Support road.cc

Like this site? Help us to make it better.

Back to OPINION
OPINION

Night time, my time

Avatar
Avatar
by Chris Campbell
Thu, Nov 06, 2014 03:14
11
Night time, my timeRichmond Park at night
In the darkness, the city becomes a cyclist's dream

Serious cyclists go into a dark place. Mine is central London, and I go there four times a week. And it’s dark only because it’s 1am when I ride through it.

From an office near Tower Bridge to the edge of Richmond Park (as pictured above): this is my commute home. I could take a cab and let my employers pick up the bill, but where’s the fun in that? When the night falls, parts of our capital city become a cyclist’s dream. Cars vanish. So do cyclists, and the few who are left at this time of night tend to be better behaved. The city’s irksome distractions and sources of rage have been put to bed. There’s just you and the rubber-black road.

Aided by gloriously long runs of green lights which you never encounter during the day, I usually treat my trip back to the suburbs as a time trial, even though I know it’s a futile endeavour: I have only one gear on my heavy steel fixie, so I’m never going to cover those 13 miles any quicker. What I enjoy is the sensation of speed, the focus, and how the combination of the two disconnects me from the emotions on the other side of the kerb – the clubbers’ aggression masked as happiness along the Embankment, or the drained, blank faces slowly turning as I whizz past a queue for the night bus near Buckingham Palace Road.

Take the speed down a notch and you can feel a warehouse emptiness about the place. Roofed by the black sky, buildings familiar in the day now seem contained, mothballed, almost unreal, as if they are locations on an empty movie set and you are the camera moving along a dolly track. The London Eye’s illuminated rim is a stilled, forlorn fairground ride waiting in vain for children to appear. The glowing maw of the Blackfriars Underpass is like the landing strip of the Battlestar Galactica. And in what could function as a metaphor for the life that takes place inside it, the theatrically close-lit Houses of Parliament appear, from a distance, to be a one-dimensional facade.

But this nightride is ultimately defined by small moments where my perception of the landscape is transformed simply by cycling through it. Being engulfed by the pitch darkness in front of Wellington Arch and emerging into the Knightsbridge streetlights on the other side is like going through a gigantic doorway into another room. And towards the end of my journey, London doesn’t even seem like London: I always notice the fresh, earthy smell of pine and grass as I turn into Queen’s Ride (petrol fumes tend to mask this odour during the day) and soon I’m pulling on the pedals to slow down for the foxes and the occasional badger scampering around Star And Garter Hill.

In the day, the sun is your spotlight. You are the central focus of your own ride. At night, the landscape is the star. You’ve just got to know where to find it in the darkness.

Richmond Park
nightriding
night
London

Add new comment

11 comments

Avatar
Bigcog | 10 years ago
0 likes

Thank you. Enjoyed that piece and also love London at night. There's a special freedom created by the space.. And for some reason you seem to go faster than the empty roads suggest. Your own urban playground if that's not too kitsch 1

Avatar
Quince | 10 years ago
0 likes

Lovely. The only times I've truly, completely enjoyed cycling in London are when it has been long gone to sleep. Ironically, that feels like the only time when the city itself comes alive - no longer covered by a seething carpet of cars and people. The static subsides, and the city's true character is drawn clearly and sharply into focus. The rivers of car and foot traffic diminish, and different paths, and different rhythms along them open us. The place feels much more three dimensional, and less like a cross between a rollercoaster ride and a travel tour.

I can relate, especially to the title. Night-time is the only time when London seems to have time to get to know you; when it can finally be yours, and not some elusive prize in a competition everyone is trying (and failing) to win.

Avatar
Nick0 | 10 years ago
0 likes

I make a point of doing a slight detour and going through Richmond (and Hyde) Park every morning and night, it's wonderful to get away from the noisy angry cars for part of the commute, I often stop to take pictures because the beauty is immense; when I saw your picture I thought it was one of mine! It is a veritable green oasis, and sometimes downright spooky at night. Love it. Keep up the good blogging.

Avatar
tritecommentbot | 10 years ago
0 likes

Used to do my runs around 6 or 7pm-ish when I was living in London, and even got into a fight once going through Lewisham (couple of guys tried to grab my headphone lead as I went past).

Eventually caught on that although initially it felt less safe, it was actually much less hassle to run later at night. Could listen to music and zone out. No need to dodge folk constantly on the pavement.

That was around 10 or more years back now and I've been saying it ever since. Night running is the best. Temperatures are cooler, hardly anyone around, and you see the city in a way that you would never do during the day. Feels special.

Cycling at night is definitely even better than running though, especially for women - simply due to the faster escape option if a crazy does cross your path. Although I love going out really late, I couldn't imagine the girlfriend doing it. She attracts way more abuse that I do (kids throwing stones, pot-heads trying to trip her up as she goes past - just two incidents early evening in Edinburgh/Portobello recently).

Avatar
notfastenough replied to tritecommentbot | 10 years ago
0 likes
unconstituted wrote:

Used to do my runs around 6 or 7pm-ish when I was living in London, and even got into a fight once going through Lewisham (couple of guys tried to grab my headphone lead as I went past).

Eventually caught on that although initially it felt less safe, it was actually much less hassle to run later at night. Could listen to music and zone out. No need to dodge folk constantly on the pavement.

That was around 10 or more years back now and I've been saying it ever since. Night running is the best. Temperatures are cooler, hardly anyone around, and you see the city in a way that you would never do during the day. Feels special.

Cycling at night is definitely even better than running though, especially for women - simply due to the faster escape option if a crazy does cross your path. Although I love going out really late, I couldn't imagine the girlfriend doing it. She attracts way more abuse that I do (kids throwing stones, pot-heads trying to trip her up as she goes past - just two incidents early evening in Edinburgh/Portobello recently).

I used to train with a lad who supplemented his martial arts by free running. He worked at one of the casinos in Manchester city centre, and said if he ran home at 3am on a weekend, he could sometimes attract trouble, but if as he approached any dodgy characters, he leapfrogged the bin, jumped onto the bus shelter, then flipped off the end landing on his feet and was away, all he'd hear behind him was stunned silence!

Avatar
notfastenough | 10 years ago
0 likes

Great post. Years ago I worked in London for a while, but was just part of the hordes of tube commuters. Then when I had cause to go in for overtime on a Saturday, the lack of people and activity was weird. I can see how they managed the 'deserted London' bits of the movie 28 days later.

Avatar
step-hent | 10 years ago
0 likes

Spectacular piece. I ride in London in the dark all through the winter, but never as late/early as this - now feeling like I'll have to give it a go just for the fun of it!

Avatar
rore replied to step-hent | 10 years ago
0 likes

Great article! The atmosphere you've created really captures the experience. I do the same myself every now and then along a very similar route. I love how it gives you a very different perspective to the city, especially if you commute in the day with all the traffic, fumes and impatience that comes with the rush hour and seems to last all day. And the lights are green, you can just go and go.

step-hent wrote:

I ride in London in the dark all through the winter, but never as late/early as this - now feeling like I'll have to give it a go just for the fun of it!

Do it! (Especially before it gets icy).

Avatar
sm | 10 years ago
0 likes

Terrific blog post. Felt like I was drafting behind you so vivid are the words. I'm a before sunrise rider so often get the same feeling when heading to Richmond on a weekend. The city is ours.

Have you done the Dunwich Dynamo and ridden through the night? That too is surreal, cheeky plug ahoy: http://humancyclist.wordpress.com/2014/07/13/night-cycling-dunwich-dynamo/

Avatar
Chris Campbell replied to sm | 10 years ago
0 likes

Thanks for the kind comments. I have indeed been on the Dun Run, and my plan is to do three posts about night riding, with the third centring on next year's DD. I recognised a lot of what you mentioned, particularly feeling a change in gradient long before actually seeing it.

Avatar
Chris Campbell replied to sm | 10 years ago
0 likes
sm wrote:

Terrific blog post. Felt like I was drafting behind you so vivid are the words. I'm a before sunrise rider so often get the same feeling when heading to Richmond on a weekend. The city is ours.

Have you done the Dunwich Dynamo and ridden through the night? That too is surreal, cheeky plug ahoy: http://humancyclist.wordpress.com/2014/07/13/night-cycling-dunwich-dynamo/

Thanks for the kind comments. I have indeed been on the Dun Run, and my plan is to do three posts about night riding, with the third centring on next year's DD. I recognised a lot of what you mentioned, particularly feeling a change in gradient long before actually seeing it.

Latest Comments