Gravesend or tilbury

[Under the arches]

Can you train it from London to gravesend or tilbury & cycle back to London along the Thames?

It would be a great ride through non London to London

[Jurek]

Yes.
Tilbury, you may have to do some away-from-the-river-stuff until you reach Rainham.
There are docks at Tilbury and by their nature there won't be public access to the riverside.
South side of the river it is considerably easier to achieve.

[telstarbox]

Although the bit from Dartford to Erith is a bit rough surfaced and overgrown IIRC. Erith to Greenwich has been improved in stages and is mostly smooth tarmac.

[peter simplex]

Actually you could [adventurously and I have done] ride off-road along the river all the way from Grays town to Rainham, only coming inland a little after Purfleet Station to reach the RSPB reserve.  However, Station Cottages in Purfleet were demolished in the last few years and the site redeveloped.   I don't know how that has affected  the access path which emerged between the former cottages. 
https://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/5533721

The short riverside loop to the east of Barking Riverside is probably better walked.

[citoyen]

I’ve done central London to Gravesend following the River all the way. As well as the path being a bit overgrown and rough in places round Erith, there are some parts round Abbey Wood where you won’t want to linger (let’s just say the arrival of the Elizabeth line is still too recent for gentrification to have happened yet).

It’s an interesting ride though. Worth doing.

[Regulator]

Tilbury is a shite-hole and should be avoided… unless you want to run the risk of being mugged for your bike. 

[rr]

Tilbury is a shite-hole and should be avoided… unless you want to run the risk of being mugged for your bike.

I have spent some time in the shit bits of Gorton in Manchester and I was taken aback by how shit Tilbury town is.

Large parts on the route on the north side are outside the sea wall and the high fences of major hazard chemical and fuel sites.

Sent from my motorola edge 20 using Tapatalk

[bhoot]

Between Grays and Purfleet you get to see the graffiti wall and also St Clements church as famously seen in Four Weddings and a Funeral.

On the south side the last time we cycled there, we had to swing inland at Northfleet due to new housing developments and join the river again just before Gravesend (heading East). Swanscombe peninsula (possible site of theme park, partly kiboshed by getting some SSSI designation) is worth a visit on a nice day,  and you see the tallest pylon in the UK (just don't sit under it as you set off the alarms and a nice man in a 4x4 rolls up to tell you off!). You can re-emerge just east of Greenhithe if you are heading west, but be prepared for a few tricky barriers to lift the bike over.

[GdS]

I did Gravesend to London as the end of a DIY 200 a couple of years ago;

https://ridewithgps.com/trips/116047266

as you can see it leaves and joins the Thames quite a few times and there are some really grim bits. The best bit for views is probably Woolwich to Rotherhithe although you will be mixing it with tourists on foot on some pretty narrow paths for some of it.  If you select OSM Cycle as the map you can work out where the NCN is supposed to take you (I avoided quite a bit of it for the sake of time, it's probably OK in daylight)

it's worth pointing out that on a FNRTTC Simon took us along the South bank all the way to the Dartford crossing in order to avoid the North bit (although that was overnight plus I think he secretly wanted to see the reaction when we all pitched up and asked for the free trailer service over the bridge!)

I've only ridden to Tilbury once on the ECE back from an ACME Audax in order to get the ferry and I won't be rushing back

[Blodwyn Pig]

I wouldn’t bother, ride somewhere nice instead, get train down to That Margate, and ride back to Dartford then return by train, ie ride the best bits.

[Wowbagger]

I once decided to ride from home in Southend to my daughter's house in Maidstone, using the Tilbury Ferry. It was a showery April day and it turned into just about the shittiest ride I've ever had. All the way from Southend to Basildon I was on fairly main roads. After the 5 Bells roundabout I used "minor" roads through Fobbing to Tilbury. I was being constantly overtaken by large skip lorries with foul-smelling refuse in the back - slaughter house debris by the smell of it. After leaving Gravesend I found myself climbing a fairly busy single carriageway with speed humps and a lot of impatient drivers. There were better routes out of Gravesend but I didn't know them at the time.

The final 10 miles, from the top of the Downs into Maidstone were actually not too bad. The sun had come out and of course I kept up a decent gravity-assisted speed.

But that ride convinced me that "just because it is there" isn't sufficient justification for riding some roads.

[citoyen]

I wouldn’t bother, ride somewhere nice instead, get train down to That Margate, and ride back to Dartford then return by train, ie ride the best bits.

To be perfectly honest, the main reason I did it was as a tile-bagging exercise. There are certainly parts of it I wouldn't rush to ride again. It was interesting though.

[GdS]

you see the tallest pylon in the UK (just don't sit under it as you set off the alarms and a nice man in a 4x4 rolls up to tell you off!).

just googled it; a base jumper managed to kill himself by trying to parachute off one off the platforms (chute didn't open not zapped by 400Kv) so not surprised it's high security.

If the Kent and Essex ends were anywhere near the TFL zone 6 it would be worth doing on a day Travelcard but otherwise an expensive exercise.

I did get the train out to Tilbury and back from Gravesend in the 1980s, the ferry had a BR double arrow (reversed on one side of the funnel, the only place you see this now is on our local bus to Gatwick on the map along the inside)

Anorak

the Gravesend ferry terminal also had its own station with a branch line from Longfield, a short section was reopened in order for Eurostars to get onto HS1 from Waterloo before SPI opened, they can't anymore because they only run on 25kv AC

/Anorak

At the time Tilbury had a proper old terminal with its own station, it's still there although not sure if used by anything

[yorkie]

you see the tallest pylon in the UK (just don't sit under it as you set off the alarms and a nice man in a 4x4 rolls up to tell you off!).

just googled it; a base jumper managed to kill himself by trying to parachute off one off the platforms (chute didn't open not zapped by 400Kv) so not surprised it's high security.

If the Kent and Essex ends were anywhere near the TFL zone 6 it would be worth doing on a day Travelcard but otherwise an expensive exercise.

I did get the train out to Tilbury and back from Gravesend in the 1980s, the ferry had a BR double arrow (reversed on one side of the funnel, the only place you see this now is on our local bus to Gatwick on the map along the inside)

Anorak

the Gravesend ferry terminal also had its own station with a branch line from Longfield, a short section was reopened in order for Eurostars to get onto HS1 from Waterloo before SPI opened, they can't anymore because they only run on 25kv AC

/Anorak

At the time Tilbury had a proper old terminal with its own station, it's still there although not sure if used by anything

The newer Eurostars can only run on High Speed 1 in the UK, as they are constructed to standard European structure loading gauge - if they tried to run on the normal UK network, they'd get somewhat scratched by platforms and bridges, etc.


The station building at Tilbury Riverside is now a cruise ship passenger terminal, apparently. I used it regularly in the late 80s as I was living in Ilford and playing in a brass band in Northfleet and the ferry was the quickest route there. Had to ride back via the tunnel though as the last ferry from Gravesend was 5 minutes after rehearsal was supposed to finish! I don't know what the A226 is like nowadays, but back then it was a case of "fly down hill into a chalk pit; stop at the traffic lights at the bottom (which were always at red); slog slowly up the other side from a standing start; repeat all the way to the tunnel!"

[GdS]

The newer Eurostars can only run on High Speed 1 in the UK, as they are constructed to standard European structure loading gauge - if they tried to run on the normal UK network, they'd get somewhat scratched by platforms and bridges, etc.

even if the expensive flyover in Battersea they had to build in order to point the right way into Waterloo is still in use...

there's a story about that too. When they were digging the foundations they asked the Ministry of Underground Stuff in London if there was anything in the way and were told no. Whoever told them that must have had an old survey because they had just built the London Water Ring Main, which the digging for the foundations managed to not just hit but also fill with pressurised concrete!

[akin]

I have ridden around these sections a few times. I think there is some appeal in exploring the edgelands of the city, cutting through heavily industrial land and barren marshland along the edge of the Thames.

Inevitably you end up in some pretty grey and inhospitable sections but you also get some very enjoyable ones.

I particularily like the south section under the Queen Elizabeth Bridge which is a nice gravel path with good views. The north side is a maze of paths and requires some hike a bike over steps.

One ride I did of these sections;

https://ridewithgps.com/trips/80396902

The bits around Swancombe and Dartford Marshes can be muddy when wet. You often have to work your way round new restrictions as new building works pop up. I think I rode this on 35mm tyres with the Tilbury Gravesend ferry as the the river crossing.

Id recommend you act on your impulse and explore the grubby edgelands.