It occurred to me a while back that it might be fun to do a series of bike rides on my Brompton from all of the most distant stations in London that I could reach free of charge using my Freedom Pass. For my first ride I decided to travel to Harold Wood, mainly because I could get there on the Elizabeth Line. It was a cold day, one of the first really cold days of winter. I hadn't done much planning beyond drawing an approximate route on my Ordnance Survey map, and shortly after departing from the station at Harold Wood I remembered coming there when I was walking around the London Loop, the long-distance path that encircles London.
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| Solitary deer in 2022 |
I remembered as soon as I saw the deer—it was calmly grazing on a bit of open green land on a housing estate, close to the narrow ribbon of woodland that skirts the River Ingrebourne. I've seen them three times now, those deer, though the people who live here must see them every day. The first time was ten years ago when I first walked the London Loop, and then we saw quite a large herd on a track just north of this point. The second time I saw them, walking with some friends, I looked them up on the internet when I got home. There are plenty of stories about the deer, which the newspapers like to call 'urban deer', and which roam the area around Harold Hill and nearby Dagnam Park. And although they move in the usual stealthy deer-like way, able to vanish easily almost before your eyes, they aren't uncomfortable around people and the newspapers have photos of full antlered stags reclining on suburban lawns.
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| Solitary deer in 2011 |
I carried on towards the outer reaches of Brentwood on roads that must once have been pleasant country lanes, winding up and down hills with views towards the Thames estuary. Now they are not so pleasant to cycle along. The road surface is disintegrating and the traffic is heavy and continuous. Maybe the two things are related.
From the little village of South Weald I cycled south to cross the A12 and then circled around Brentwood's southern edge. It was pleasantly wooded and lots of people were walking dogs and then in Little Warley I deviated foolishly for my plan and took a direct line towards the A127, because the tiny road looked less busy. Well, it was less busy because of the difficulty of getting onto the A127. And as for crossing it . . .
Everyone should cross a busy dual carriageway at some point in their life, just so they understand exactly how fast a distant dot travelling at 80mph transforms itself into a hurtling missile of metal. In 5 seconds it will travel 178 metres, in 10 seconds nearly a quarter of a mile. When you're crossing it's the vehicles in the outside lane you need to keep an eye on, and you need a really big gap. In short, I wouldn't recommend crossing the A127 at this point.
But once across I was in flat farming country with far less traffic. I went south for a couple of miles and then turned west and saw a sign saying ROAD CLOSED. I always ignore these signs on a bike because there is almost always a way through for cyclists and pedestrians. But in this case I was stopped by a couple of burly bearded workmen. I asked them if there was a way through and they said 'No'. I said not even for a pedestrian and they said 'No'. I said, 'What is it that's blocking the road?' expecting them to tell me the road was completely destroyed or something like that, but they said 'You can't go through because we won't let you.'
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| Avoiding the roadworks |
Luckily there was a footpath close by which turned out to be a perfectly usable track and was actually better than the road. A short distance on a very busy road took me to a turn-off where I crossed the M25 and the railway and then cycled north along a quiet lane almost to Upminster where, in the centre of town, I joined National Cycle Route 136.
This section of the route, north past Upminster station, is one of those strange cycle routes where white bicycles are painted on the road surface. The route continues on the road for just over a mile, sharing it with heavy traffic. In Station Road there appeared to be no pedestrian crossings. All the way up to the station, pedestrians were randomly launching themselves into the traffic. It was madness. And I would love to know if there is any evidence that painting white bicycles on the surface of a road alters driver behaviour in any way.
A few more miles and I was back in Harold Wood, admiring the old station building which is dwarfed now by the new ramped and stepped plaza for access to the Elizabeth Line. I should have taken a picture but my hands were cold.
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