🚲 The best low-traffic way to cycle from Woolwich to Eltham

You can cycle from Woolwich in south east London to Eltham London, more or less entirely on quiet streets and protected cycle lanes.

The route is 6km long (3.7 miles) and makes use of Cycleway 33 as well as other historic quiet streets south of Woolwich.

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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/1436550878?ref=wtd&share_token=absZ1AKU8zzUSx3ZhHFXtX1JuNBlzFpnQSnutn1OkXbzfVp1zQ

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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=0%2C0&z=12

Hello and welcome back to London cycle routes today I’ll be showing you how to cycle from woit in southeast London to Elum this ride takes about 25 minutes and you can do more or less the whole thing on quiet streets and protected cycle Lanes by public transport the same

Journey takes around half an hour so you might even be able to save a little bit of time by getting on your bike 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 massive thank you to everybody who supports the channel on patreon if you’d like to contribute as well you can find a link in the description below the video all right let’s get going so we’re starting outside the big

Tesco in wown Center and we’re going to head down this nice little path called Love Lane we then use this helpful cut in the central reservation to get onto angle SE Road and turn right up Brook Hill Road this is the start of a signposted tfl route called cycleway 33

As you can see from the green and blue sign on the left there and c33 written on the ground c33 is mostly a Backstreet route on Quiet Road as well as a few paths some bits are quite good and other bits are definitely in need of improvement and I’ll Point

Those out as we go because for the first section of this route we’re going to be following c33 as it is I think the best way to go south out of willtown center after c33 is done I then Cobble together a reasonably quiet route of my own which

Will take us to Elum station in terms of being low traffic C3 3 is pretty good with the exception of the very first bit of Brook Mill Road it’s actually almost entirely on streets that have no through traffic that means that you’re unlikely to run into any cars or at least cars

Which are moving because the big downside of c33 is that the streets it goes on are absolutely dominated by on street parking you can see here there’s a parking space blocking the entrance to the path and further on we’ll see similar such examples from our point of

View that means that the carriageway can be quite narrow you’ll have to negotiate past part vehicles in a lot of cases and also sight lines can be blocked by particularly large cars when they’re parked so you just need to keep an eye out when you’re on streets like that the

Other area which c33 could do with a bit of improvement on is really just the state of the paths you can see this one is all cracked up as is this little Street here it’s really just a case of basic maintenance and resurfacing which would make the whole thing a lot

Smoother and just more pleasant to ride on just look at the floor on this little pathway coming up here it’s about 2/3 covered by different patching jobs when you get to that point you do think you might just want to resurface the whole thing this area is a really good example

Of somewhere which could do with a controll parking Zone there really are just cars spilling out onto every pavement every surface and blocking drop curvs and such like that if you look closely on the right the actual parking spaces are largely empty but people have parked on the street including blocking

The cycle way presumably it’s more convenient for them than having to back into a proper space but it really does make the experience of cycling down here a lot less Pleasant than it could be the strange thing is that if you look on the sensus map of the areas we just cycled

Through a full 55% of households actually don’t have a car so something is wrong with the way that parking has been managed there and it’s even possible that people are coming from outside and leaving cars there now we are going to cross into woit common which has a really interesting history

Probably the most interesting fact that I came across is that from 1803 to 1873 the common was actually used for artillery target practice fortunately that’s not the case anymore so you are fine to cycle down here it was also heavily bombed during the second world war as an anti-aircraft battery was

Located here from a cycling point of view the path is nice and wide and nice and smooth and the common is open 24 hours so you can come down here at any time but I should point out that there are no street lights along the path so

Just be aware that it could be quite dark if you come down here now that’s the end of c33 so I’m going to add lib the route from now on we’re starting off going down Stadium road now Stadium Road isn’t a super quiet street but it effectively acts as an access road for

The Queen Elizabeth Hospital as you can see it’s not too busy despite technically being a through route I think that’s because the vast majority of North South longdistance traffic tends to stay on the a205 which runs really parallel to this it’s not ideal and it would be great to have a cycle

Path running alongside it even if it was just a decent shared pavement maybe on the left hand side where there aren’t really any side roads but for now it will do and it is a useful connector and probably the best way to go if you need

To get to Elum now while we were on cycle wave 33 there was helpful way finding you know signs and c33 written on the ground with a cycle symbol now we’re off it if you want to follow this route there won’t be any of that so if

You need a bit of extra help to show you which way to go then you can find a map of the route Linked In the description below it’s in a GPX file and it should work on whatever app or device you choose to use now I want to get to

Corelli road which is actually on the other side of Shooters Hill Road but the junction that led to it I didn’t really fancy it not the sort of way that I would send in video so I’ve got kind of a weird way of getting there for this

Which I think is easier but still not great so we’re going to go on this diagonal path here and we’re going to go in the painted cycle Lane on Shooters Hill Road not a great cycle Lane but it is a mandatory cycle Lane it’s fairly wide people seem to be giving it plenty

Of space you’re on it for a couple of seconds then wait for a gap in the traffic in the cycle lane and then you can turn into Carelli Road not ideal at all to be honest it would be great to have some sort of Crossing

To help you over the road there but in the meantime that’s how I decided to do it this middle third of the route is on reasonably quiet back streets as you can see their residential streets without huge amounts of traffic on them they’re relatively wide so there’s plenty of

Space to pass cars and I think it’s a fairly comfortable riding experience that said this street does get a little bit busier at Peak time particularly around the school entrance so if you’re commuting through here just bear that in mind some of the streets are better than others so Corelli Road

Here is a through route as is broadwalk which we’re on now but we’re turning into Mayday Gardens now and this is actually a closed loop so it doesn’t have any through traffic on it at any time of day there’s simply no reason for anyone to drive down here unless they

Live here or are visiting someone who lives here we’re actually heading for a little path right at the back of the Colac and that means that although it’s a dead end for cars it’s not a dead end for cycling you are allowed to cycle on it you can see the little blue shared

Space sign on the lamp post as you enter but unfortunately it hasn’t really been designed for cycling um there are three separate chicanes like this along the path which is not a great experience and particularly if you’ve got accessibility issues maybe you’re using a trike or a recumbent bike it could be very

Difficult to get past there chicanes like that are also no fun if you’re on foot they create pinch points with people coming in the opposite direction and if you’re pushing a buggy or similar they’re just something else that you’ve got to maneuver around so yeah removing

Those is a cheap way to improve the path on the plus side cycling on the streets around here is really nice again they are mostly a dead end for cars so most people have no reason to drive down here there’s also a lot less on street parking than we saw in those

Earlier streets on the route which just means we have more space to pass fewer potential hazards and better safer lines of sight the difference is really noticeable and cycling down here is really an enjoyable experience although one change I would make would be to put some double yellow lines on the approach

To the junction here as those cars did block the view of the intersection just a reminder that if you want to support the Channel’s work and you’re feeling generous then you can always Chuck us a couple of quid on patreon there’s a link in the description below the video and I should

Say thank you so much again to everyone who already subscribed on that I really appreciate it and it really does help keep the channel going we’re getting pretty close close to Elum now and the final run into the station is really quite good briset road which we’re just

About to turn on to is nice and quiet and gives us a great direct route all the way to the South circular where we’re going to join a reasonably decent shared Crossing that will then put us onto a path which will take us directly to the station now this is far from the

Worst Crossing of a major road that I’ve ever used in London it doesn’t at least have quite a large waiting area here and the approach from briset road is quite nicely done with a dropped curb unfortunately it does have quite a long wait to get across the main road there

Which is something the video doesn’t show as I always cut the weights out we then find ourselves on this path running opposite this playing field now if you look at the ground here you’ll see something that is quite annoying which is that a whole onethird of the width is

Actually taken up with overgrown vegetation the path could be a lot more comfortable if someone just came along and cleared it occasionally in terms of safety that path does lack its own street lights now I’ve not been down there at night but I have a feeling from

The location of the street lights on the main road to our right that it probably is lit up by those lights this section of Edith nesit W does also have its own street lights so I think it should probably be okay as a night rout if anyone has any experience of cycling

Along there after dark do let me know in the comments because I’m interested now as you can see from the sign under the Railway Bridge we have found ourselves in Elum um it’s not quite Elum toown center it’s actually Elum station but if it’s good enough for the railways then

It’s good enough for me now if you review the map of the route which we’ve just gone on you’ll notice that we basically just shadowed the a205 but keeping away from traffic mostly in summary of the route I’d say that the first bit on c33 is pretty decent

Although I did point out the issues with the parking and the state of repair of the paths and the last bit is also really Pleasant once you get into Mayday Gardens and briset Road unfortunately the middle probably is the worst bit Stadium Road could be a lot quieter and

That Crossing of Shooters Hill Road is far from ideal overall if this was my commute I’d be very happy to ride it every day although I would be asking why can’t we just have protected cycle Lanes on the a205 let me know in the comments what

You think make sure you hit the like button so other people see the video and subscribe if you haven’t already and a massive thanks again to everyone who supports the channel on patreon I’ll see you all again next time