Previous section: Woolwich to Crystal Palace
Next section: Earlsfield to Richmond
This is the final instalment of the Capital Ring which means I have now cycled the path in its entirety this summer (2018). I returned to my start point by South Western Railway to Clapham Junction, then Southern to Crystal Palace station. Here is a map of my GPS track, shown in blue, along with my tracks for all the other Ring-rides I have done.
I started by completing a circuit of Crystal Palace Park following the Capital Ring signs as far as possible (they are patchy through the Dinosaur area at the southeastern corner, better elsewhere in the Park). Then I rode the last section of the Ring to Earlsfield station, some 10 miles away, making for quite a short day.
It was brilliant weather again. The first few miles were quite hilly, culminating in Norwood Grove House which has good views over South London. Then suburban streets alternated with Commons (Streatham, Tooting Bec and Wandsworth). The final sight was the forbidding presence of Wandsworth Prison.
The only issues I found with the route were:
Next section: Earlsfield to Richmond
This is the final instalment of the Capital Ring which means I have now cycled the path in its entirety this summer (2018). I returned to my start point by South Western Railway to Clapham Junction, then Southern to Crystal Palace station. Here is a map of my GPS track, shown in blue, along with my tracks for all the other Ring-rides I have done.
I started by completing a circuit of Crystal Palace Park following the Capital Ring signs as far as possible (they are patchy through the Dinosaur area at the southeastern corner, better elsewhere in the Park). Then I rode the last section of the Ring to Earlsfield station, some 10 miles away, making for quite a short day.
It was brilliant weather again. The first few miles were quite hilly, culminating in Norwood Grove House which has good views over South London. Then suburban streets alternated with Commons (Streatham, Tooting Bec and Wandsworth). The final sight was the forbidding presence of Wandsworth Prison.
The only issues I found with the route were:
- the official route across Tooting Bec Common is signed as No Cycling. Therefore you should either walk your bike, or head along Tooting Bec Road to join the pucker cycle path across the Common
- most of the official route across Wandsworth Common is No Cycling. Therefore, you should either walk your bike, or I have suggested on the map a possible, if rather circuitous, on-road alternative to join the point where the short stretch of shared use path begins; I haven't tried this latter on road route: it might be quite busy.
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| Crystal Place station |
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| Dinosaurs in Crystal Palace Park |
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| Signing of the Capital Ring is rather complex in places |
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| Cafe in the Park |
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| The 'Odessa Steps' in Crystal Place Park |
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| Bust of Joseph Paxton, architect of the Crystal Palace |
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| There are intermittent vistas along the (hilly) route |
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| View from Biggin Hill |
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| In Biggin Wood |
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| View from path up to Norwood Grove house |
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| Norwood Grove House |
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| The lane descending from Norwood Grove |
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| Streatham Common |
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| Typical suburbia |
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| If Abbey Mills pumping station passed on my Hackney to North Woolwich ride looked like a Byzantine church, this one at Streatham Common, built in 1888 to a Moorish design, could be a mosque. |
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| No cycling on the path across Tooting Bec Common...... |
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| ....but you can continue along Tooting Bec Road to join the official cycling path |
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| Cafe, Tooting Bec Common |
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| Du Cane Court, Balham High Road, Art Deco, 1937: according to Wikipedia, the largest privately owned single apartment block in Europe |
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| No cycling across Wandsworth Common: walk you bike..... |
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| ...until you meet a short bit of shared use path |
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| Wandsworth Prison |
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| Journey's End |
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