Best Route Balham-St Paul's?

Tobiwan

I'm about to start cycling in to work, from SW17 (Bedford Hill junction with Hillbury Road in Balham/Tooting area) to St Paul's in the city. I'm on a Specialized Sirrus so firm tracks are ok as are roads of course. I'm reasonably ok in traffic, and want to get in quickly, but also don't have a deathwish so want to avoid anything excessively busy or dangerous.

I've tried looking at routes through the TFL website - it seems to start off quite well but takes a big swerve to the west to follow the river which seems excessively out of my way to keep off big roads. I also found one on Bikely that looks quite good: http://www.bikely.com/maps/bike-path/Tooting-St-Pauls , I like the start through Tooting common in particular as it'll give me time to wake up before I hit the traffic!

The big questions seems to come down to:
Up to Oval, should I go A23 or A24-A3, or perhaps King's Avenue (B221) then A3 - or something else entirely!
Elephant & Castle - looks bad! Should I avoid it? I see a lot of routes go west near Waterloo and through the Cut. Perhaps Kennington road is a good option, as in the bikely route above.
Which bridge - blackfriars or Southwark? Is one more cycle friendly than the other? The roundabout at the N end of blackfriars looks quite nasty.

I realise a lot of this will be personal preference - traffic vs road quality vs distance etc, but if anyone has personal experience to add or pros/cons that I should weigh up, I'd love to hear any thoughts or just general advice!

Thanks in advance

snooks

Unless you like chuffing big round abouts with lost of fast cars and busses I'd give Elephant and Castle a miss...There are two fast roundabout type things and they are bad enough in a car!!

When I used to drive in from tooting to Blackfriars I'd go up A24/A3 and head towards the cut...It's a nice big open road, and although the traffic speed can be quick it's a wide road

I never cycled in from Tooting, but if I did I'd be inclined to cut from Tooting common onto Cavandish road, turn right onto Abbeville rd, then left onto Narbonne Ave (there's a brown deli/patisserie on the corner, left before you get to it), and right onto Clapham southside with the traffic lights (if you follow cavandish rd you'll have to go round the triangle and wait with the other traffic) then hoof it up the A24/A3 to Oval and follow bikely...A lot of the A24/A3 has a bus lane so it shouldn't be too bad

Also do what I did, try your commute on a Sunday before you try it for real...it's less stressful when you're not against the clock and it doesn't matter if you get lost

oarsman

I commute from Boundaries Road in Balham to Finsbury Circus. I take the direct route straight up the High Road, following the Northern Line to Clapham COmmon, North, Stockwell etc etc. Yes, that involves the Elephant & Castle but so long as you don't dither and change your mind :roll: that's no problem. For St Pauls I would head left at E&C down the bus and cycle lane to St Giles Circus and cross Blackfriars Bridge. The junction at the N end of Blackfriars is easy if you're going straight on, just don't jump the lights :shock: Finally turn right at Ludgate Circus.

Job done.

beto

Oarsman wrote:

I commute from Boundaries Road in Balham to Finsbury Circus. I take the direct route straight up the High Road, following the Northern Line to Clapham COmmon, North, Stockwell etc etc. Yes, that involves the Elephant & Castle but so long as you don't dither and change your mind :roll: that's no problem. For St Pauls I would head left at E&C down the bus and cycle lane to St Giles Circus and cross Blackfriars Bridge. The junction at the N end of Blackfriars is easy if you're going straight on, just don't jump the lights :shock: Finally turn right at Ludgate Circus.

Job done.

as it say oarsman follow the northen line route until you pass oval station and take the first road to the left (kennington rd) so you can avoid elephant, from there you are going to get lambeth north tube station, waterloo, and take blackfriars bridge.

Speshact

I go across Tooting Common (brilliant wake up ride) and straight on, then right into Abbeville Road; right at top and left into Bedford Hill upto Clapham North then up to Oval and Elephant and Castle, taking the cycle route left off Newington Butts to avoid the roundabout - see one of the cycling maps available from Transport for London - and up over Southwark Bridge which (except for the roadworks currently on it) is the most bike friendly bridge.

Tobiwan

Thanks for all the replies! They sound like some nice tips, especially Abbeville road and the route around E&C (I've got those maps at home so will take a look tonight). I'll have to try out a few variations for myself and see how it goes, but I think I'll start off with http://www.bikely.com/maps/bike-path/To ... -St-Paul-s and go from there.

I'll also take Snook's advice and give it a trial run first - I'll likely get lost somewhere, and no idea how long it'll take as I've not cycled for a while so will likely be somewhat slower than I used to!