Mitcham once smelled of lavender. In the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries the fields here supplied much of London's lavender and herbs for perfumes and medicines, and the name still turns up on local street signs. Today it is a dense, busy South London district, but it has kept two large open spaces: Mitcham Common, a wide area of grass, scrub and ponds, and the old cricket green, where the game has been played for centuries, and which the locals will tell you is one of the oldest cricket grounds in the world.
For riders, Mitcham is a starting gate for the Surrey Hills. The A217 and A24 run south through Sutton and Epsom, and within half an hour you are climbing onto the North Downs. Box Hill, with its famous Zig Zag Road, is a classic destination, and the bikers' café at the foot of the hill has been a weekend meeting point for decades. On sunny Sundays, the car park fills with motorcycles of every type.
The ride out of Mitcham is slow at first, with traffic lights, buses and speed cameras, but it improves quickly once you pass Epsom. The downs offer narrow lanes, steep climbs and long views over the Weald, and the roads around Leith Hill and Coldharbour are among the best in the south-east. Watch out for cyclists, who are numerous in the Surrey Hills, and for police speed checks on popular routes.
Coming back, the return to Mitcham is often the hardest part of the day, with heavy traffic in the evening. Plan to arrive outside rush hour if you can.
Fuel and coffee are on every corner, so the only real decision is whether to pause on the green. If there is a match on, watch an over. Nobody has ever regretted ten minutes of village cricket before facing the A217.