John Chamberlain led a Camden Cyclists ride with seven participants from Hampstead Heath tennis courts in warm sunshine through Islington and Hackney’s back streets, including De Beauvoir Town and London Fields to a coffee stop in delightful Victoria Park.
A short detour south took in Joseph Bazalgette’s fascinating sewer pipes where they cross the river Lea, built in 1865. We rode east for a kilometre along the well-engineered “Greenway” for a look at progress on the Olympic Stadium.
Left to right: Ellen, John, Michele, Paul, Jackie, George, Jorg
Then we turned back and north to follow the River Lea, alongside the Olympic site through the now long-retired river water-cleansing bays to the riverside Cafe at the Warwick Reservoir, at the bottom of Spring Hill in Stamford Hill for a lunch snack.
We returned via Finsbury Park and an ice cream stop in the rejuvenated central cafe before taking the tiny “Parkland Walk”, which was once a railway track, towards Highgate.
Then more back double to circumvent the hills and home via Tufnell Park to the Highgate Road by 3.30pm. A four-and-a-half-hour leisurely snacking tour of north London quiet backwaters, ably led by John. 18 miles. A good time was had by all!
Paul Braithwaite