67km West London's Green Corridors
The Green Corridor - Crane River Park
Visitors to London
We stop in the stillness. A summer breeze filters through the willow trees and a warbler - willow, reed or other I cannot tell - sings its song loud and clear. The air is rich and green, clean and humid. A river sinews by with silent stealth. Hawkweed, hogweed, yellow rattle, black mustard and bramble line are making good business with bees. A blue summer sky, painted with childlike puffy clouds, and a path of hard packed biscuit gravel. We sit on a fallen tree, turned into a bench with a woodpecker carved on the backrest. We chat, exchange information on who we are, why we’re here, where we’ve come from. No one has passed by in ten minutes or more. This is London. West London. On a summer Friday in June. I’m leading a group of riders who’ve come to London from the Welsh Marches. They’ve come to ride, to meet with friends, check on daughters and to take in a show since they’re here.
We set off from Hammersmith, near their hotel and I lead them onto the new C9 cycleway. ‘I never knew you had this in London’, Jane says. After a kilometre, we’re turning down towards the Thames and a whole new world opens out before us; a languid river, gracious and expansive housing and the smell of brewing. ‘Don’t like beer’, she says. (The Fullers brewery which have been brewing for 300 years on the same site are a short distance upwind).
Chiswick House
We cross a road, turn a corner and behind me, there are gasps and ‘wows’ as we approach Chiswick House, one of the most glorious examples of 18th century architecture and landscaped gardens. The House and Gardens brought a completely new style into England; eschewing the showy Baroque style in favour of a simpler classical design based on classical Roman architecture. The gardens were revolutionary in that they began the ‘English’ movement towards a more natural-looking landscape, which over a 300 year period have influenced gardens as far apart as Hyde Park and New York’s Central Park. Jane who originates from New York - ‘I’ve just got to tell my friends back home, that the Daddy of Central Park is here in London’.
Stately homes come thick and fast in West London. As we ride through Brentford and into Syon Park, the grand home of the Duchess and Duke of Northumberland. “You pack them in don’t you? says Sue. ‘I think we only have two homes like this in the whole county, and one of them is a castle’. The house is architect Robert Adam’s masterpiece and there’s a lovely wildflower meadow covering the field where in 1642, the battle of Brentford was fought. We join another of London’s excellent cycleways, C40 through Isleworth, before joining the River Crane near Twickenham.
The Shot Tower, River Crane
Riding on a cycle path through Crane River Park, we pedal through a superb mosaic of woodland, scrub, ditches, ponds and reed beds. Until the mid-20th century, this was an industrial area where mills powered by the river made amongst other things, gunpowder and lead shot. We pass the Shot Tower, where molten lead was dropped from the top through a copper sieve which as it fell and cooled, solidified. At the foot of the tower was a pool of water into which the lead balls fell. We stop for photos. ‘I never expected this’, says Liz. It’s all so green and quiet. I can’t believe we’re in London”.
The route continues beside the River Crane, and enters the semi-wild Leitrim Park before arriving in the ‘delights’ of Feltham. I tell the ladies that this rather tatty suburb was famed from the 1860s until late 1920s as ‘Glass City’. The area was covered in market gardens and greenhouses lined the High Street. This leads us onto whether Herefordshire apples are better than others grown in the UK. There’s bias in the viewpoints of course.
Gravel path, Bedfont lakes
One of the nice things about this ride, says Sue, is that there are no hills. Our part of the world is all up and down’. She is new to cycling, - I only started because my daughter thought I should’. ‘To ride without traffic is great. I never thought it’d be like this in London. I have to say that I was very nervous when my daughter signed me up for this ride.’
We arrive at Bedfont Lakes, which until the 1970s were a landfill site on the old gravel pits. ‘It’s a different sort of wilderness from what you might find on Lord Hereford’s Knob’, I explain (referencing a famous hill in Herefordshire), ‘but it’s wilderness just the same. Over 350 species of plants, 156 species of birds, 124 moths, 97 fungi and 20 different species of mammals have been recorded in the area’. The group hear me out, point of the willows bending in the breeze, the lakes and a man with a parrot on his shoulder walks past.
Toilets at Bedfont Lake
There’s a short section of road riding and we stay tight as a group. The Thames appears around a corner - in its wide and silky magnificence. The next few kilometres are ridden in the company of expensive boats. We stop frequently to admire expensive boats, even more expensive water-side homes, large grass verges filled with yellow flowers, willows and black poplars At Shepperton, we stop at the Ferry Cafe for cake and coffee whilst the rain pours down.
D'Oyly's
Once on the southern bank, we ride on a gravel path all the way to Hampton Court (12 km distance). There, we enter Royal Park territory. We stop frequently as the ladies need photos of the deer. ‘They’re so tame, who’d have thought that they don’t run away at the first sight of you?’ We ride through glorious English Parkland, where there are stately avenues of lime trees, deer, and managed acid grasslands (a very rare habitat). Music comes from the White Lodge, the Royal Ballet School, and we stop to watch the young dancers move on air. ‘We look very clumpy after that display’, says Kate, the daughter.
Fallow Deer, Home Farm, Hampton Court
Soon we are at the Hare and Hounds in East Sheen, where lunch has been booked for the group. The menfolk, who have been with another Where My Wheels Go leader, will soon return. ‘Loved it, we are coming back for another next year, Sue says in response to her husband’s question.
Ride Practicalities
This piece is based on a Guided Ride. If you or your group (friends, business etc.) would like a bespoke Guided Ride, you can contact me at info@wheremywheelsgo.uk
We run monthly Guided Rides from March to December, and you can find out more by clicking here.
For this ride, the ride leaders met the group near their hotel in Hammersmith. We accompanied a group back to King’s Cross after the formal ride had finished.
You can ride the route - details below;
DISTANCE: 67km TOTAL ASCENT:260m TERRAIN AND SURFACES: Quiet suburban roads, dedicated bike lanes and gravel paths The route is perfectly suitable for 28mm tyres and more. In winter some of the paths may be muddy RECOMMENDED CAFÈS/PUBS/: Shepperton: The Ferry Cafe, Walton; D’Oyly’s Sheen: Hare and Hounds, Mortlake; The Ship, Hammersmith, The Dove NEARBY MAINLINE TRAIN SERVICES: Hammersmith - Hammersmith and City Line, Twickenham, Feltham, Hampton Court, Kingston-upon-Thames FERRY: Shepperton Ferry (£4.40 for you and the bike single fare) PLACES TO VISIT; The Shot Tower, Crane Park, Hampton Court LINKS TO OTHER RIDES: The Arcadian Thames, London to Windsor, The Royal Parks
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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