Tooting to East Croydon route suggestions

[Tim Hall]

I occasionally have need to cycle from St George's Hospital, Tooting to East Croydon station.  Thus far I've blasted through Mitcham, then along the A236 to the Lombard roundabout and into Croydon.  Left at the flyover/roundabout and battle my way through the rush hour traffic and tramlines to the station. 

It's this last bit that's a bit crap. Any suggestions for a slightly less stressful route?

[hubner]

I go across Lombard roundabout east west on my commute.

From there to E Croydon I would take Canterbury Road then left at Sutherland Road then first left into Midhurst av,then right into London Road, then all the way down to West Croydon.

[ian]

I'm not sure how anything that involves cycling through Croydon can be called 'rides and touring'. That's like calling Mad Max an outback adventure safari.

But anyway, as you may have guessed, there's no good way in-and-out of Croydon. The route you suggest is the quickest but involves the Lombardy Circus of Death (come now, come now witness the epic battle between cyclist and Audi). If you're lucky you slip through while they're busy scooping up the remains of an unwary pedestrian. As hubner mentions, you can cut up/down to London Road which is marginally better than the gladiatorial lead-in to the mini-motorway that is Roman Way, though all the backstreets can get rat-runny and the sort of people who drive in Croydon mostly belong in cages while scientists try to figure out whether it's something in the air or water or merely a cyclist that triggers their aggression. I suggest several rounds of painfully invasive testing to be sure.

If you're bored with Mitcham Common, you can cut up the cheerfully dystopian Watney's Road onto Commonside East and follow the edge, then go up Cedars Avenue to Tamworth Road and by Mitcham Eastfields stations to bypass Mitcham town centre (there may be a better route, but there's a lot of one way systems and odd little cul-de-sacs).

The leisurely and stress-free route (about an hour) is to the follow the Wandle Trail up to Colliers Wood and then take CS7 up to Toot-tooting.

(Oh, you'll have to reverse my directions, I read your request the wrong way round!)

[Wascally Weasel]

I used to live over that way.  I've been looking at the map and trying to find a good route for you.  There just isn't one.

Brought back lots of unhappy memories.

The Horror.
The Horror.

[Jurek]

Tim,
I'm going to send a GPS file to your email - open it in Bike Hike and you'll see that there is hope.... and it is a shorter route with fewer traffics than either going across Mitcham Common with the Lombardy Circus of Deth (much as I enjoy traffic jousting, that is one I would avoid at all costs if possible), or down the A23/London Road.
For those sufficiently interested....
St Geos.
L into Blackshaw Road
SO into Longley Road
L into Bickersteth Road
R into Renmuir St
Dogleg into Links Road
L into Streatham Road
R into Fallsbrook Road
R into Eastwood Street
R into restricted use passage at junction with Leverson St
SO into Besley Street (with a nod to John Cooper Clarke)
R into Eardley Road - from this point you are pretty much riding parallel to the railway line into ECR - so if it is tipping down, you could plausibly catch a train at any one of several stations.
L into Greyhound Lane
R into Ellison Road contraflow
R into the snicket at the junction with Colmer Road
SO into Acacia Road
R into London Road
L into Norbury Crescent
SO into Melfort Road
Dogleg into Bensham Manor Road
R into Whitehorse Road
L into The Crescent
Dogleg into Sydenham Road
SO into Dingwall Road
At the roundabout you are at the back entrance to ECR
6.22 miles. Less than 40 minutes. No tramlines. No Lombardy Circus of Deth.

If anyone would like this as a GPS file, PM me an email address and I'll happily send it to you.

[andrew_s]

That looks very similar to what cycle.travel gives you

I'm not sure how anything that involves cycling through Croydon can be called 'rides and touring'.

To be fair, it was moved by a moderator. I'd have put it under "on the road" as commuting

[Jurek]

Its my take on what Googlemaps offers the cyclist, with the nastier bits avoided. Local knowledge helps. (Mum lives in Norbury and receives regular treatment at St.Gs. I'm occasionally her chauffeur).

[Tim Hall]

Thanks for all the answers. I've grabbed Jurek's route and shoe horned it into my phone.  I'll see how it goes in a few weeks.

Ian, I tried following the Wandle Trail from Wandsworth to St George's a week or so back, but kept losing the blue signs.  Spoilt by a few days in Belgium I guess, where they seem to know how to do cyclist sign posts.

For those wondering, I go to St George's to give platelets and they advise against vigorous exercise afterwards.  I reckon cycling to the station is OK though.

[Jurek]

I'm guessing you'd be OK with a relaxed pootle back to ECR...

[TimO]

It does seem apposite, that two of the approaches to the Lombardy Circle of Death, Thornton Road and Mitcham Road, pass entrances to the Cemetery.

Lombardy is probably best avoided, it's the only place that I ever put my Exposure front light onto flashing at night.  If I go that direction I tend to try and hit it as fast as possible, and merge into the traffic flow, but it's not a nice junction.

From Saint Georges I'd probably follow the A217 Mitcham Road to Amen Corner, and then cut across the A216 Mitcham Lane, go past Streatham Common Station, and then onto A23 London Road, until the A23 goes off at Thornton Heath Pond, following London Road into Croydon.  Then you can either go up Poplar Walk to Wellesley Road, or continue along the pedestrianised part of North End (which I think is legal on a bicycle now, but practicalities will depend on the time of day and amount of pedestrians).  After that, the one-ways get in the way, and you'd probably have to go down Katherine Street, north along Park Lane, and cross onto George Street using the pedestrian crossings.

[ian]

The only good thing about the Lombardy Circus of Death is that it's usually snarled during peak times so you can just filter around stalled traffic. In an ideal world, I'd go south and bypass Croydon on the Purley Way to its eponymous destination but there's just too much deathly nastiness to contend with.

I'm not sure the Wandle Trail has anything other than random signage (there's maps online*), I know it through repetition because I use it quite often for a chilled out route home.

*Slightly out-of-date, as you can go through Watermeads Park by the river now without having to detour.