• Ride 1. Sculptures in the City
• Ride 2. Bromley and Orpington

Ride 1 Sculptures in the City

Report from Ride Leader Eva. “On a beautiful sunny autumn morning 13 riders set off to follow the trail of the Sculptures in the City 2024 event. We admired not only the 17 sculptures included in that trail (https://www.sculptureinthecity.org.uk/artwork/13th-edition/) as well as two new permanent additions to the streets of the City of London: the “Infinitive Accumulation” Yaoyi Kusama sculpture outside the Broadgate entrance to the Elizabeth line and the Ventus sculpture by Lee Simmons in Billiter Street. The riding distances were fairly short, but given the many stops – and a lovely coffee break in the sun – we took 2,5 hours until we were back to Deal Porter Square.”

Ride 2 Bromley and Orpington

Eleven of us at London Bridge for a 9am (yes, really) start. Headed to Cycleway 10 and took that to Deptford where we picked up National Route 21. Rode south collecting an extra rider at Ladywell and another at Lower Sydenham. The now 13 riders continued to Beckenham Place Park where a short coffee break was taken.  From there it is a short ride to Shortlands where we started our brief tour of Bromley. Followed some paths alongside the Ravensbourne River (which we had earlier followed between Deptford and Catford on NR21). Up a short steep hill to the High Street. Walked the pedestrianised stretch which was busy, especially at the top (Market Square) end.

Out Ride Leader, i.e. me, had the bright idea of returning via The Glades mall that runs immediately behind the High Street. We carefully pushed our bikes the length of the mall and expected to exit back on to the High Street. Unfortunately I had overlooked the slope on the street so we ended up om the first floor level with no exit. At this point several Security People approached us and suggested we backtrack and take a lift down to street level. They kindly escorted us to the lifts. As we reached them an exit was spotted that led to the Car Park via a level route.  We were then on the roof of the car park and had the novel experience of riding round and round down several levels to exit. The exit was conveniently on the correct side of the main road to Orpington and we had avoided having to get across the big muti-lane junction close to the end of the High St.

Our route now followed the busy A21 with signs saying London Cycle Network but precious little assistance for cyclists. A narrow on pavement cycle track for a while, one of those cycle lanes with a dotted line in white paint to give protection and quite long stretches with nothing. As much of this was labelled LCN we used the pavement, particularly on the slow uphill bits. Rob, with local knowledge, suggested we get off the busy road and ride Park Lane/Park Avenue instead. The road had lifting barriers for cars and then passed some very large houses with manicured gardens.  Locally referred to a “Millionaires Row” the quiet roads provided a welcome escape from the busy traffic on the A21. Park Av took us to Crofton Rd and an easy, mostly downhill run to Orpington Station. There was even a cycle lane with a solid white line for the last kilometre and proper segregation for the final 200m.

It was around 12,40 when we reached the station. A bit later than planned and had skipped the section up the hill to Farnborough. Bromley was “interesting” and included 2 “firsts” – route through a shopping mall and descent of a muti story car park.  A route to repeat – maybe…?  Thanks to Rob for getting us off the A21 and efficiently to our destination and to Jamie and Jean for back marking. Planned route at https://www.komoot.com/tour/1883003409.

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