55km Wren's Monuments — Where my wheels go

Ride overview

Sir Christopher Wren; genius, scientist, mathematician, astronomer, city planner, architect.
Yet the man whose buildings are part of the national fabric is even today, not as highly regarded as other great architects such as Bruneschelli, Corbusier, Guadí, Hadid, Foster and others. In fact, so familiar are his spires and domes that we rather take him and his buildings for granted. Wren distrusted overt emotionalism. His buildings eschewed the exuberant European baroque expression and became instead, something more English, more restrained. This ride, created as a celebration of his work upon the 300th anniversary of his death, visits many of his London masterpieces.

St. Bride's Fleet Street

St. Paul's Cathedral

Hampton Court

Kensington Palace

Ride Practicalities
START/FINISH: Flamsteed House, Greenwich/Hampton Court Palace DISTANCE: 57km TOTAL ASCENT: 319m TERRAIN AND SURFACES: A mix of quiet roads and segregated cycle lanes, other than Fleet Street and the Strand which can be busy and have no cycle lanes. FOOD: The Wren Cafe at St Nicholas Cole. Plenty of pubs and cafe along the way, including the one built by Wren called The Old Bell at the bottom of Fleet Street MAINLINE TRAIN SERVICES: Hampton Court- trains to Waterloo, Greenwich -strains to London Bridge and Canon Street LINKS TO OTHER RIDES: London to Land’s End, Extravagant Genius, The Crocus Carpet , Heaths and Parks of SW London The Arcadian Thames , NCN 4 London to Holyhead

WHAT TO SEE/VISIT: Hampton Court, Kensington Palace, Chelsea Hospital (prior booking required) all the Wren Churches are open at various times, St. Paul’s Cathedral, The Painted Hall and Chapel, The Royal Observatory.

There are two routes to choose from; the Long Route links Greenwich to Hampton Court, whereas the Shorter Route concentrates on the central sites and omits Greenwich and Hampton Court.

Ride Notes
The ride begins on the Greenwich Meridian, were East meets West. Here, at the Royal Observatory, the first to be built in England, is a brick house that is so familiar with its restrained, practical and harmonious form, that you might be in danger of missing it altogether. Yet, that is Wren’s genius - to render something so beautiful, yet understated. In 1675, King Charles II instructed Wren to build Flamsteed House in Greenwich so that the Astronomer Royal could view the heavens and draw a map with enough accuracy to be reliable for navigation. Wren himself had been the chair of astronomy at Gresham College, London, and later at Professor of Astronomy at Oxford, and he’d had a great interest in lenses and astronomy as an aid to navigation. Flamsteed House was home to the astronomers Royal.

Beneath you, at the foot of the hill, is the Royal Naval Hospital. It is a happy free-wheel down through the Royal Park to arguably Wren’s greatest masterpiece and indeed the only one of his works to be granted UNESCO World Heritage Status. It is truly palatial, far more so than the actual Royal Palace he built for William III at Kensington. It was built as a Hospital for Seamen, meaning those men who’d served in the Royal Navy. There already existed a Hospital for veteran soldiers in Chelsea (which we ride past later) and when Queen Mary commissioned this, it became ‘the darling object of her life’. At its height it housed over 2350 seamen. The cost was huge, and was paid for by among other sources, a Malt tax (on barley for beer making), a Coal tax, as well as proceeds from fines on French merchants accused of smuggling. The route takes you through the heart of the Hospital, which now houses the University of Greenwich as well as the National Maritime Museum. If you have time, stop at the Painted Hall, one of the most magnificent rooms in the whole of England and whose painted ceiling is sometimes compared to the Sistine Chapel in Rome.

The Royal Hospital for Seamen, Greenwich

From Greenwich, there is pleasant riding on segregated cycle lanes and very quiet roads alongside the Thames on cycleway 4, to London bridge.

Sir Christopher Wren’s Plan for the rebuilding of London. Picture courtesy of WikiCommons

Once over London Bridge, you use the pedestrian lights to cross over the road to access the Monument. After the devestating 1666 Fire of London, Wren was appointed Commissioner for rebuilding the City of London. He prodeuced an ambitious plan which did away with the arrow medieval streets and set out a series of wide boulevards in the Parisian style. However, with typically English intransigence, property owners insisted on keeping the same plots of land which they had occupied prior to the fire. Furthermore the government was not keen to invest in city planning. (How little changes!). However, Wren designed over 50 churches and The Monument, with its 311 steps. Notable is the frieze around the pedestral, sculpted by Caius Gabriel Cibber, who designed it whilst in prison.
Looking down to the river, you’ll see the first of Wren’s city churches, St. Magnus the Martyr, framed between two buildings.

Wren’s churches come thick and fast now as you ride through the City. Each is worth spending time over, each remarkably different from the other, whilst at the same time homogenous in style. They are open on different days which makes visiting them on one journey all but impossible. Perhaps the most impressive and the one which is open daily is St. Stephen Walbrook. The dome is the prototype for St. Paul’s cathedral.

On the way to St. Paul’s a further three churches are passed, each different, but bearing the hallmark of Wren’s hand - restraint mixed with grandeur. You approach the cathedral via the churchyard and Paternoster Square. Don’t even think of riding your bike through the square as there’s an army of bored private security men waiting to pounce upon if do. Pushing your bike across the square to Wren’s first London monument, Temple Gate, which he created as an entrance to the City itself. It stood at Temple at the Western end of Fleet street (opposite the Law Courts) but was removed to accommodate an increase in traffic in 1878. It spent time on the Theobold’s estate in Hertforshire before returning to the City in 2004.

Decisions now need to be made - to enjoy St. Paul’s from the outside or pay to see it from inside. Both are memorable. For over 300 years, the building’s tremendous presence and scale has dominated London’s skyline. Wren initially wanted to build a classical rectangular basilica, but the clergy insisted on a traditional long nave Cathedral. He submitted a further four designs all of which were rejected by ‘incompetent judges’ who ruled that Wren’s designs were too different from existing English churches. He resorted to an old architect’s trick of submitting one design whilst intending to produce another. He obtained permission from the King to allow for some ‘variations, rather ornamental than essential, as from time to time he should see proper’. Much of the building work was screened off (another sleight of hand still used by architects today!) and the great dome was built. The cathedral was completed by Wren’s son, whilst the master himself, aged 76, watched the last stone placed upon the Lantern.

The Great Dome of St. Paul's Cathedral, London

If coffee and cake, or other refreshment are needed, follow the route to St Nicholas Cole Abbey, where there is the Wren Cafe inside the Church. Alternatively, head down Ludgate Hill, passing St Martin Ludgate (perhaps the most complete and least altered of all Wren’s London Churches). Once across Farringdon Street, you’ll see a pub, The Old Bell, which was built by Sir Christopher Wren, from where, legend has it, he used to supervise the building of St. Paul’s. Behind the pub is perhaps his most famous church, St. Bride’s - so known on account of its spire, as the ‘Wedding Cake’ Church.

The Old Bell, the only pub built by Christopher Wren

Ride up Fleet Street - which has no protected cycle lanes - past the spot where once stood the Temple Gate - and continue to St. Dunstan’s-in-the-West, another virtually untouched church. The route continues down the Strand, across Trafalgar Square and onto the Mall. There is nothing traffic-free about this short section and you may decide to walk with your bike along the Strand. However, the traffic is usually either jammed or quiet - depending on season and time of day. As you ride through (or walk) through Trafalgar Square, notice the plinth on which Charles I’s statue sits - it is perhaps Wren’s smallest creation.

Once in the Mall, you are back on traffic-free cycleways (C3). Half way down on the right hand side, is the brick building of Marlborough House, another of Wren’s houses and built for Sarah, Duchess of Marlborough in 1711. Today it’s the Headquarters of the Commonwealth of Nations. The ride now becomes gloriously floral and green as you pedal through the Royal Parks to Kensington Palace.

King William III suffered from acute asthma and needed a London palace away from the fumes and fog, so he ordered Wren to develop a small, suburban villa knows as Nottingham place into Kensington Palace. You’ll notice that, (along with Chelsea Hospital and Hampton Court) it is built with brick rather than Portland stone. This was due to the fact that the Royal quarries at Portland were working flat out to supply sufficient quantities of stone for St. Paul’s cathedral. The style of Kensington is said to be a classic example of ‘restrained English baroque’, as opposed to the rather more exuberant and grandiose architecture which was then the fashion on mainland Europe.

From Kensington, the ride returns to quiet back streets through the Royal Borough to the Royal Hospital, Chelsea. Although nothing to do with Wren, there are some dazzling homes, lush garden squares and many pub to ride past.

Until Charles II issued a Royal Warrant authorising the building of the Royal Hospital Chelsea, there was no specific provision for soldiers ‘broken by age or war’. A site in the country, beside the river was chosen and Wren was commissioned to build a hospital for 412 pensioners, later extended to 476.

From here, the route follows the river to Chelsea Creek. The wide pavement on the riverside is also a cycleway. Thereafter you ride through the back streets of Fulham to Hammersmith where you rejoin the river. Then it’s a ride through more Royal Parks - Richmond and Home Park - where deer graze amongst century old oaks.

Wren's extension to Hampton Court Palace

London and its country environs must have been as much of a building site as it is today. Between 1670 - 1714, Wren built over 50 churches, two huge hospitals, a cathedral and two Royal palaces, as well as arches, pedestals, libraries and other diverse buildings. Amongst these projects was Hampton Court Palace, whose Tudor apartments were not favoured by the monarchs William and Mary, so Wren was commissioned to build an extension. The outside of the Palace is more authentically ‘Wren’ than the inside. The view up to the Palace from Long Water is one of the finest examples of Baroque landscape in the land, and the Privy Garden and Fountain Court are treasures of early 18th century English landscape and gardens.

Every route on this website has been carefully researched as well as ridden. However situations on the ground can change quickly. If you know of changes to this route, or cafes, pubs and the like which you think other cyclists need to know about, feel free to share your thoughts below.

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