Work on Cycleway 4 (C4) between Deptford, Surrey Quays and Rotherhithe has finally been completed since our last update, in spite of some concerns surrounding the financial uncertainty with Transport for London (TfL). If you’ve missed our earlier blogs on C4 then you can find them here. We thought it would be good to provide a round up as we move forward.

You can see what the who route from Tower Bridge to Greenwich looks like here.

So what does it look like?

If you want a useful and informative video guide, the Jon Stone from London Cycle Routes has made this excellent vid.

So now, heading West from the Norway Street junction with Creek Road, and along the whole length of Evelyn Street and along Lower Road to the Rotherhithe Roundabout and beyond along Jamaica Road, there is now a complete two-way cycle track with a largely smooth surface and generous width considering the constraints. Shown here from Charlton all the way through Greenwich and then on into central London. The section from Norway Street is visible in the vid below from 1:10 in.

Although the section along Creek Road and Evelyn Street had been largely complete for some time, a gap remained. The Creek Road and Evelyn Street sections were themsleves delayed back in 2022 due to funding negotiations between TfL and Department for Transport. This in turn was affecting how much funding was being made available for resurfacing the Creek Road bridge. The Creek road bridge section finally opened back in July 2022, leaving only a gap in Surrey Quays along Lower Road.

The pictures here give you an idea of how wide the two way cycle track is, designed for a large volume of people cycling.

You can get some idea of what it’s like to ride from the video below, taken from the Deptford Church Street heading west along Evelyn Street.

We initially had a few reports of a slightly bumpy surface along Evelyn Street and have fed this back to TfL, although we believe this has settled down over time. If you think more needs to be done, then by all means get in contact.

We’re glad to see the banned right turn into Deptford High Street has been implemented, but also slightly disappointed that the original designs for consolidating the two pedestrian crossings, providing one large toucan crossing at Deptford High Street, have not been taken forwards. It means joining C4 from Deptford High Street is a bit more complicated than originally planned – use one of the Toucan crossings immediately to the west or east of the junction.

The missing bit on Lower Road

It’s been nearly 2 years since sections on Evelyn Street were completed, but finally, Southwark Council have now completed construction on Lower Road, which we’ll talk about more below.

Now that the route is officially open, we are beginning to see more people choosing to ride along Creek Road, Evelyn Street and Lower Road through to Jamaica Road.

You can also see the bus stop bypasses, where the cycle lanes go behind the bus stop, which is on an island connected by a zebra crossing. These are now fairly common in Central London, but seen here in Lewisham for the first time below. Please take care when passing these and watch out for dismounting bus passengers.

The temporary crossing set up to allow westbound cyclists to rejoin (pictured below by Greenwich Cyclists), has now gone.

Instead, you now have this section open, with a continuous two way cycle track.

A closer look at the route running Eastbound from Jamaica Road, including the layout outside Surrey Quays station.

As you can already see from below, the route at Surrey Quays is starting to get busy. We know the signal timings are resulting in quite long waits for short green phases, but have been told by TfL these are under constant review. We met Will Norman at the launch event who also mentioned TfL engineering team is making adjustments as/when required as well as working with Southwark council on improving road markings.

One of the large positives of the Cycleway 4 is that it has now provided a safe route to a number of local schools, allowing school kids to ride to and from classes with parents.

Our launch ride with Southwark and Greenwich Cyclists was a bit damp, but still had about 50 riders turn out and a rousing speech from City Hall’s Walking and Cycling Commissioner.

We will update this blog over time, but as you can see from the above pictures and videos, we expect the number of riders to steadily increase going in to the Spring and Summer. The commuter numbers for wet and windy winter seem good so far.

The original proposal to create a walking and cycling route from the Waterlink Way just south of Catford to Forest Hill via Elm Lane goes back to 2014.  The most direct route between Catford and Forest Hill is the South Circular road which is heavily trafficked at most times of the day and very inhospitable for walking and cycling. This proposed alternative route uses quiet back roads and off-road cut-throughs (see original proposed route below).

Discussions with local Councillors regarding this route continued for several years without much tangible progress being made. However in late 2021, with the advent of the Ward-based Neighbourhood Community Infrastructure Levy (NCIL) programme, Lewisham Cyclists (LC), in collaboration with Friends of Elm Lane (FoEL), were able to submit a proposal to Lewisham Council for the funding of a Feasibility Study for the route. In March 2022 we were awarded £15K by the Council and once the funds were transferred in 2023 work commenced.

Elm Lane (visualised at the top of the post) is a key link in the route and is currently a severely pot-holed unadopted section of road. Upgrading Elm Lane is essential to the success of the project. Therefore in 2023 we commissioned two investigations into Elm Lane – the ‘Stats’ report (which lists all utilities in the road) and a Utilities Radar Survey (which shows the line of the utility ducts and pipes plus their depth below the surface). These are both needed before any sort of resurfacing work could be done.

Subsequently in Autumn 2023 we commissioned Sustrans to prepare a Feasibility Report into the whole route. After an information gathering onsite visit between Sustrans, LC and FoEL representatives, this study was compiled and delivered by Sustrans in March 2024.

Here is a visualisation of how the proposed route would look at Shipman Road in the outskirts of Forest Hill:

The full Sustrans report, containing visualisations and designs for the key interventions required along the route, can be found here:

https://lewishamcyclists.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2024/03/Sustrans-Catford-to-Forest-Hill-Feasibility-Study-240301-FINAL.pdf

What happens next:

Council Officers will investigate the legal status of Elm Lane plus the feasibility and costs for adoption & resurfacing of the Lane. FoEL will continue to engage with local Stakeholders and Residents to keep moving this element of the project forward. You can contact FoEL at elmlanefriends@gmail.com

The campaign will also continue to establish C2FH as a priority Active Travel route in Lewisham so it can qualify for Cycle Network Development (CND) funding from TfL and/or Development funding from Lewisham Council.

If you are interested in being involved in ongoing campaigning for this route please email us at lewishamcyclists@gmail.com or come along to one of our friendly & informal monthly meetings on the first Wednesday of each month at 630pm (in person or online).