Choosing your WNBR London start in 2021

In 2021, WNBR London has 8 starts plus an accessible option. Here are some comments to help you choose your start. You can find details about the starts from the Activities page.

Croydon is a new start this year. It will be the longest of the routes at 20⅓ miles (32½ Km). Riders will need to keep up a good speed before joining the other groups in Central London. The venue is in a gated, private property with no onlookers.

Kew Bridge slips to second longest at 17¾ miles (28½ Km). The ride crosses the meandering Thames several times before joining in with the Clapham Junction start. The ride starts from the southbound roadside at the north end of the bridge.

Clapham Junction is very convenient for the train connections, after all, it is the biggest junction and has the most trains passing through – over 2,000 on weekdays. It is optionally a circular route, with riders returning to the start point after completing the ride. Our start point is alongside the station (Platform 1 side) in a fairly small public square. The route is 9 miles (14½ Km) without the optional return leg.

Deptford at 10⅓ miles (16⅔ Km) is another fairly long ride. It will meet other groups at Tower Hill and continue as part of a merged group. The start is at Matchstick Piehouse, a theatre, café and bar.

Victoria Park is another new route for 2021. It is around 11½ miles long (18½ Km). The group is led by one of our disabled cyclists and will take a comfortable route before becoming part of the overall peloton.

The other rides are relatively easy rides into the centre.

Tower Hill is arguably the most scenic ride, starting alongside the Tower of London, crossing four bridges, riding alongside the river, passing through Trafalgar Square and Westminster. It’s handy for London Bridge, Waterloo, Charing Cross, Fenchurch St and Liverpool St stations. We use a public park, so there will be onlookers and photographers.  The ride from here is about 7¾ miles (12½ Km).

Hyde Park is the best-known starting point and always attracts large crowds (including photographers), so those riders need to enjoy being in a crowd! Each year we agree details with the Royal Parks (and the Parks’ Police).  Being a large group of riders, it tends to move slowly. It is a short route at just over 7½ miles (12¼ Km).

Regents Park is an easy ride down through the centre of town, and particularly good if you are bringing your bike in via Euston or Kings Cross stations.  The Royal Parks do not give us permission to start from the Park, so we start roadside instead. There has not been a problem with people visiting the park before the start, but they should not get naked, do bodypainting or look like they are lining up for the start! This is the shortest route at just under 7½ miles (12 Km).

We can no longer offer the start at West Norwood as the property owner has moved – and now offers the route from Croydon instead.

All the routes merge for the core part of the route, from Westminster Bridge onwards, to form the 1,000+ rider peloton (which always moves at a safe, comfortable pace and gets stuck a bit). The main route ends near Hyde Park Corner.

Accessible Option

There are usually several participants with restricted ability to ride a bike. This year, for the first time, WNBR London has included an accessible option.  It is a relatively short and easy route, running between two rest points.


Reducing Covid-19 risks

To reduce the risks from Covid-19, the time allowed for assembly, rest breaks and dispersal has been shortened from the usual arrangements. The finishing time is hard to predict, given the possibility of diversions and hold ups.  We aim to complete the ride near Hyde Park Corner around 17:30.

Participants should do their best to ensure they are not at risk from the virus. Nobody should ride if they have symptoms or have had a recent positive test. We recommend riders take a lateral flow test in the morning of the ride, use sanitiser and keep their masks on, particularly when stationary.

Social contact will be minimised:

  • Time at starts, finishes and rest points will be as short as practical.
  • Start groups will not wait for all other riders to be present before moving on.
  • Riders should disperse as soon as they reach the finish.
  • Participants should socially distance when stationary.
  • No bodypainting at starts.
  • The afterparty has been cancelled.

WNBR London takes place on the public streets of London. Nobody can control the actions or behaviours of the public. Participants should endeavour to avoid crowds and interactions with strangers.

#NotTheWorldNakedBikeRide 2021

Well, that’s the second year in a row we couldn’t ride on the usual date, but had a lot of fun spreading the word through our #NotTheWorldNakedBikeRide activities. We set a theme of doing something to improve your local environment. The highlights of the week were, again, the photo competition and the two Zoom-Ins.

Photo Competition

You can read about the Photo Competition and see who won in our earlier blog, or you can see all the moderated photos by clicking here!

Zoom-In

At the time we should have been riding we held another Zoom-In, packed with content that reflected WNBR London’s campaign themes.

To host the Zoom-In, we brought back last year’s brilliant team of Dave, Sophie and Natasha. In the opening session, we heard from several other WNBR rides and from supporters.

The State of Cycling in London

We then moved onto a discussion about the state of cycling in London. We posed the question “now, after 17 years of WNBR London, how much has changed and what more is there to do. Our guest speakers were cycling campaigners Paul Gasson and Ruth Mayorcas, along with cycling author and journalist Charlie Allenby.

Body Positivity

The other main discussion during the Zoom-In was about body positivity. It was chaired by academic psychologist Dr Keon West. Charlotte, from the lifeocharlotte blog, was speaking about her campaigning to promote positive attitudes to people with stomas. We wrote previously about her ride with WNBR London. She was joined on the panel by two prominent figures in body positivity – Rosy Pendlebaby and Ruby Rare, who are also co-founders of the Body Love Sketch Club.

Live Body Painting

During the World Naked Bike Ride London 2021 Zoom-In, we ran live body painting with artists Peter and Raid painting WNBR volunteers Phoebe and Ken. Cy was also there to handle everything else while the others got mucky with paint.

Peter and Raid painting WNBR London volunteers Phoebe and Ken

This video captures the visits to the studio. It includes Sophie’s interviews with Ken and Phoebe. Ken talked about his interests in cycling provision for disabled cyclists and WNBR London’s accessible ride option. Phoebe talked about her experiences and getting more younger adults involved in the WNBR campaign.

At the end of the session, Peter presented the finished painting and described the themes behind the designs.

Zoom Afterparty

In the evening we again ran a Zoom afterparty. Just like last year we planned and prepared absolutely nothing. It was a great, random mixture of videos, photos, anecdotes, music, dancing, etc.

Let’s hope we can ride later in the year and have a real afterparty to celebrate!