I started my journey to the West Country in the late summer of 1999 from the steps of Waterloo Station, the point at which I had finished my York-Hull-Harwich-London ride some nine weeks previously. However, the Thames Valley Cycle Route starts at Putney Bridge, and at that time the Sustrans route from Central London didn’t exist, so I worked my way out through Vauxhall, Nine Elms, and Wandsworth. The traffic was surprisingly busy, so it took me almost an hour to do the trip.
Note: you can order the new version of the Thames valley route map through the link at the bottom of this page – click on the map cover. For those with older versions of the map, changes which have been made to the route recently can be found here.
Two miles from the start the ride passes the London Wetland Centre, where an old Victorian reservoir has been turned into a fabulous nature reserve which is encouraging countless unusual species of birds and other wildlife back into suburban London.
The route wasn’t signed between Putney Bridge and Barnes. This may have had something to do with an on-going and very heated row about the proposed short section across Barnes Common. In 1999 a public enquiry had only just taken place. (Four years later a planning appeal has only just resolved the situation, and construction of the cycle paths across the common can at last begin.) There were no signs, either, at Barnes station, which was a bit confusing, or through Richmond Park, though this has now been
partly rectified and is to be further improved.
The route leaves the park across Ham Common, and makes for the riverside at Teddington Lock, from where it follows the Thames Path along the south bank of the river to Kingston.
There it crosses over the bridge (being rebuilt in 1999 with a segregated cycle lane) and then follows the north bank of the river to Hampton Court.
After crossing back over the river it follows the south bank on a permissive path with an 8mph cycle speed limit. Would that I could have reached such a speed! The drawback of the riverside path on a sunny summer Sunday is the mass of strollers who walk several abreast across the path and refuse to allow a bike to pass through, so it’s a continual stop-start.
The path leads past Hurst Park (once a racecourse), then Molesey, with its huge reservoirs, Sunbury Lock, and Walton-on-Thames, through to Weybridge. Apart from the Sunday strollers it’s a delightful ride. From Weybridge the map showed that the proposed route will cross the river by a ferry and follow the north bank through Laleham. I could have followed most of this route on relatively quiet roads (much of it is now open) but I opted for the main route through Chertsey instead.
I soon realised my mistake. There were few signs through the back streets of Chertsey and the route, which bypasses the town centre, is hard to follow in places. Then, the four miles on to Staines is on a a shared path beside the busy and noisy A320. I soon got fed up with my slow and bumpy progress – there are far too many side roads and property accesses for it to be a sensible part of a long-distance route – and took to the road. The next stretch, past Egham, is hardly any better – it uses cyclepaths beside the A308 and the A30, which is not a pleasant experience. (The opening of a better, riverside route from Staines depends on the creation of a link across National Trust land at Runnymede.)
However, eventually the busy roads are left behind, and the route takes to a track which runs past the edge of Runnymede. The entrance was unsigned, but a passer-by confirmed it was what I was looking for. However, he was surprised that I planned to ride along it, and even more surprised to discover it was part of the National Cycle Network, and I soon found out why. The track was extraordinarily rough, more like a dried up river bed than a cycle route, with a couple of steep stretches for good measure.
However, once through this tough section it’s into the delights of Windsor Great Park (just don’t get there too late, the park closes overnight), then on through Windsor and over the bridge into Eton. Back in 1999 the route detoured out from Eton Wick to Boveney then back to Dorney, but there is now a direct link avoiding Dorney, which passes the new (and boringly straight) Eton Rowing Lake. I found confusion at Dorney – a lack of signs combined with the works for the new lake made navigation a problem.
The route crosses the river on an excellent new bridge to Monkey Island, and so to Bray. Beyond Bray I found a curious situation where the Round Berkshire Cycleway follows the B3028, while the National Cycle Network diverts off onto an off-road path! The B-road was quiet, so I went that way.
I can only describe the route through Maidenhead as frustrating. It may be fine for novice cyclists wanting to get around the town in safety – if they’re not in too much of a hurry – but when you’re trying to make progress on a longer ride it’s intensely annoying, and it took an age.
Beyond Maidenhead the route used a short stretch of the A4 (now bypassed) before winding around to Wargrave, where it joins a cyclepath beside the A4. From the outskirts of Reading it follows a riverside route through the town. However, I was tired of the day’s slow progress and, as it was getting late, once I got onto the A4 I stuck to it for a fast run into Reading. I’m sure the Sustrans route into Reading is excellent, but I’d had enough of indirect wanderings for the day.
From Reading the Thames Valley Cycle Route continues to Oxford using NCN Route 5 – parts of it are covered in my Weekend Tour to the Cotswolds & Chilterns. I continued west along route 4, in the guise of the Severn & Thames Cycle Route, towards Bath and Bristol.
I really enjoyed the first part of the ride as far as Weybridge, though it’s clear that on summer weekends the Thames Path gets very crowded and you can’t expect to make rapid progress. And, of course, because it follows the river’s winding course, it’s also a long way round, so allow plenty of time. Richmond Park and Windsor Great Park were delightful, too.
However, there were too many sections where there is conflict between the route’s different roles. The shared path route from Chertsey to Staines may be fine for riding to work but not for travelling a long distance. Similarly, the tortuous route through Maidenhead may be fine for keeping schoolchildren and novice cyclists off the roads, but if you’re cycling a couple of hundred miles then pathways through car parks and suburban housing estates are a pain. The oddest case was near Bray where the local cycle route uses a perfectly acceptable B-road, but the National Cycle Network takes a longer off-road route. And as for the rough track through Runnymede…
At 65 miles, I was expecting London to Reading to be a reasonable day’s ride but it was late evening and I was very tired by the time I arrived, and that was despite the fast final leg along the A4.
You can either follow through the pages in sequence or go back to pick another route from the list of the NCN routes I’ve used.
Updated: 1 November 2004
Minor update: 15 August 2006