Camden Market, Old St Pancras & Bloomsbury

To mark International Women’s Day (8 March), we have two rides exploring memorials to women in Central London, on Fri 11 and Sun 13 March. The Friday ride is shorter (43km/27 miles) and visits a few sites north of Central London, around Camden, St Pancras and Bloomsbury.

We’ll make a prompt start from Ealing, heading out north-east via Wormwood Scrubs, North Kensington and St John’s Wood, then skirting around Primrose Hill and Chalk Farm to reach the northern side of Camden Stables Market. We will be early enough to avoid the crowds, and maybe we’ll have a short coffee break while we visit the sculpture of singer Amy Winehouse erected in 2014.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-29190616

Leaving Camden, we ride south towards King’s Cross, stopping at St Pancras Old Churchyard, where we will pay our respects at the memorial to feminist philosopher Mary Wollstonecraft. We will also see the tombs of John & Eliza Soane (once owners of Pitzhanger Manor in Ealing), the extravagant Burdett Coutts Memorial Sundial, and the curious Hardy Tree.
https://lookup.london/old-st-pancras-churchyard/

Continuing south, we cross the Euston Road and ride into Bloomsbury, where we will have a refreshment stop in one of the independent cafés, before visiting the memorials in Tavistock Square to surgeon Louisa Brandreth Aldrich Blake and writer Virginia Woolf, and in neighbouring Gordon Square to SOE Resistance Agent Noor Inayat Khan.
https://bloomsburysquares.com/2021/03/08/women-in-bloomsbury-squares-international-womens-day-8-march/

Our homeward ride takes us through Fitzrovia to Hyde Park, where we ride down to South Carriage Drive, turning through South Kensington and Earl’s Court to make a last visit, to the tomb of Suffragette Emmeline Pankhurst in Brompton Cemetery.
https://www.royalparks.org.uk/parks/brompton-cemetery/explore-brompton-cemetery/emmeline-pankhurst

We return to Ealing via Hammersmith, Chiswick and Acton.

Although Covid restrictions are coming to a close, please continue to be mindful. Please do not attend if you have any Covid 19 symptoms, have tested positive, or are currently required to self-isolate. You may wish to bring a face covering (unless you are exempt) for use in enclosed public spaces.

Ride from Ealing to Camden, St Pancras and Bloomsbury, to view memorials to famous women in this part of London.

Mainly quieter roads, some segregated cycle tracks.

Stopping to view statues and memorials commemorating women who have made significant contributions to art, culture, medicine and politics,

Bring a good lock for your bike, money/card for cafe stops.

First-timers welcome!