Surrey Hills and Box Hill Bends

A 336 km loop

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Why this ride

Scenery first, traffic last, with checkpoints that make sense on a bike. A 336 km loop that starts and ends near Epping, about 7 h of riding. On the way it passes Harlington, near Marlow, in Capel and Mitcham. near Kemsing is the high point. Much of it runs through woodland.

Roadbook

1. Fuel stop near Epping fuel

   Fuel at 0 km.

2. Harlington, on the way back swim

   John Bunyan was arrested near Harlington in November 1660 for preaching without a licence, and he was taken to the manor house in the village to be questioned before being sent to Bedford jail, where he spent twelve years and began writing The Pilgrim's Progress. The house still stands, and an oak in the area, known as Bunyan's Oak, is said to be where he preached.

   Harlington is a village at the foot of the Chiltern escarpment, south of Bedford, and the land rises sharply to the south, where the Sundon Hills and Sharpenhoe Clappers offer fine views over the Bedfordshire plain. The chalk grassland is rich in wildflowers and butterflies, and the beech woods on the Clappers are beautiful in autumn.

   For a swim, the options are limited. The Marston Vale, to the north, has lakes created from old clay pits, used for brick-making, and some have watersports and beaches, but check whether swimming is allowed. The rivers around here are small and not suitable for bathing.

   The riding is pleasant, with lanes climbing the escarpment and running through the villages. The M1 is close, and the A6 and A5 run north-south. Traffic can be heavy around Luton and Dunstable.

   Flitwick, a few miles north, covers fuel. Then, if the evening is clear, ride up to the car park below Sharpenhoe Clappers and walk the ten minutes to the edge of the escarpment. The whole of Bedfordshire lies at your feet, which sounds less impressive than it looks.

3. Food stop near Marlow food

   Marlow has one of the prettiest Thames frontages anywhere, and the white suspension bridge is the reason. It was designed by William Tierney Clark and opened in the early 1830s, and Clark went on to design the Széchenyi Chain Bridge in Budapest, a much larger cousin built on similar lines. Stand by the river on a summer evening, with the church spire behind the bridge and rowers sliding past, and it is hard to imagine a more English scene.

   The town has literary connections, too. Mary Shelley finished Frankenstein while living in Marlow with Percy Bysshe Shelley, who wrote poetry while drifting on the river. Jerome K. Jerome, author of Three Men in a Boat, also spent time here. Today Marlow is affluent and lively, with a high street full of independent shops, cafés, pubs and restaurants, which makes it an excellent food stop.

   The riding around Marlow is a mix of river valley and Chiltern hills. The A4155 runs along the Thames towards Henley, a lovely road with views over the water, though often busy. To the north, narrow lanes climb steeply into the Chilterns through beech woods, with tight bends, blind crests and sudden views. Red kites, reintroduced to the Chilterns in the 1990s, are everywhere, wheeling overhead with their forked tails.

   Traffic can be heavy, especially at weekends, and parking in the town centre is tight. Fuel is available on the edges of town. As a start and finish, Marlow offers plenty of places to eat and drink, from riverside pubs to cafés and smart restaurants.

4. Photo stop in Capel photo

   Photo stop in Capel, about halfway.

5. Mitcham finish

   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.

6. High point near Kemsing pass
7. Scenic stretch in Grays scenic
8. Back to Surrey Hills finish

   The forest is what is left of a huge royal hunting ground, and it covers about two thousand hectares of ancient woodland, heath and ponds, running from the edge of London to the Essex countryside. The trees are mostly hornbeam and beech, many of them pollarded, cut high in the past to give a crop of wood, and they have an odd, twisted shape.

   After a ride that started in the Cotswolds, it is an easy and calm place to finish. The roads through the forest are narrow and winding, with gentle bends, overhanging trees and a surface that is often patchy, with leaves, mud and branches after storms. Deer, including fallow and muntjac, wander across without warning, and dusk is the most dangerous time. Traffic is moderate on weekdays, but heavy on sunny Sundays, with cyclists and walkers in large numbers.

   Theydon Bois is a pleasant village with a green and a Central line station, which makes a quick journey into London possible. The forest was saved from enclosure in the nineteenth century by a public campaign, and the City of London Corporation took it over in 1878, an act that kept it open to everyone. Queen Elizabeth's Hunting Lodge, a Tudor timber building at Chingford, stands at the southern end and holds a small museum.

   Fuel and food are easy at Epping, a market town with stations, supermarkets and cafes, and Theydon has several pubs and a bakery. The forest has a number of tea huts, small cafes in wooden buildings along the roads, and a mug of tea and a bacon roll from one of them is a London rider's tradition.

   Walk a few steps into the trees if you have time. In autumn the leaves are thick underfoot and the smell of damp earth is strong.

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