Fancy a London bike ride on Christmas Day? Mithrismas is for you ...

Will you be in London on Christmas Day? On your own, or maybe looking to jump on the bike and get away from the family for an hour or two to ride your bike on traffic-free streets? Well, the Mithrasmas Ride may be perfect for you.

Billed as “a Merry Dickensian Christmas Day Ride through the Streets of London,” the ride starts by the Cutty Sark in Greenwich at 10am – and hopefully taking in the new Deptford Creek Footbridge if it is open by then.

The ride, created by the late Barry Mason and now continued by Francis Sedgemoor, will pause by the Southwark Needle at the corner of Tooley Street and London Bridge to enable people to join it ahead of starting off again at 11am.

At a time of year when A Christmas Carol – the Muppets version or otherwise – is a fixture on the TV schedule, it will visit locations associated with Sir Charles Dickens, including the site of the former Marshalsea Prison, where the author was imprisoned for debt.

Crossing Southwark Bridge, it will head past St Paul’s Cathedral and down Fleet Street to the Royal Courts of Justice, then through Covent Garden towards the Mall and via Hyde Park to Marble Arch, ahead of a meal at one of Edgware Road’s Lebanese restaurants.

Previously, more than 100 cyclists of all kinds have taken part, several in Santa outfits – organisers say that “active parents are most welcome on the ride, provided that they are accompanied by at least one responsible child, and behave themselves.”