This is a relatively quiet route from London to Brighton. It starts on Clapham Common and ends at the new vertical-pier thingy on the sea front.
This ride takes me about 4.5 to 5 hours, plus stops.
From the Windmill pub you head west across the common, past Wandsworth prison, to Earlsfield, where you pick up the Wandle trail. The route skirts to the west of Croydon, goes through Wallington and then starts to climb gently onto the north downs. At South Coulsdon there is The Poppy Café before the first serious climb on to Farthing Down with great views back to the city. Descend Pilgrim’s hill, cross the M25. The route includes sections of the Avenue Verte and NCN 20 and NCN21. Redhill Aerodrome offers another café / food stop (Pilot’s Hub) where you can watch little planes coming and going. At Smallfields the route merges with the much busier L2B charity route for a short while, then diverges. An urban section threads through the south of Crawley, but this does mean you avoid some busy roads. After a steep ascent out of Crawley the route goes through Hands Cross. A fantastic descent to Staplefield then through rolling Sussex wine-growing country near Bolney. The route crosses the south downs via Devil’s Dyke and then cuts through Hove to the sea front.
A word description of the route is a work in progress. So, for now, I am just putting up a GPX file of the route which can be accessed via the following link.
London to Brighton (Quiet Route) LBR June 2017
And here is a version of the route from SE8. The two routes merge around Carshalton.