35km The river and the Mind
Overview The Mind and the River
Julius Caesar, is said to have stood at a spring in the woods above London as a a raven flew above him, and this incident inspired the poet lurking inside the General’s body to name the river, the Ravensbourne. You can still stand at the exact same spot as the Roman Emperor, but you should not expect any raven to be present. What you can expect though, is a wonderful variety of landscapes as you ride through South-East London; woods, post-industrial scapes, and well tended parks, including one of the grandest of all London parks, Beckenham Place. And accompanying you on and off throughout the ride is the river, gliding and chuckling beside you.
Ride Notes
Deptford Creek, is probably as quiet now as it was when the Saxons settled around the area over a thousand years ago, with the only difference today being the new multi-storied housing developments which surround the creek. Prior to its makeover, the creek was a rich industrial area filled with breweries, gin distillers, potteries and tanneries. Before that, Francis Drake returning from his round-the-world voyage, docked his ship in the Creek. It never sailed again and rotted away in the Thames mud. All that has to be imagined as you prepare to ride whilst standing beside one of London’s most curious objects, that of the statue of Peter the Great of Russia. The giant of a man who was here in 1698 to learn shipbuilding techniques in the Royal Docks, stands beside a court dwarf and several cannon. The bronze throne behind him is there for you sit on. The statue, a ‘gift from the Russian People’, was defaced in April 2022 when some scrap metal thieves used an angle grinder in an attempt to steal some parts of the installation.
Laban Dance Studio, Deptford Creek
Ride practicalities
START/FINISH: Deptford Creek/Orpington DISTANCE: 35km. TOTAL ASCENT: 310m TERRAIN AND SURFACES: A mix of quiet suburban roads, traffic-free cycle tracks through parks and estates. There are a couple of un-mettaled sections which are perfectly rideable. FOOD: Ladywell Park; The Good Hope Cafe, Beckenham Place Mansion; The Mansion Bar and Cafe PUBLIC TRANSPORT: UBER Thames Clipper Ferries to Greenwich/ Mainline from Orpington to London Bridge/Victoria LINKS TO OTHER RIDES: Greenwich to Hampton Court, Chiswick to Greenwich, Chalk and Two Rivers NCN 23
Ride Notes
So why does the route start at the bottom and go up-hill - albeit gently and usually imperceptibly? It’s simple; you see more if you’re not speeding down hill and on this route there is much to enjoy, some of it bizarre and much of it lovely.
To begin at the beginning, sitting on Czar Peter the Great’s throne. Beside you, is the Czar, the first Emperor of all Russia. He was a giant of the man - over two metres - and if to accentuate his height, a dwarf has been placed on his right. The Czar was in London in 1698 to learn ship building techniques. He is said to have been lent John Evelyn’s house in Deptford and so drunken were his parties that the Russian state had to pay over £600 for the repairs (approximately £85,000 in today’s money. The statue, a ‘gift from the Russian People’, was erected by a charity who’s affairs led it to being closed down by the Charity Commission. It is one of London’s more bizarre statues and was de-faced in April 2022 when some scrap metal thieves used an angle grinder in an attempt to steal some parts of the installation.
For most of its history, Deptford Creek was a rich industrial area filled with breweries, gin distillers, potteries and tanneries. It was here too, that Sir Francis Drake docked the Golden Hindein 1580, having been the first to sail around the world. The ship never sailed again and rotted away in the Thames mud.
Following the Waterlink Way signs, you ride to the road bridge, crossing as you do, the battlefield (now the A200) where the Cornish Rebels who’d marched against Henry VII were defeated in 1497. Today, it’s cars charging rather than Lord Stanley’s cavalry, and there’s a safe crossing to help you onto the next stretch of the route. After a further two kilometres on a segregated bike path, you arrive at another battlefield site in Ladywell Park. An infamous riot happened in 1977 between 500 National Front members and 4,000 members of the ‘All Lewisham Campaign against Racism and Fascism’. Today, the park is one of the loveliest - and most peaceful - in south-east London. The river is untrammeled here and meanders through wild-flower meadows and trees. In the park too is one of the Great Trees of London, an elm.
Save for a couple of kilometres of housing, the next ten kilometres is through a green corridor of parks and woods, where once there were gas works and other industries. Some of the parks, such South Norwood Country Park, have a semi-wild wood feeling. It’s delightful riding, even if you’ve temporarily left the Ravensbourne and are riding beside the Pool, one of its tributaries.
South Norwood Country Park - some sections can be a little muddy after rain
At Bellingham you ride through parts of an inter-war housing estate where the London Council built social housing with gardens and wide streets platned with trees. It is a far cry from the cramped and plant-less estates of recent times. Look out for Adolf Street, the only street in the UK, named after the Nazi leader. The street morphs into Farmstead Road, at the end of which Henry Cooper, the Champion Boxer was born. A kilometre later, you’re in Beckenham Place Park, a mansion and estate created in the late 18th century by John Cator, a timber merchant and MP. Riding in the ornamental park with its woods, its lake and river is a delight. The lake is one of the best, and legal, ‘wild-swimming’ spots in London and the cafe, beside the Mansion serves delicious lunches, as well as cakes and coffee. It makes for a good half-way stop.
The next few kilometres chug away gently up-hill through more inter-war estates and the delightful Kelsey Park, a former estate of the banking Hoare family.
A visit to a museum dedicated to the history of mental health care may not be on everyone’s cultural ‘to-do’ list, but with one in four of us likely to suffer from some sort of mental illness in our life-time, a visit is perhaps more relevant than we may care to admit. The museum had a £4m makeover in 2015 and it details the horrors of how mental illness has been historically treated. For several hundred years, people could pay to see the ‘lunatics’ in the Priory of St. Mary of Bethlehem (from which variant spellings of Bedlam and Bethlem originated), which was situated just outside Bishopsgate, in the City of London.
If you choose not to visit the Bethlem Museum of the Mind, ride ahead onto Red Lodge Road once you arrive at the end of Wickham Way.
There’s a little more up-hill riding to do - nothing severe - until you arrive at Keston Ponds, the source of the Ravensbourne. Peter Ackroyd, the chronicler of London, will have you believe that, here Julius Caesar stood as a raven flew over him. There is a well where you can sit surrounded by the calm of woods. From here it is just a few kilometres to the nearest railway station at Orpington.
All the details given on this route are given in good faith. However, situations on the ground can change, so if you know of any access issues, closures, or have any thoughts and feedback on the route, please include them in the comments section below.