Ultimate guide to cycling in London

The Big Smoke. It doesn’t sound like the best place for a bike ride, does it? And yet, head out in London pretty much any day, any time, and you’ll see that it's crammed full of cyclists. Commuters, roadies, messengers: people from all walks of life are using two wheels to get around, and a thriving cycling culture courses through the city.

• Read more: What's the best bike for commuting?

Is this because London is an untapped idyll for cycling? Not exactly. But the locals manage to squeeze every ounce of quality riding from these roads. Getting in a good bike ride in London requires know-how and creativity – you won’t just head out of the door and stumble upon stunning roads.

• Read more: How to ride in a city

If you want to tap into that local knowledge base, read on. We’ll go through everything you need to know to have a great ride in and around the city. Discover the best climbs, the best routes, the best coffee stops, and more.

To really get a feel for the cycling culture in London, check out our documentary Cycling Heartlands: London on GCN+. We followed crit superstar and London boy Alec Briggs around the city, stopping off at the most iconic locations in the city to talk to some of the most important voices in London's cycling scene.

When to visit

London holds a trump card over much of the UK in that the roads can be ridden nearly all year round. Thanks to road gritting, warmth from traffic, and reliable street lights, you can ride more consistently in winter than you can in rural areas, where dark lanes and ice make winter cycling more dangerous.

Unsurprisingly though, summer is the best time of year to ride bikes in London. It’s warmer and dryer than the rest of the year, and the temperature peaks at around 22-27°C. On average it rains about seven days a month in summer.

• Read more: How to prepare your bike for winter

Iconic climbs

Don’t expect anything too big in London – the capital is basically flat. Nevertheless, these climbs get the locals very excited, and many offer a decent challenge to even the fittest of cyclists.

Swains Lane

Swains Lane is a name that strikes fear into any London cyclist. This climb, set into leafy Hampstead in the north of the city, may be short, but it will break you. It gets steeper and steeper, and narrower and narrower. At the steepest part, you are literally walled-in on both sides: there’s no distraction and no escape. Owing to its ferocity, this climb is the arena for the hugely popular Urban Hill Climb event each September.

Alexandra Palace

This fast-rolling climb in North London lifts you out of the noisy traffic of Crouch End and up, up, and away, to a fantasy land of palaces and parks. Well, to a single palace: Alexandra Palace, the concert and event venue that sits atop this hill a few kilometres north of Finsbury Park. The climb up to ‘Ally Pally’ isn’t long, and it isn’t super steep, but the view of the city from the top is spectacular.

Broomfield Hill

There are three ‘climbs’ on the outer circuit of Richmond Park, where many London cyclists go to ride away from cars and traffic lights. Broomfield Hill, despite only gaining a paltry 39m of elevation, is the hardest. You meet this climb when riding the park clockwise, which is the less popular way to ride Richmond Park. The climb is essentially a big sweeping left hander, and you’ll usually both pass and be passed by other cyclists on your way to the top.

Box Hill

Ever since this climb featured in the 2012 Olympic road race, it’s been a staple for long weekend rides out from London. With a couple of Alpine-style switchbacks and perfect tarmac, this climb draws in riders from far and wide. Head to Box Hill on the weekend and you’ll find hundreds of cyclists either on the climb or enjoying a National Trust coffee at the top.

Mott Street

Another climb that’s out of London, but a favourite for many London cyclists. Mott Street is the gateway to Epping Forest, which Alec Briggs explores in our GCN Heartlands documentary. Beginning in the industrial lowlands of the Lee Valley, this climb leads you up and into the trees. It’s not an easy ride, though. Thanks to its constantly changing gradient, this stinger of a climb denies you any sense of rhythm.

Toys Hill (south ascent)

A Kent classic that draws London’s chain gangs and club runs on the weekend. Surrounded by trees, the road gives no clues as to how much longer is left, making pacing tricky. For Londoners, who count a 39m ramp in Richmond Park as a climb, this feels endless. Thankfully, there’s a clear marker of where this climb ends: a pub at the top. Ideal.

Where to ride in the city

For quick rides, perhaps before or after work, riding all the way out of the city is too much hassle. Thankfully, there are a few places to have a great ride within the city limits.

Regent’s Park

Regent’s Park is about as central as you could want, nestled between Marylebone and Camden Town. As a result, it draws in riders from every corner of the capital. A lap of the outer circle is 4.4km, and is almost exclusively ridden anti-clockwise. The dedication to the anti-clockwise lap is so strong that an entire club (named Go Fast Turn Left) has been created to do just that. Come to Regent’s before or after work hours, and you’ll see hundreds of riders lapping silently in large echelons, often composed of complete strangers. Alternatively, for a shorter, but traffic light-free option, there’s the inner circle. A lap of the inner circle (again, to be ridden anti-clockwise only) is 1.01km, and a favourite evening training ground for London’s cyclists.

Richmond Park

This is a slice of English countryside nestled among the sprawl of West London. Entering Richmond Park for the first time is pretty astonishing. As you pass through the gate, you are transported to a beautiful moorland landscape. There is a gravel path around the outside of the park, and a number of internal roads, but the main event is the outer lap. A full lap is an impressive 10.81km, and takes in 244m of climbing. Anti-clockwise is de rigueur. Thanks to traffic restrictions, this park is increasingly cycling-friendly, and is always chock-full of cyclists on the weekends.

Lee Valley

It costs £6 to get on the course, but for a serious training session without any faff at traffic lights or junctions, the Lee Valley Velo Park is hard to beat. The 1.62km course is well lit, perfectly paved and car-free. With nothing to slow you down, this is a great place to practise cornering skills and bike handling.

North London climbs

For a testing ride within the city limits, head to North London. The city is at its lumpiest around Highgate, Hampstead and Hornsey, and it’s easy to string together some of the tougher climbs to produce a challenging route. Richmond Park makes a good starting point. From there, you can link up the toughest climbs in north London, including Swains Lane and Alexandra Palace.

Where to ride out of the city

Come the weekend, it’s good to break out of London. But which direction should you head in?

Surrey

The most popular direction for weekend warriors fleeing the city, Surrey has some fantastic climbs and rollers. Best of all, the ride out is quite pleasant: most riders choose to go through Richmond Park, past Hampton Court and through leafy boroughs like Esher and Thames Ditton.

Kent

For cyclists based in East London, getting all the way across to Surrey can take too long. Thankfully, heading directly south into Kent offers fantastic cycling. The ride out to Kent is long, and south London can seem to go on forever, but it’s worth it once you pop out into the countryside, where the riding is fantastic, and the roads quieter than Surrey.

Hertfordshire

Riding north from London takes you into Hertfordshire, a beautiful county of tiny roads and enormous country estates. For many cyclists, this area is relatively unknown, but those that know what Hertfordshire has to offer visit again and again. The climbs aren’t as magnificent as they are in Surrey and Kent, but instead of riding from one ‘destination climb’ to another, there is a more steady sense of rising and falling.

London Heartlands

In Cycling Heartlands: London, we visited some of the hubs of London's diverse cycling culture. If you're a cyclist in London, why not pay these spots a visit?

Rapha Clubhouse

© GCN

Founder Simon Mottram outside the Rapha Clubhouse in London

The Rapha Clubhouse in Soho is a real hub for the city’s cyclists. Every day, group rides start and end here, and in the evenings, they host events featuring some of the most important voices in cycling.

Condor Cycles

© GCN

Condor Cycles is a heritage brand based in London

A family-run bicycle brand that is inseparable from London, and still operating on the very same street that it started out on in 1948. Pop along to Condor to see some beautiful bikes, including ones ridden by some of the greats of our sport.

Herne Hill Velodrome

© GCN

Herne Hill velodrome in south London

This outdoor velodrome in South London is a Petri dish for talent and has a history stretching back into the 1800s. Now, the velodrome hosts a wide range of events, races and disciplines, from cyclocross to criteriums. It’s also where Alec Briggs, possibly the coolest person in the GCN Rolodex, cut his teeth.