Best route through London South to North

[drossall]

There's a cycle route on the old railway between Hatfield and St Albans stations.

[Richard Fairhurst]

I'd really recommend heading west past Meridian Water and using Cycleway 1 on the A1010 through Edmonton to Durant's Park before returning to the Lea at Enfield Island - but cycle.travel is oddly resistant to this (maybe because C1 is new enough that it's using traffic data from before?) and seems to prefer the narrow 1950s cycleway by the A1055.

I think that's mostly because it'd been mapped in OSM with lots of unrealistically sharp turns at bus-stop bypasses and the like. I've tweaked the angles a bit and will see if that makes it happier.

[humankeith]

Thank you all for your useful suggestions. I was planning on crossing London after Brighton - London. I've now decided to ride as far as St Pancreas and take a rain to St Albans from there, which would cut out quite a bit of city riding.

I'm not adverse to riding in the city, but I'll have had enough of it by then! This will give me time to explore St Albans a bit and take a slower dinner before the final short day up to Northampton to my In Laws.

Alternatively you could get a train from KX if more convenient than SP, get off at Hatfield and just cycle the few miles to St.Albans.
Also Metropolitan tube line goes to Watford, and it's about 9 miles from there to centre of SA.
Have a great trip

Aren't Kx and SP next door to each other? It appears there is a direct train from SP to St Albans at just past 4pm on Saturdays which is what I'll aim for. It's been a while since I've ridden in a city, so I am quite excited to ride through our Capital city and see some sights. It's going to be so interesting to start at the sea and end up in the middle of London. It'll be especially strange after some quiet countryside riding from Exeter.

Thanks all again for your helpful suggestions.

[Sweep]

I don't find riding in london complicated, or worrying.
Far less than many other urban or country places.
Traffic is often slow moving/congested.
Hence in my view Tower Bridge is maybe the safest - not many choices available to the folk sitting on engines.

[rareposter]

Hence in my view Tower Bridge is maybe the safest - not many choices available to the folk sitting on engines.

Unless you specifically want to see Tower Bridge and the Tower of London, it's far too far east if you're heading up to KX.
Westminster, Waterloo or Blackfriars Bridges - all have cycle lanes or at least decent bus lanes that can be used.

Aren't Kx and SP next door to each other?

They are but the whole area is one vast rabbit warren of station entrances! Take your time, look at the signage otherwise you'll be in one entrance and then wandering around mazes of tunnels and escalators with a bike!

[Sweep]

[
Unless you specifically want to see Tower Bridge and the Tower of London, it's far too far east if you're heading up to KX.
Westminster, Waterloo or Blackfriars Bridges - all have cycle lanes or at least decent bus lanes that can be used.

I was talking generally about the supposed perils of cycling in London.

In general I think it a very good city to cycle through.

[The utility cyclist]

Thank you all for your useful suggestions. I was planning on crossing London after Brighton - London. I've now decided to ride as far as St Pancreas and take a rain to St Albans from there, which would cut out quite a bit of city riding.

I'm not adverse to riding in the city, but I'll have had enough of it by then! This will give me time to explore St Albans a bit and take a slower dinner before the final short day up to Northampton to my In Laws.

Alternatively you could get a train from KX if more convenient than SP, get off at Hatfield and just cycle the few miles to St.Albans.
Also Metropolitan tube line goes to Watford, and it's about 9 miles from there to centre of SA.
Have a great trip

Aren't Kx and SP next door to each other? It appears there is a direct train from SP to St Albans at just past 4pm on Saturdays which is what I'll aim for. It's been a while since I've ridden in a city, so I am quite excited to ride through our Capital city and see some sights. It's going to be so interesting to start at the sea and end up in the middle of London. It'll be especially strange after some quiet countryside riding from Exeter.

Thanks all again for your helpful suggestions.

It was was information, It wasn't a suggestion to go that way it was to give you alternates. SP & KX are adjacent, but having options is better than not, on occasions there are issues so first plan might not actually be viable.
As it happens KX to Hatfield is £1.70 cheaper, Zone 1 tube to Watford is £4 off peak and if you are sightseeing in central London then using the metropolitan line off peak means you don't have to cycle to SP/KX area from central London.

[mjr]

Aren't Kx and SP next door to each other?

They are but the whole area is one vast rabbit warren of station entrances! Take your time, look at the signage otherwise you'll be in one entrance and then wandering around mazes of tunnels and escalators with a bike!

The best entrance for St A with a bike is the west side one opposite the Francis Crick Institute on C6 (which comes from Blackfriars Bridge as CS6). Just inside the door, the escalators on the left take you down to Thameslink platform B for St Albans (trains with destinations of St Albans or Bedford). There's probably lifts too, but I like escalators: front wheel onto the steps, then apply the front brake and your bike moves forwards: step forwards and lean back on the down, opposite for the up!

The bike spaces are marked with huge grey bike symbols on the outside of the train. I think they're a coach or two in from each end. Seatbelt-like straps attach bikes to the wall. Bikes are not allowed at peak times.

I'm not sure that the Metropolitan line offers much advantage when coming from the south, as you'd have to pretty much ride as far north as KX/SP to catch it anyway, then it only takes you to Watford and I don't think the ride across Watford and Bricket Wood and so on is all that great.

[humankeith]

More helpful replies - thank you!

For interest, this is the route I'm doing from Brighton to St Pancras:
https://www.komoot.com/tour/267705804