Holland Park and Brompton Cemetery

14 riders (including 1 who met up with us at Holland Park Café – great timing!). The weather was dull and drizzly at the start and although it remained overcast for much of the time it warmed up enough for some of us to shed a layer of clothing.

The outward route was as published, over Vauxhall Bridge and through backstreets of Victoria to Constitution Hall and Hyde Park Corner, then on via the Serpentine route to Kensington Palace. Access through to our planned path to Kensington Church Street was not possible due to heightened security for embassies in Palace Avenue – so we took a walking detour via Kensington High (ignoring the lure of TKMaxx) and picked up the usual route from Kensington Church Street. 

I confess to not having done a full recce of the route so was pleased to see that the short one-way section at the end of Holland Street (which used to mean either walking or cycling on the pavement), now has a marked cycle lane leading to Duchess of Bedford Walk, a very welcome development.

It seems the café in Holland Park is rather more upmarket than I remember, with fresh flowers on the outside tables and smartly dressed ‘greeters’ at the entrance – all very lovely, but there was a longer than expected wait for coffee to be served which delayed our departure for the return journey. We held our nerve along a very busy Earls Court Rd and kept together for the tricky lane change at the junction with Cromwell Rd and appreciated the tranquility when we reached Brompton Cemetery – another improvement to note here is a fairly new parallel pedestrian & cycle crossing over Old Brompton Rd at the main entrance.

From here we headed South across Albert Bridge into Battersea Park and on through Stockwell, by which time several riders had peeled off to go their own way. In Camberwell we finished at the Bowyer Place entrance to Burgess Park, a little short of the start point as by then it was 1.30pm and I think we’d all had enough!

My thanks to the group who kept together well throughout and cheerfully accepted the detours with lots more walking than intended; special thanks to David W for back-marking and managing the WhatsApp communications en route.

Report from ride eader Jane C. 16.5 miles, Route map https://gb.mapometer.com/cycling/route_4497331.html#google_vignette

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