Let's continue along National Cycle Network Route 1, East London section. This is the Sustrans route from Dover to Shetland and nothing to do with TfL, preceding Superhighways, Quietways and Cycleways by several years. Yesterday we rode from the Greenwich Foot Tunnel to the corner of Victoria Park and today we'll continue to Walthamstow Marshes, looking out for any particularly poor bits of infrastructure along the way. [OS map][OpenCycleMap]
Victoria Park is an ideal choice for an off-road cycle route, its outer carriage drive being broad enough to cope with walkers, joggers, cyclists and errant hounds. NCN1 hugs the southern edge, which is nice because it passes the ornamental lake and a heck of a lot of plane trees. The biggest hassle is crossing from one half of the park to the other, which is achieved by exiting one set of gates, negotiating the green stripe across Grove Road and entering another. Tiny numbers on fingerposts direct you very pleasantly eastwards, right up to the point where you exit via the car park.
This is not good. NCN1 bears off past the gardeners' compound where a low gate spans the tarmac, accompanied by a sign imploring Cyclists Dismount (which everyone ignores). It then enters the St Mark's Gate car park, which on my visit was both packed and active, where bikes are expected to negotiate from one side to the other. Admittedly this is the last scrap of "on-road" cycling before the North Circular, so perhaps worth the inconvenience, but highly unimpressive all the same.
A chunk of canal towpath is next, ramping down to the Hertford Union just in time to have missed its most awkward locks, narrow bridges and cycle-unfriendly dips. Cyclists may have to dodge a graffiti-sprayer, or more likely lots of people coming the other way, because the path gets narrower as the Olympic Stadium comes into view. It's a measure of how old the Sustrans network is that the blue sign at the entrance to this section says Lea Valley Park 1½, completely ignoring Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park which is just round the corner.
Here's another rubbish bit. After crossing the Lea at White Post Lane NCN1 has to descend from the bridge back to riverside level. It does this down a steepish slope of cobbly bumps, definitely bike-unfriendly, before doubling back and continuing northwards. QEOP's management recognised this was bad a couple of years ago and added a proper ramp down past Barge East's outdoor seating, a few metres further on, but the blue signage continues to point the bad way. It seems updating 20-year-old cycle routes to take advantage of later improvements doesn't generally happen.
An even better example of this phenomenon is that NCN1 ignores the Olympic Park completely. This wasn't here at the turn of the century when the route was designed, so the Lea's towpath was a much better bet than a grubby road through an industrial estate. But careering off through an iconic landscape blessed with broad paths built with bikes in mind would now be a much better option. Nothing's stopping you cycling that way, indeed all signage for NCN1 pretty much dries up for the next mile, but officially the path ploughs on beside the river.
Beyond the A12 an additional broader track starts to shadow the narrower towpath. That's the way you're supposed to go, leaving the riverside clear for pedestrians, but the only blue sign telling you this has sadly peeled off. At present the broad track's closed while workmen improve the state of its surface, which is just the sort of investment any decent cycleway needs and should be very welcome. But any cyclist not on this parallel path very much risks not noticing the moment NCN1 veers off into the woods to cross the top of Hackney Marshes.
Bugger. Friends Bridge (across the other braid of the River Lea) is closed for six weeks for the undertaking of necessary repairs. It closed on Monday, just after I took this photo, and is currently blocked off by blue metal sheeting. A significant diversion is required, this being the sole crossing for a mile hereabouts, which just goes to show how a cycle route which prioritises remoteness can be scuppered by events. Still, never mind, the next bit's blocked too...
This is the subway under Lea Bridge Road, normally a marvellous bit of infrastructure but alas currently flooded and impassable. It's been this way for at least the last six months, wasting innumerable people's time as they were forced to turn back, and only very recently have Thames Water turned up with barriers suggesting some remediation might be going on. The only alternative is to ride up to street level, deviate via a signalled crossing and then try to find your way back down... but this has been the third consecutive paragraph with closures and repairs, which merely confirms how vulnerable national cycle routes can be.
Wahey, the next mile's across good old Walthamstow Marshes. Not along the riverside but via the surfaced track on the far side past the riding school and pylons, at one point ducking beneath the viaducts where two railway lines cross. It all feels a bit remote and cut-off, but if it's low traffic and a smooth ride you're seeking then this is perfect. What's interesting is that when TfL came to add a Quietway here they did indeed choose the riverside path and that's now much better used, plus it would allow NCN1 to skip the utterly ridiculous bit of infrastructure that's coming up next.
Coppermill Bridge is infamous as London's lowest bridge, its headroom a miserly 1.5m. That NCN1 and Quietway 2 both feel the need to duck under this nightmarish railway bridge just goes to show the paucity of alternative routes in these parts. Some bend their backs and cycle underneath, others do the safer thing and walk stoopingly underneath, but it's a disruptive intrusion all the same. Looks great on social media, but not much fun in real life.
To get back to the Lea there's a further annoying bridge, privately owned and never designed with cyclists in mind. A metal furrow's been added to help push your steed up its steep flanks, the central span is impractically narrow, and quite frankly it would have been better if NCN1 had never deviated away from the river five paragraphs ago. At least from this point onwards it simply hugs the River Lea all the way north to Gunpowder Park on the Greater London boundary. Put your map away, stop looking at the signs and cycle safely.
