• Ride 1. Frieze Sculptures, Regents Park
• Ride 2. Hyde Park/Buckingham Palace Loop

Ride 1. Frieze Sculptures, Regents Park

Fifteen of us left Dulwich at 10am to head across town to Regents park. One small hill to surmount ( Red post hill) with the welcome reward of freewheeling all the way down after that to Loughborough Junction. We made our way to Camberwell New Road near Kennington park – there were some tedious roadworks that closed a whole lane around the crossroads at Oval Tube station. Still the holdup was less than in a weekday when we’d done the recce. CS5 runs from Oval up to and over Vauxhall Bridge and we continued until we turned right along Regency Street to Horseferry Road and Buckingham Gate reaching Buckingham Palace where there were as usual hordes of tourists awaiting the changing of the Guard. Cycle lane up to Wellington arch and across into Hyde Park. Due to the Royal Parks half marathon on Sun and a charity run today – there were substantial closures in the Park. We’d been forewarned however and found the cycle route up towards Marble Arch was open so we were able to follow plan and exit Stanhope gate. We then went north and east across towards Marylebone High street and walked across the busy Marylebone Road to get into Regrnts park.

We reached our coffee stop just 90 minutes after leaving Dulwich and had plenty of time for a coffee and to wander around the Frieze sculptures. Some great provocative pieces as usual with interesting insights in the audio guide via the QR codes on each piece. Some of us were enticed by a special promotion as we were leaving – a bar of Tony’s Chocolonely chocolate in return for downloading an App named Gertrude which provides a platform for New/ emerging artists – of whom 4 were exhibiting at Freize art ( not sculpture)  Fair. Some pretty good stuff on there – take a look [info at https://gertrude.com/how-it-works]..

Our return journey was a little more direct – retracing to Hyde Park but then heading West – passing the Serpentine Gallery with the summer pavilion still on show and following on down to the Albert memorial. We exited the adjacent gate and went south all the way to Albert Bridge – across Battersea Park to Clapham Common and on to Herne Hill & back to Dulwich Park. It’s a great time to pass through so many parks as the leaves are just turning and many beautiful hues. Back on time and the rain held off at least until then.

Ride 2. Hyde Park/Buckingham Palace Loop

Six riders turned up at London Bridge on a pleasant Autumnal day. I explained that there was a potential problem in Hyde Park with a charity run for children and parents taking part, so it was going to be a suck it and see. 

Uneventful ride across the bridge, onto the cycle path alongside the river, into Parliament Square and onto Buckingham Palace where we had a short stop to get our breath back, I gave a very short potted history of the Palace. Entering Hyde Park it soon became obvious my plan was a non starter. Thousands of children and parents running for Great Ormond Street Hospital, a worthy cause. We used the cycle lane alongside Park Lane, hoping to get into the park at Marble Arch, but realised that was a no no. There were two course lengths, 2k and 5k, effectively meaning much of the park was being used.  Returning to The Mall, very busy with tourists, we stopped for coffee on the corner of Horse Guards Road and Birdcage walk. Returning over Westminster Bridge and Borough Market, we arrived at our destination at about midday.

Many thanks to Shelagh for backmarking and the six riders who took the disappointment of the ride in their stride.

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