The 360 Recce: Greenwich to Guildford

Canary Wharf reflections, sewage works and chalk descents.

This recce was written after riding The 360 in dry, fast late-summer conditions. The trails were running hard, the weather stayed warm through the night and I completed the route in just under 22 hours. In wetter conditions, expect a very different beast.

The 360 starts quietly. Too quietly perhaps.

At dawn, Greenwich feels borrowed rather than inhabited. The Thames sits flat and still, Canary Wharf reflects back at itself across the river, and behind you Wren’s Naval College glows softly in the early light.

For a few brief moments, London looks magnificent.

Then almost immediately the polish disappears.

The Thames Path and London’s Forgotten Edge

The route heads east along the Thames Path, leaving behind the tourists and expensive flats for flood barriers, gravel yards, old wharves and industrial riverside infrastructure.

The Thames Barrier appears first, silver gates catching the morning light. From there the route follows National Cycle Route 1 past Woolwich Ferry and on towards Thamesmead, where London becomes rougher, stranger and more useful.

You soon join the Ridgeway, a raised track above Bazalgette’s Southern Outfall Sewer. Your nose occasionally confirms this. Eventually you reach Crossness, where beautiful Victorian engineering sits beside rather less beautiful modern sewage works. If you live in South London, this is where your poo goes.

It is not glamorous. It is absolutely part of the ride.

Leaving the River

Near Crayford Creek the route finally leaves the Thames behind. The landscape turns marshy, quiet and faintly Dickensian before the ride starts working inland through woodland, bridleways and old Kentish lanes.

The early riding is deceptively easy. Speeds are high, legs are fresh and it is very tempting to press on. Do that too eagerly and the ride will collect its payment later, probably somewhere in the Chilterns when your optimism has gone stale.

Through Jordan’s Wood, Swanley and towards Lullingstone, the route begins to feel older and greener. There are wide bridleways, rolling descents and enough quiet countryside to make London feel much further away than it really is.

The Greensand Ridge

Around the 60 kilometre mark the ride changes again. The Greensand Ridge brings steeper climbs, rougher woodland trails and the first proper technical sections of the route.

This is where mountain bikes begin making a very convincing argument for themselves. I’ve ridden The 360 on both gravel bike and MTB and honestly it is six of one, half a dozen of the other. A good gravel bike is probably faster overall, but there are moments here where a mountain bike feels like the smarter choice.

The names are good too. French Street. Toys Hill. Limpsfield Chart. Places that sound faintly invented but arrive with perfectly real climbs.

This is one of the most enjoyable sectors of the whole route but also one of the most physically demanding. The climbs are steep enough to sting and technical enough that you cannot completely switch off.

Chalk and the North Downs

The transition from Greensand to chalk happens quickly. The trails whiten beneath your tyres as the route climbs towards the North Downs before dropping into one of the best descents of the day.

As the route climbs towards Reigate Hill, the M25 reappears beside you. After the quiet climbing through Ide Hill and the woods beyond, the roar of traffic feels oddly brutal, reminding you that London and the modern world are only a stone’s throw away.

There is a useful café stop near Junction 8 on Reigate Hill and it is worth taking seriously. Food and water become oddly scarce for stretches of this sector and Newlands Corner, much later on, is one of the few easy resupply points before Guildford.

The riding along the North Downs is fast chalk doubletrack, sweeping descents and enormous views south. It is also one of the busiest parts of the route. Walkers drift across the trail with takeaway coffees, dogs appear from nowhere and horses materialise silently around corners. Ease off the pace here. A quick hello and a bit of patience goes a long way, and helps keep routes like this open and welcoming for everyone.

From Reigate the route rolls west through Headley and Mickleham before climbing towards Ranmore and the final fast run into Guildford. For South London riders this section creates a particular problem: plenty of junctions seem to point home.

But The 360 does not go home.

It keeps heading west.

The final run from Ranmore towards Guildford is one of the fastest sections of the entire route. Long chalk runways stretch through the woods for kilometres at a time, smooth enough to carry serious speed while tired legs gradually settle into survival mode.

Guildford and the First Reality Check

By Guildford, riders finally feel as though they have escaped London properly. The Thames, the sewage works, the industrial river edge and the first wooded climbs are all behind them.

Unfortunately, they have also only completed roughly the first quarter of the ride.

That is the trick of The 360. It never feels like one simple route. It keeps changing surface, mood and landscape, pulling riders from industrial London to ancient woodland, chalk ridges and fast gravel corridors without ever quite letting the city disappear.