It’s rare I get an opportunity to cycle with my twin Dave nowadays so on my latest trip to England when I was staying near his home in West London, I agreed to meet up so he could take me on his local training ride around Richmond Park.
At 2,500 acres or 10 square kilometres, Richmond Park is the largest Royal Park in Greater London. It was set up almost 400 years ago by King Charles I, initially as a closed estate for hunting. The public has been allowed access for the last 250 years and it was landscaped by Capability Brown to enhance its seemingly natural layout. Today, speed restrictions and sections closed to motor vehicles make the Parks’ roads ideal to West London’s cyclists and an increasing number of tourists riding e-bikes.
Much as he would love to live in Richmond itself, Dave lives 8km north of the River Thames in Ealing, presenting us with twenty minutes of traffic-filled streets to negotiate first. I set off in front from Dave’s front door, descending a street lined on both sides by parked cars. The houses here were built before most people had a motor vehicle. Small front gardens are now paved over to fit perhaps one car while the another is on the road. The available driving space is only wide enough for single lane traffic so it wasn’t obvious I was on the wrong side until Dave reminded me: “Left Side!”
After that, I simply followed in his wake, riding his Specialized Tarmac road bike. The saddle was a little too high if I was being picky but otherwise it rode perfectly and the electronic Di2 shifting was a boon when I had to make quick decisions whether to stop or accelerate. There was much to concentrate on with buses, pedestrians and numerous meal deliverers on e-bikes. To the cyclists’ advantage though, the car or bicycle is king here as British pedestrians do not have the right to step out unpredictably at intersections.
With 18 different streets, a railway crossing and Kew Bridge over the Thames to negotiate just to reach Richmond Park, I was glad I didn’t have to navigate and I don’t think even a head unit could present the information fast enough to follow without slowing.
Just over Kew Bridge, my attention was immediately drawn to a cricket match being played on the historic pitch at Kew Green. Cricket has been played here since 1732 so it was great to see the tradition being continued .
Dave’s outbound route doglegged between two large cemeteries before climbing slowly up from near river level to the Richmond Park entrance by the Royal Star and Garter Home. The Home is a magnificent Georgian-styled five storey building, erected after the First World War for injured veterans but now converted into high end apartments.
Once you exit the roundabout to the Park entrance, the speed limit is theoretically 20 mph or 32kph which is marginal for cyclists and certainly too slow for the downhill sections where gravity wants to take you up to 60kph. If the speed limit doesn’t inhibit you, though, a number of motorists drive below 20mph and you have to decide whether and when to overtake them.
The Park’s roads are laid out in a roughly triangular form with Queen Road initially leading you downhill on the western side towards Kingston Gate. Immediately, you find the Park is characterized by copses of deciduous trees set in green parkland with conspicuous veteran oak trees that are several hundred years old. The oldest are 700 to 800 years old, and like the buildings in this part of the world, appear quite extraordinary to north American eyes.
Before shooting out of the southwest corner of the Park, you take a hard left at a roundabout and begin to regain some of those 50m height you lost with a climb up Bromfield Hill to a large parking area. On the way, we were fortunate enough to see some of the herd of Red Deer that are protected by the Park’s National Nature Reserve status. Over-eager tourists had parked haphazardly at the roadside and on the grass in an attempt to capture a photo of the animals.
Beyond the parking area, Broomfield Hill drops down in a sweeping “S” curve through more closely spaced trees and we had to be mindful of deer wandering out onto the road here where motor traffic is not allowed. Despite the lack of cars, there were a number of cyclists either riding training circuits or just enjoying the countryside that is so different from the densely packed streets and housing only a mile or so away. I had to mind my speed on Dave’s bike as I wasn’t familiar with the ride with its 26mm tires and a stiff frame.
Cycling through this part of the woodland, I kept hearing bird squawking that appeared completely out of place. Dave explained the noise was from the flocks of Ring-necked. Parakeets that have now taken over this part of south east England. Considered a pest, these mostly green birds out-compete indigenous species and appeared in London when the number of escaped pet birds gradually became a sustainable population.
During the second and third circuits, I got used to the fast descent and the climbs so we improved our times. We also noticed other riders as we crossed their clockwise paths around the Park. I’m not sure which direction was more popular for cyclists. As there are roundabouts marking each turn, there is no great advantage in riding clockwise to secure left turns as we did.
Rain in the form of drizzle arrived during our second circuit but luckily the surfaces remained grippy. Even after we turned back towards Ealing after our third circuit, the rain wasn’t penetrating my shower-proof jacket. At no time was I especially warm though as the temperature had hovered around 14°C under a grey sky. The wind was a gentle westerly that only became noticeable when we climbed westwards in to it on Sawyers Hill.
For variety, Dave took a couple of different roads back to Ealing, the first taking us past the Victoria Gate of Kew Gardens. The cricketers in Kew were hiding from the rain as we passed the ground before crossing Kew Bridge to the north side of the Thames. Apart from traffic light holdups, we were stopped by the barrier at a railway crossing before taking a shortcut along a traffic free path through South Ealing Cemetery. Once we crossed the railway bridge at West Ealing I realized we were almost back to Dave’s home.
Our total distance with three circuits of Richmond Park was 53km with a surprising 443m of climbing and we had taken 2 ¼ hours. As everywhere in urban riding, the stop-start nature of the riding reduced our average speed to 24kph but this was no endurance ride.
Overall, I found a huge contrast between riding on the busy streets and in what appeared to be the open countryside of Richmond Park. Certainly, in the Park you could concentrate on pushing yourself hard if you wanted to whereas in the city you had to remain alert for hazards at all times and hold something back. Consequently the half hour ride out and back were ideal for warming up and cooling down.