You can cycle from Mortlake in south west London to Shepherd’s Bush in west London entirely on quiet streets and protected cycle lanes.
The route is 9km long (5.6 miles) and makes use a new bridge at Duke’s Meadow, as well as Cycleway 9, and various quiet streets.
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, you can also contribute to the London Cycle Routes Patreon here. 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/1345636593?ref=wtd&share_token=aW9DaQ6jODBcQ72sbuL141wtSJrsl7e2CLgxMpLBJjg2KVVXdV
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=51.516975804561284%2C-0.21828576419061996&z=11
37 Comments
Gt video – must have been very recent as I had 'nagged' both Richmond and Hounslow Councils for a couple of years to sweep Chiswick Bridge and they finally did last week!! But there is already a new pothole on A316 which causes grit/gravel to be chucked up on the the cycle path annoyingly.
If people do Water Lane in reverse in Mortlake it is worth knowing that after the tide has been up there is a lot of mud and the corner can be seriously dangerous, making falling highly likely (I know as it happened to me.). Plus that you might come off the slipway from the bridge to find the tide is up so the road is impassible and there is an alternative route. Also people might want to know that Dan Mason drive Sats and Sundays is very busy w parents who drive their kids to sport so to be really careful on the corners.
Finally along Chiswick Mall the tide might be fully up and again it is not possible to cycle along there.
Thanks.
Great to see the new bridge
3:45 Is that where I think it is?
Cycle from Mortlake to Shepherd's Bush. You have 35 minutes. Your time starts now.
Excellent route. Love the new bridge… takes out the old wiggle around the sports centre.
That's a great bridge! There's a similar one under the south side of Chelsea Bridge.
Loved all except Hammersmith King Street, which I'm familiar with as a pedestrian. Just too manic for me to handle as a cyclist imprinted with being on the other side. Route along the Thames was superb! And the rest was great to wonderful. I'd love to do that trip, albeit walk my machine along King Street…which would bring back memories and be very interesting anyway.
Watching your channel is not only stimulating, it's therapy!
🤙🏼 Quite a nice new bridge! 🤙🏼
Amazin how much if this is "hidden"
That cyclist at 11mins 30secs, he didn't even look behind before jumpin into the bike lane, right in front of you 😱 what a ****.
@8:08 i suspect the reason for the huge roundabout is that double decker buses use it to effectively do a u-turn at the end of their route … and some of the drivers don't like cyclists … but it doesn't happen too often here
@11:44 sometimes the cars turn across the cycle lane after clearly seeing the cyclists! LB Hounslow put a lot more money into the Chiswick section of the cycle lane to encourage car drivers to behave considerately. the section further east (outside Hammersmith town hall building site) is particularly sketchy at present, but should improve once the works are (finally) finished.
I watched the vid just to see old haunts. I lived in London from April '67 till May '89. and from early '74 I was in Chiswick, then from about '78 I was in a road off the top of Hammersmith Grove. Watching the vid I felt like a ghost whizzing along roads I knew well but find difficult to recall now. I didn't cycle – I drove or walked. It all looks much more pedestrian and cycle friendly now, which is deffo good. The only bit I really recognised was Shepherds Bush Green, but that'd changed a lot too. That was a great route you took us on, and if I was decades younger and lived in West London I'm sure I'd find it very useful. But I'm in a lil village in the countryside, and I couldn't stand the bustle of city life now, though there are bits of the vid that feel intimate, quiet or quietish, and countrified. London is still an amazing place.
@15:27 if you're heading for the east end of Shepherd's Bush Green (Central Line / Overground / Westfield), instead of going (the wrong way) down Blyth Road, you can go straight on into Addison Gardens … and then bear left into Richmond Way … and at the end there's a lane up to the main round, which brings you to the traffic lights if you want to cross to the north side
at the mortlake brewery, they are currently filming "A Thousand Blows" the new Stephen Graham and Stephen Knight series for Disney Plus, sometimes they are filming on the tow path.
We cycled on that new bridge section (in the opposite direction) just last week – and commented about how fantastic it is!
Fun fact: behind the green gates at Dan Mason Drive is the Taskmaster house where all the challenges are filmed!
+ Random parked car Lamborghini Countach at 06:48!
Another great route 👍 thanks!🙂
As you say, that new bridge! Straight out of the Netherlands Infrastructure handbook! 🚴♀️🚴♂️
I'm amazed no one has yet pointed out that I misspelt Shepherd's Bush in the title card at the beginning of the video. I'll consider that having got away with it!
Wish you'd pointed out the entrance to the Taskmaster house at 3:47 🙂
The new bridge looks glorious!
Yey a west London route close to my heart, and place. I loved seeing how that bridge came to be since last year until it finished this year.
My understanding of Road Traffic law is that there has to be a regulation (or some other written device) that imposes a legal requirement to comply (no parking, or no entry, for example). Changing a one way street to 'except bikes' is more than just putting up a cheap sign, sadly. The lawyers have to get their cut!
►♪♫☼THXmF♥!!!!!
A very interesting part of London. Thanks for posting.
Cycling is prohibited on the steel bridge as it is not wide enough. You should remove that from this video.
Lamborghini countach spotted… I on now we love our bikes, but that was a blast from my childhood! 😂
Great vid!!
Lovely work and a very reasonable route. From out here where the distances and gradients are greater, my visits to friends in Mortlake before we had kids, give me a greater appreciation of your product.
Meanwhile, I'm working on our LTP in a voluntary capacity and pushing for rural routes (behind the hedge) to link Shrewsbury with the many small towns and villages for those able to leave the car on the drive.
Just found your channel, i am looking to ride from Lincolnshire to West Sussex via London, so a suitable North to South route through London would be great.
Excellent vid, thank you! I spotted that new footbridge from the other side of the river in Barnes a month ago as I was cycling from Kingston along the Thames Path to Wandsworth. I’d marked the spot on Google Maps to return and investigate and so your video is extremely timely.
If you begun your journey a little further East along the river bank in Mortlake you’d have see the plaque marking the site of the house of the C16th mathematician, astronomer, alchemist & magus John Dee.😊
Your description is spot on – it does look like some transplanted from Copenhagen! We need more structures like this along the Thames and also on the Wandle river at Earlsfield.
Nice video, but why the American pronunciation of 'mall'?
I had always reached Shepherd's Bush by going down Glodhawk Road. That's a much nicer route. Super excited for the CS9 extensions into Brentford and darkest Hounslow
I included this route in a loop i did from Hackney – very picturesque – many thanks for all the route suggestions
The new bridge at 5:45 reminds me of the Indooroopilly Riverwalk in Brisbane.
FYI, Chiswick Mall can be unpassable during high tide….
My wet feet can testament to that.
Interestingly, in France, the equivalent of 20mph zones on one way streets automatically allow contraflow cycling by law. This has caused some issues with the generalisation of 20mph areas across entire cities though with some orders going in place in some cities to ban contraflow cycling where it would be dangerous, but contraflow on 20mph one-way roads is very much the rule rather than the exception!
in the high tides this week and the extra Storm Ciarán outflow – the Duke Meadows footbridge / cycle bridge was actually under water! it looked like it wasn't too deep and still passable on a bicycle – depending on how precious your bike is!
The irony of the lack of contra flows is that there are quite a few in that area already, but on a specific LCN route rather than just a blanket exemption. Time to rectify that!!!
As a man who narrowly avoids death every day cycling around kensington these are much appreciated! Keep doing the lords work