Canterbury North Downs Ride

A 227 km loop

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Why this ride

Built for flow, views and useful stops rather than navigation busywork. 227 km round from London - plan on about 4 h 08 of riding. The plan has 1 food stop marked.

Roadbook

1. London start

   London is the one place on the map where the best advice is to leave the bike at the edge. The centre around Charing Cross and Trafalgar Square is a maze of one-way streets, bus lanes, taxis and tourists, and parking is limited and expensive. The city also has a congestion charge and a low-emission zone, whose rules for motorcycles have changed over the years, so check the current conditions for your own machine before you ride in. For a start and finish, a quiet side street or a secure garage on the outskirts is a better plan.

   What you are stopping for here is history on a large scale. St Martin-in-the-Fields, a handsome eighteenth-century church with a tall steeple and a classical portico, stands at the north-east corner of Trafalgar Square, and its crypt hosts a café, a gallery and a brass-rubbing centre. It is famous for its lunchtime concerts and for its work with homeless people. Across the road, Nelson's Column rises over the square, with its bronze lions, and the National Gallery stretches along the north side.

   The city has some 7.5 million people, and it is never quite finished with itself. Roman Londinium was a muddy trading post on the Thames, and the medieval city grew into a great port, burning down in 1666 and rebuilding in brick and stone. Westminster, a short walk south, holds the Palace of Parliament and the Abbey, where English monarchs have been crowned for nearly a thousand years. The riding here is entirely about getting out: the A3, A4 and A40 lead to quiet lanes in Surrey, the Chilterns and Kent, and a very early start on a Sunday morning makes it easy.

   Fuel is available, but it is among the most expensive in the country, so top up on the outskirts. For a drink, a pub in the side streets off Whitehall, with its brass and etched glass, is as London as it gets. And when the light fades, the square is full of buskers, pigeons and people, and the lamps along the Mall glow.

2. Canterbury food

   On 29 December 1170, four knights who believed they were doing King Henry II's will murdered Archbishop Thomas Becket in his own cathedral at Canterbury. The killing shocked Europe, Becket was made a saint within three years, and Canterbury became one of the great pilgrimage destinations of the Middle Ages, the destination of the pilgrims in Geoffrey Chaucer's Canterbury Tales. The cathedral, together with St Augustine's Abbey and the tiny St Martin's Church, forms a World Heritage Site, and it is still the seat of the Archbishop of Canterbury, head of the Church of England.

   The cathedral is magnificent, with a soaring nave, beautiful stained glass and the spot where Becket fell marked in the north-west transept. The city around it is compact, partly enclosed by medieval walls built on Roman foundations, with narrow streets, half-timbered houses and the River Stour flowing through. St Augustine arrived here in 597 to convert the Anglo-Saxons, and St Martin's, on the edge of town, is often said to be the oldest church in continuous use in the English-speaking world.

   Practically, the centre of Canterbury is largely pedestrianised, so it is best to park on the edge and walk in. There are plenty of cafés, pubs and restaurants, from simple tea rooms to more ambitious places, and the city has a lively student population. The ring road can be congested, especially at peak times and on summer weekends.

   The riding around Canterbury is varied. The North Downs, a chalk ridge, runs east and west, with the ancient Pilgrims' Way along its slopes and a network of narrow lanes through woods and orchards. The landscape of Kent is often called the Garden of England, with orchards, hop gardens and the distinctive oast houses once used for drying hops. To the north lies the coast at Whitstable, famous for oysters, and to the east the Isle of Thanet and the white cliffs. The roads are generally good, but the lanes can be narrow, steep and muddy, so take care, especially after rain.

3. London finish

Where this sits

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