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Saturday 5th January; South East London Parks Tour

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15 at Cutty Sark Gardens on a dull, grey morning, rode off up through Greenwich Park and out on to Blackheath to begin our tour of some of South East London’s beautiful parks. From Blackheath we headed down through quiet roads and crossed the lovely little bridge over the DLR on to the Waterlink Way, one of the best bits of cycling infrastructure in Lewisham. Shame the council can’t sort out the bit that crosses Ladywell Rd into Ladywell Fields, despite our constant requests. If they could do that, then it would be absolutely perfect.
Over the spiral bridge, past the famous Lewisham Elm tree (one of very few left in the whole country) and the winding, pretty Ravensbourne River, as brilliant green parakeets flew above us, squawking loudly. We left the Waterlink Way early to head through Crofton Park, over another railway down to Peckham Rye, past the old prisoner of war camp, wherein toddlers now play with sand and Lego and the very posh new cafe which looked a bit too busy to serve such a large number of hungry cyclists. Peckham Rye has certainly changed since the 70’s, when I first knew it. The lovely lido has gone, as has the big paddling pool, beside which I sat when I was a young mum, with friends, while our children splashed for hours and picnicked by the water. It was a very cheap and safe way of keeping your kids entertained throughout the long summer holidays. But the park is still lively, full of local young football clubs on a Saturday and the rather more affluent young families in the smart new cafe.
We moved on. More quiet roads, occasionally crossing a busier one, from humble Peckham to smarter Dulwich and its graceful park, still with its original tea room. We emerged near the picture gallery and made our way to the famous velodrome, where one of our number (thanks Paul) suggested we take a quick peek and witnessed a few of the fast and fit pedalling furiously round this historic track.
Back on quiet roads to Brockwell Park, where we lunched at the cafe on top of the hill in the middle of the park (thanks again to Paul for this sensible suggestion). Better, I think, for a large group of hungry cyclists than the Lido cafe. They managed to get us all fed and watered inside an hour at a reasonable price. Then off, following LCN 25 to Clapham Common. Across the Common, past the old bandstand, then our busiest bit of road (Cedars and Queenstown) took us to Battersea Park, around which we rode in a complete circle passing the zoo and pagoda, before exiting by the river and taking more quiet back streets through Stockwell and Angell Town. Then into Myatts Fields, a park about which one of our number, Liz, had lots of information as she and other locals have worked to make this little park a real asset to the local community. We also learned, from one of our riders who was an art student at Goldsmiths College School of Fine Art before it moved to the New Cross building that the school’s previous home was in the fine red brick building behind the park up until the 1990’s, from whence came Mr Hirst and others still known as YBA’s.
Leaving Myatts Fields, we crossed Camberwell New Rd and headed into Burgess Park via Addington Square, the last almost complete Georgian Square in this part of London. Past the lime kilns, following the line of the old canal and London’s history, we rode on through North Peckham and Bermondsey backstreets, to enter our last park, Southwark. From here, to all that is left of the massive dock complex that was the Surrey Docks, some of it now a somewhat anonymous shopping centre, some more imaginatively transformed into woodland and housing and a tiny scrap still full of water and boats. On to the riverside, to historic Deptford itself, in the midst of yet another transformation, but a few remnants of its history as this country’s first naval dockyard still visible. From here, just a few turns of the wheel and we were back again at the tunnel entrance in Cutty Sark Gardens.
A great London ride, which was a joy to lead, due to the lovely group of people who turned up to ride it, full of fun, good humour and lots of interesting personal knowledge about our city. Thanks to everyone who came.