🚲 A lovely traffic-free way to cycle from Waterloo to Rotherhithe

You can cycle from Waterloo south of the river to Rotherhithe in south London entirely on quiet streets and protected cycle lanes.

The route is 4.8km long (3 miles) and makes use of Cycleway 14 and Cycleway 4.

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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/2267052352?share_token=aFRJQJBoSc8Yevd3cJ3FX0xj3B835SJyvW4jA2Dzg16lipg6Lz&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/u/0/viewer?mid=1h9Hxm57fPvZmcuSXajM_Wu0G0s6f_bs&ll=51.50521349609208%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=51.516975804561255%2C-0.21828576419061996&z=12

hello and welcome back to London Cycle Roots Today I’ll be showing you how to cycle from Waterloo south of the river to Rotherive in South London This ride takes about 20 minutes and you can do the whole thing on quiet streets and protected cycle lanes By public transport the same journey also takes around 20 minutes So cycling is a great option for making this trip If you find this video useful or you just enjoy watching it then please don’t forget to subscribe to the channel as I try to post new videos just like it every week I’d also like to say a huge thank you to everybody who supports the channel on Patreon If you’d like to contribute too then you can find a link in the description below the video All right let’s get going So we’re starting on the corner of Waterloo Road and Sandell Street and we’re going to start by picking a quiet route through the back streets of Waterloo There are plenty of filters and bolards around this area removing through traffic So if you go this way you’ll be able to avoid all the cars on the main road If you were wondering what the large group of men in suits were doing on Sandell Street uh they seem to be queuing outside the Union Jack Club which is a private members club for current and formerly enlisted members of the armed forces So I guess they were attending an event there In a moment we’ll find ourselves on the cut which was recently filtered by Lambeath Council It’s a much nicer street now It has much less traffic on it It’s a much nicer place to cycle and there’s plenty of places to sit outside at the various restaurants cafes and pubs In a way it’s actually returning to its roots as a street Um in the 19th century it was well known as a busy street market So it’s more recent life as a sort of busy car sewer behind Waterloo didn’t really fit the history And I think it’s much better now that it’s been returned to something like that original purpose There are three main parts to the rest of this route today For the next few minutes we’re going to be following cycleway 14 which is a pretty picturesque signposted backstreet route with very little traffic on it As you can see mostly thanks to interventions like bolards filters and no entries for cars which were move through traffic There are some nice sites along here and it goes through what I think is a pretty charming and underrated part of London Uh then after that we’re going to cycle on cycleway 4 which is a main road route with a really high quality segregated cycle lane that gets us where we need to go in a very direct way And for the last part of the video we’re going to pick a route through the historic streets of Ruther where you can also see some interesting sites which I’ll point out when we get to them If you were paying attention at the beginning of the video you’ll have noticed that this route is nearly a straight line It’s very direct but if you want to follow along on a map all the same then remember you can find one linked in the description below the video And uh if you want to go out and try the route yourself you can download it as a GPX file and use it on whatever app or device you like to help you navigate on your own bike if you need help Though the way finding along today’s route is pretty good You can see this green and blue sign on the bolard there and also C14 written on the ground That’s basically like that the whole way It’s very difficult to forget where you’re going if you’re following those And the same on cycle wave four as well when we get to the main road on our left Coming up is Guys Hospital which is notable for its 34story Guys Tower which was once the tallest hospital building in the world but is now the sixth tallest Uh since it’s been here since 1791 the hospital not that specific tower Um it has quite a lot of history to it Former employees include John Keats the poet uh Ludvid Vickenstein the philosopher and also a whole host of people who have had diseases named after them So Thomas Hodgkin for Hodkdins lymphoma Richard Brightite for Bright disease Alfred Poland discoverer of Poland syndrome and William James West of West syndrome I’d say that’s probably a good sign that they’re doing good work there This part of London has a long-standing association with the leather industry This grand red brick building on the corner was the London Leather Hide and Wool Exchange It still says that above the door carved into stone And we’re of course now on Leather Market Street Uh we’ll also be heading to Tanner Street in a moment which is where unsurprisingly the tanning of the leather took place The reason that the industry congregated around here is because tanning leather is extremely smelly and unpleasant and it was therefore pushed out of the square mile of the city of London proper and over the river here into Soduk Tanner Street Park on our right here opened in 1929 on lands that was formerly the Burmany Workhouse Um it’s also notable because it has a turret in it from nearby St Olav’s church tower Uh that church which was on nearby Tuli Street was actually demolished in 1928 So when laying out the park they saved the turret from the tower put it in the new park and converted it into a drinking fountain Um it is grade two listed and unfortunately as is common is no longer a functional drinking fountain We’re currently passing underneath the world’s first entirely elevated railway by the way That’s the London Bridge to Greenwich Railway Vioaduct Do make sure that you give way to pedestrians crossing onto the bus stop back there By the way as the cycle track runs behind the waiting area for the bus Now one thing you need to be aware of crossing the street here is that while you have a green light to cross the street cycles traveling on the cycle where we’re joining also have a green light They’re not held at a red signal So you need to wait for a gap to slot in there rather than assuming that they’ll stop for you You might have seen that there’s a pretty small waiting area that I use there to let that guy go past Uh this is a slightly counterintuitive setup because in the UK we tend to be used to a green light meaning that you can proceed without any conflict but that isn’t the case at that junction I think it’s actually a good way to do it by the way because cycleways do have far too many traffic lights on them often unnecessarily but you just need to be aware The other thing to keep in mind when you’re traveling down cycle wave 4 or any route like it really is vehicles coming out of the side roads like that one but might not see you or respect your priority traveling down the main road Uh this stretch does have some features to mitigate against that Uh very open sight lines at junctions and curves in the cycle track as you approach them and also signalize junctions on some of the busier side roads to name a few But just keep an eye out on cars point poking their noses out approaching the junction or also looking ready to turn into side roads from the main road cuz it can be a bit of a hazard if they don’t see you or they just decide that they’re going to drive into you I really like Cycleway 4 and I think it’s been such a revolutionary change for riding a bike in this part of London since it opened Uh it currently runs all the way from London Bridge to Greenwich or even Charlton if you know about the secret connection which if you watch this channel you will Uh my understanding is that construction of the extension to Woolitch will also start this year which is really cool though it will probably take at least a year to get it built possibly longer as it is a significant piece of construction I know a lot of people liked my end of 2024 video where I previewed all the stuff happening in 2025 Do check that out if you haven’t seen it already Uh I’m planning to do a similar video at the end of this year actually Probably checking in on how all the projects are doing and if there’s anything else coming down the pipe next year and beyond So do hit subscribe if you’re interested in seeing that so that it appears on your YouTube homepage Subscribing is free by the way You don’t have to sign up to anything You literally just hit the button and it just lets YouTube know that you like seeing videos from this channel Now we’ve used a crossing to break from Cycle Wave 4 here for a second to head onto Brunell Road There’s no protected lanes on this very short section but we’re only on it for literally 3 or 4 seconds before we turn into Rupac Street It’s all really low traffic in historic Rotherhive here Um but it would be really nice to have a more direct connection from the cycle way to this area Even just a dropped curb where those wheelie bins were would probably do it if anyone from Southern Council is watching and wants a quick and easy project to improve cycle access to this part of the burough Strangely we actually pick up cycle wave 14 signs again now that we’re in the back street So you can follow those if you need some directions What I love about this part of town is that the the historic Docklands used to be such a big part of London’s identity in previous centuries but there’s really not a huge amount of the city now that retains that kind of maritime workingclass feel mostly thanks to a lot of the quite unscentimental development of the 1980s But Ratherive really does particularly that park we just cycle through Um and it’s worth a visit for that reason as well as its pubs and the excellent Brunell Museum which is a stones throw away from we are now You can either do that by cycling this route or taking the train to Brother station which we’ve just ended the video at So thank you very much for watching that guys I hope you agree that is an excellent route As you can see on the map it’s really really straight and doesn’t really have too many wiggles in it It’s just a really direct route It joins up two excellent routes C14 and C4 And uh it runs from a pretty major transport hub as well So hopefully it’ll be useful to a lot of people Let me know in the comments what you think and also what you think of Rother as well if you’ve ever been And uh also please if you haven’t already please do hit subscribe on the channel so that you are shown new videos I publish I do them every week And also hit the like button to help other people find it as it does boost the videos in YouTube’s algorithm And finally thank you once again to everyone who supports the channel on the Patreon And if anyone else is feeling generous and wants to throw some money at me then you can find a link to the Patreon in the description below the video as well I’ll see some of you in the comments and I’ll see the rest of you next time Goodbye