Update on Saturday's ride to Greenwich

 

The deadline for booking one of the remaining slots on the All Day ride to Greenwich is now Thursday night.  If you want to come, please e-mail paulandrewjames1949@yahoo.co.uk.

It will be at an easy pace and the route is mostly flat (Blackheath and Greenwich Park are on a hill, but fortunately they are both on the same hill).

The ride is mostly through parks and commons, along riverbanks or through quiet suburban streets, but this is South London on a Saturday and we have for short distances to negotiate some busy inner city areas.

Highlights include a glimpse of The Den, where Millwall Football Club play, and a ride past Brixton Prison.  You may also see where St Elphege (or Alphage), bishop of Winchester, preached and where he was murdered in the days before William the Conk, you will lunch atop the bodies of the victims of the Black Death, maybe see a petrified tree, a non-existent windmill, a long forgotten canal and an old lime kiln.  Oh yes, and Wren’s other masterpiece and the Cutty Sark where you may, if so inclined, sing Rule Britannia.

But to do so you will have to cycle for forty miles, for between four and five hours actual cycling time.

A couple of leaders have kindly agreed to pick some people up from North Cheam at 8.45 but the ride officially begins from Pavilion Cafe in Beddington Park, groups of six leaving at fifteen minute intervals from 9.30.

Coffee will be at Kent House Station at approximately 11am onwards.

Lunch will be at the Hare and Billet on Blackheath, tables booked at 12.30, 12.45, 1pm; plenty of benches and space for those who want to enjoy packed lunch on the Heath instead of the pub.

We reach our primary goal in Greenwich Park ten minutes after leaving the Hare and Billet.

Ten minutes after leaving Greenwich Park there will be a brief coffee and comfort stop on the river bank at Deptford Creek, briefly to enjoy the river.

Tea will be at Tooting Common, an hour’s pedalling after Deptford or, if we make good time, at Earlsfield, ninety minutes after Deptford. 

The ride now finishes in Morden Hall Park.  People will be available to lead the way back both to Cheam and to Wallington.  The finishing time will depend on how long we lingered over coffees, lunch and Millwall Football Club, but I would hope to get everybody back to Morden Hall by five or half past; no promises.

You will be asked to bring a spare inner tube, working lights, hand gel and face coverings and please let us know before Friday if you prefer a pub lunch or to bring your own packed lunch. 

Groups and precise departure times from Beddington will be published on Friday.