Day Four: London Docklands to Peacehaven (129 km)
A glorious morning: blue sky and sun shining. The first objective today was to get over the river Thames, and I enjoyed doing this using the Docklands-Greenwich cable car (currently sponsor-named the IFS Cloud) which lifts you 90 metres over the river. You are allowed to travel with a bicycle at any time of day, and “Guests with bicycles travel for free on the cable car before 09:30 on weekdays, excluding bank holidays” (Transport for London); otherwise, it costs £6. I was the first guest as the entrance gate opened at 07:00, and the time from take-off to landing was about 10 minutes; cable cars arriving every 30 seconds. Magnificent views over the Thames in both directions.
Disembarking near the O2 (Millenium Dome), I rode upstream to the point where the Meridian crosses the Thames then climbed to the Royal Observatory before the 10:00 opening time, so no tourists jostling to take photographs straddling the Meridian line defined by Sir George Biddell Airy’s 1851 transit circle. There is, however, a marker line on the path just below the Observatory. Spoilsports might note, however, that the modern IERS Reference Meridian (zero longitude) used by Global Positioning Systems is about 100 metres east of the historic reference, so the 1851 Meridian is now at longitude -0.00141 (I know, yawn).
Continuing from Greenwich Park, my route through south London was remarkably good: mainly quiet residential streets with little traffic: Blackheath, Hither Green, Catford, Shortlands, Bromley, Hayes, and into countryside after Coney Hall. However, I was surprised to encounter heavy traffic flowing in both directions along Layhams Road - a narrow lane barely wide enough for cars and vans to pass each other. I wonder if this is being used sneak past TFL ULEZ (ultra-low emission zone) cameras. A little further on that traffic had disappeared and my route took me down Beddlestead Lane – a remarkable hidden valley, the only noise that of sheep on the downland, yet still 5 km inside the M25.
Dropping from the North Downs to Oxted, Lingfield and East Grinstead I continued on the disused railway line to Forest Row. Dr Richard Beeching’s former house, Little Manor, is left off the cycle path on the Brockhurst estate. Stopped then in Forest Row at In-Gear Cycle shop for coffee, cake, and emergency brake pad replacement, before returning to the Meridian line through Danehill, Sheffield Park, Fletching, and into the west side of Lewes, where there is a substantial if somewhat-unheeded marker obelisk. Alas, the morning sunshine was replaced by increasingly heavy rain for the last two hours. Continuing southwards on Newhaven Road through Iford, Rodmell and Southease, this appears on the map to be a minor road, but just before 17:00 was thick with fast moving commuter traffic – so much so that I got off the bike and walked some of the way along the verge. Anyway, finally up into Peacehaven and onto The Promenade to the rain-lashed obelisk. Apart from some unexpected traffic in two places today, a superb route.
