You can cycle from Oval in south London to Kensington in west London entirely on quiet streets and protected cycle lanes.
The route is 8.1km long (5.1 miles) and makes use of the Oval LTN, Cycleway 5, and Cycleway 3.
If you find this video useful or you just enjoy watching it please remember to subscribe to the channel and hit the bell icon so you’re alerted to new videos, as I try to post new ones like it every week.
And if you like what the channel is doing and want to support it, you can also contribute to the London Cycle Routes Patreon below. It really helps keep the channel going:
http:/patreon.com/londoncycleroutes
You can see a digital map of the route and download a GPS/GPX file to use on whatever device or app you want here:
https://www.komoot.com/tour/2189574901?share_token=aeyuYpljMmP6GGk6u8QXvATPfq7V8xso4RG7TFpxWxMn8B6PHP&ref=wtd
And you can find a viewer-created and maintained map of all the London Cycle Routes videos here:
https://www.google.com/maps/d/viewer?mid=1h9Hxm57fPvZmcuSXajM_Wu0G0s6f_bs&ll=51.505213496092054%2C-0.1285238120117249&z=12
I also highly recommend the Safe Cycle London map for route planning, which is compiled by @SafeCycleLDN on twitter:
https://www.google.com/maps/d/viewer?mid=1XlpvN9R-Wg7qZHyezO8y-eVlftr4e0WX&hl=en&ll=51.516975804561284%2C-0.21828576419061996&z=12
23 Comments
Nice route, never thought of doing it this way!
Yes the Crown Estate is not very cycling friendly. Windsor Great Park is the same with absolutely no bicycles allowed on the Long Walk. You can cross around the King George III and horse statue but I guess that is an allowance to National Cycle Route 4 which leads into Windsor town centre itself.
Probably and dumb unrelated question. Your comments on the use of cargo bikes triggered a thought. Are there any tips where you can use to get rid of unwanted stuff you know of? I see many people at my local tip in cars with small loads that could be transferred by cargo bike but are not allowed.
Our once-neat road has been turned into a big dumping ground for hire bikes. Obviously the apps are sending them down our residential road but they just fling the bikes all over the footpath even though a parking bay has been provided. I thought there was a fine for this?
Great video in some brilliant weather. Some parts of the parks look very busy with pedestrians. As you said Hype Park Corner needs a bit of a re-think, even some more white paint on the ground would help. Thanks for sharing.
This would be a really straight route if the Vauxhall Bridge cycleway is extended down to Hyde Park Corner.
2:08 Pavement here is way too narrow especially with the overhanging trees. and so unnecessary when there's the big buffer area on the right-hand side. Someone gave up on the "hierarchy of road users" here clearly.
Fab video. I recognised the bits of C5. Sadly this also shows the negaitve impact the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsa have on safe cycling in this part of London. We can only hope that the Government will allow TfL to take over more of the main roads and then be able to add cycle paths and reduce the amount of car traffic.
100% agree regarding the separation of cyclists and pedestrians at Hyde Park Corner. It can be a nightmare for both cyclists and pedestrians.
As someone who uses the Hyde Park cut-through regularly as my most direct route to central London, it is an absolutely ridiculous situation.
Whilst there is a decent enough bodge route along Phillimore Walk to get further west to the library, main shops, and onto C9 you do still have to deal with High Street Ken for at least 750m. It is at least generally quicker than the alternative for anywhere west of Hammersmith on C9 which uses Fulham backstreets and Lillie Road to get onto Q15 by West Brompton. Whilst it’d be amazing to have more west-central routes, I completely understand you not wanting people to either endanger themselves on the current routes or accept the very few poor quality alternatives that exist…
I would be interested to see a before and after of the improvements on Lambeth bridge.
4 Royal Parks!🤩
Agree about those traffic lights on Storey's Gate. We're addicted to traffic lights in London, and they're worse for everyone in many places!
I don't like the John Islip area it's a bit of a maze and I've just realised the reason I don't like it. The buildings must be too tall and block the sun. It's always a bit dank. Whereas next to the Thames is my favourite blue line!!! Tho I was attacked doing the short cut behind the building before the pineapple 🍍 is it MI5…. So it's always a bit of a concern what might be down there, in fact thinking about it, might not be worth it. The lights entering st James are dodgy and all take to long. Outside Buckingham palace I don't understand them and mess up more often than not. I just go on the road up to HPC never used the crossing as it's up, uneven and full of people. I swing around to the left and down thru Belgravia. Could really do with a few more seconds on the 🚦 tho as you have to go some speed to make it around if it changes that's oncoming traffic 😬 it's a bit scary but only due to the lack of time. I don't go around the rest of it. Just constitution hill to Belgravia after the lights have changed so safe from traffic X
7:42 — 8:00 I’ve experienced this before when cycling through touristy areas and seeing people walking blindly into the cycle paths 😅
Is it possible to make a second channel with video at normal speed and with sound?
How spooky. I cycled from Kensington to Oval as part of my greater ride, same day this was uploaded. My route was different but interesting. I try to avoid busy tourist areas, and I can handle traffic. Great video.
Really nice route! Just to note as of April 2025, Great Smith Street just before the junction with Little Smith Street and Storey's Gate are closed for works, so you may have to dismount (or cycle slowly) and use the pavement. Or take a slightly more indirect route, which is to continue on John Islip street into Smith Square, where you can either turn left into Dean Trench Street, then Tufton Street, Little Smith Street to rejoin the route. Or exit Smith Square via Great North Street into Cowley Street then Great North Street. It's more indirect, but takes you through a very picturesque street where T E Lawrence, Lord Reith and Sir John Gielgud were neighbours in space, if not in time.
A question – when you say the cargo bikes are 'dockless' does that mean they can be dumped anywhere?
Another sunny video to bring a smile to any day! Cheers Jon 👍
Here (Brighton & Hove) a new two way cycle lane has been installed on the west side of the A23 (London Road) through the northbound section of the one-way system immediately north of Pollution Circus, up towards Preston Park. Hooray … as far as that goes, but ….
Unfortunately the junction with Dyke Road Drive (the first semi-major connection between two parts of the city north of the central area) is really badly designed. There is NO clear signage to indicate who has priority.
I'm seriously querying the competence of the Highways Committee, as the number of ill-considered, badly implemented shemes proliferating across the city IS going to cause deaths. If the aim is to get different groups of road users at each others' throats, this is how I'd do it.
What's clearly needed here are consultations with people who know and use the roads is any given locale, something which obviously ISN'T happening at the moment.
B&HCC can download Dutch CROW highway design guidelines, as indeed anyone can.
"I'd say this is a good place to end the video" – given the state of cycling infrastructure on KHS I'd say that was a wise move 🙂
love these because sometimes google maps can spit you out onto random busy streets with no bike lanes! wanted to request a cycle route from clapham junction to earls court station (its one of those routes that google maps messes with😅) 👀
Kensington to Kensington, I used to ride that in the 1980s… very different now! It looks a joy to ride, thank you😂