top of Gap Road, Alexandra Road takes you into the heart of Wimbledon.

It took me about 45 minutes. I used to go to Wimbledon at about 1.00 am, but the return journey would be during the morning rush and the only real struggle was the traffic around the schools and college from Lancaster Avenue to College Road - the cycle lane is used to allow two lanes of cars! But this obviously wont affect you.

[katanita]

I tried cycling to Tooting recently on a Saturday - there via South Circular, back along CS7 to clapham common and then brixton/herne hill. Both directions were pretty miserable! The SC was grim for obvious reasons, but the CS7 route was really congested with heavy car and lorry traffic, lots of cars pulling into the cycle lane and blaocking it to pull into slow traffic, and even with the cycle lane I got stuck having to weave in and out of stop start traffic. There was one part that descended into chaos as the lights seemed stuck on red and people were taking matters into their own hand and ignoring the signal.

Is it always that bad? or was I just unlucky?

[eastdulwichhenry]

I've done this sometimes in the past. The best part of the ride, if you can get to it, is to go through Tooting Bec Common, from north to south. It's a lovely bit of off road riding.

That means either going through Herne Hill and Brixton and then down Abbeville Road and Cavendish Road (a bit of a long way round), or across Brockwell Park and wiggling down through Upper Tulse Hill -> Telford Avenue -> Emmanuel Road. This means going up and down a hill. Either way it's well worth it though, because the route is a painful urban slog other than that, with lots of bad junctions and little in the way of good cycle route.

Here is a map of the Brixton route: http://goo.gl/maps/Iwv4F

[jimbo1964]

Thanks all. I'll have a look at these routes in more detail later. I'll probably mostly use my Brompton as far as Tulse Hill and hop on the train from there.

[DaveR]

There isn't a pleasant route through South London that I've ever managed to find. Tbh, I'd be tempted to go into town over Lambeth Bridge, along the Embankment to Chelsea, through the back of Chelsea Harbour then back roads to Putney Bridge, over the bridge and straight on up and over the hill to Wimbledon. I reckon it's about 3 miles further than the most direct S London route but actually quite quick.