A fabulous day out in London with good friends and great sunshine, amazing route highlighting many of Christopher Wren's landmarks.
check out my outward route on komoot - https://www.komoot.com/tour/1720080726/
Sir Christopher Wren (1632 -1723) was a highly influential English architect, mathematician and scientist. He has designed many iconic buildings in London including St Paul’s cathedral and the Royal Observatory in Greenwich.
We set off from Hampton Court, one of Wren’s designs through the grounds of Hampton Court along the Long Water, then through Richmond Park. Richmond Park is the largest of London’s Royal Parks with over 2500 thousand acres, it's home to 600 deer. The park was incredibly busy with both road cyclists and many like us, on the gravel sections.
The Long water at Hampton Court and Richmond Park (above)
We then reached the river Thames at Putney where we can continued along the embankment down past Battersea and onward to Chelsea to our first feed stop at the Albert bridge.
From there we headed into central London, first stopping off at the Royal Hospital Chelsea to St. Clement Danes church – another example of one of the many churches designed by Wren when he helped rebuild the city after the great fire of London in 1666.
Royal hospital Chelsea
St Danes Church (above)
One of the highlights of the day was cycling past Buckingham Palace then down the Mall, it was closed to traffic so it was a lot fun. A few of us had done it previously the other way as part of the London ride 100 finish.
Buckingham Palace and the Mall (above)
It wasn't long before we reached our lunch stop at St Paul’s cathedral, Wren’s most famous design. It's considered to be one of his most remarkable works and a prime example of English baroque architecture. It began in 1675 and took 35 years to complete. We also had the opportunity to go inside and look around its magnificent interior.
Magnificent St Pauls
We then took a couple of wrong turns and missed the Monument to the Great Fire of London which was designed by Wren and Hooke. We then had a very interesting section going down to Tower Bridge and along the River Thames through the East End of London onward to the Docklands where sadly we got a bit lost again. I blame the Garmin, not my map reading skills of course!
Canary Wharf & Docklands
Once we were back on course it was only a short hop to Greenwich but before then we had to go through the under river pedestrian tunnel to our final stop in Greenwich and the Royal Naval College another of Wren’s famous works.
After a lovely pub meal at Greenwich and admiring the Cutty Sark, we headed back to Hampton Court Palace on a different route. Over 50 miles in total today through central London. Really was a great day out and an opportunity for a leisurely ride and stop and take in the most amazing iconic London landmarks. Long day though….
Cutty Sark in Greenwich
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