London Paddington to Liverpool St advice pls

[All uphill]

Thanks everyone for your thoughts and especially @vickster for the links. I'm travelling tomorrow with my full size bike and with your help I'll cycle from Paddington to Liverpool Street. Its good to know I should be able to take my bike on the Elizabeth Line outside peak times.

I'll post photos of my trip to Norfolk when I get back.

 

[mjr]

Head from Paddington south to CS3 then follow it south and east through Hyde Park and the Welly Arch, past the palace and Parliament, along Embankment to the junction with Q11 after Blackfriars Underpass at the north end of Southwark Bridge. Turn left (north) and follow Q11 to the Guildhall and then turn right instead of following Q11 left. Keep going forwards through various "no entry except cycles" and so on and several merges and slight bends will take you to the front of Liverpool St station.

Not the fastest route (50min instead of 40 wiggling through Marylebone and Bloomsbury), but easily the easiest to follow and most scenic.

 

[Dogtrousers]

Head from Paddington south to CS3 then follow it south and east through Hyde Park and the Welly Arch, past the palace and Parliament, along Embankment to the junction with Q11 after Blackfriars Underpass at the north end of Southwark Bridge. Turn left (north) and follow Q11 to the Guildhall and then turn right instead of following Q11 left. Keep going forwards through various "no entry except cycles" and so on and several merges and slight bends will take you to the front of Liverpool St station.

Not the fastest route (50min instead of 40 wiggling through Marylebone and Bloomsbury), but easily the easiest to follow and most scenic.

That actually looks like quite a nice route. I think Hyde Park/Embankment is probably the way I'd head off. But that's not based on knowledge of other routes - it's just because Paddington-Charing x is one of the few routes that I ever cycle in central London (and used to walk it regularly back in the day)

 

[presta]

I've always used the tube, not because I'm fazed by the traffic particularly, just so that I don't get lost and miss my train. I probably should have reconsidered that on the day I fetched up in London just as the rush hour started, then waited on the tube station for a couple of hours before I could get on. If you're going from Paddington to Liverpool St on the tube, be careful you get the right station now they've split the circle line, I used the wrong one once, and ended up going the long way round: 18 stops instead of 9.

 

[vickster]

I've always used the tube, not because I'm fazed by the traffic particularly, just so that I don't get lost and miss my train. I probably should have reconsidered that on the day I fetched up in London just as the rush hour started, then waited on the tube station for a couple of hours before I could get on. If you're going from Paddington to Liverpool St on the tube, be careful you get the right station now they've split the circle line, I used the wrong one once, and ended up going the long way round: 18 stops instead of 9.

Elizabeth Line should be by far the quickest route now (assuming no train strike )

 

[T4tomo]

I've always used the tube, not because I'm fazed by the traffic particularly, just so that I don't get lost and miss my train. I probably should have reconsidered that on the day I fetched up in London just as the rush hour started, then waited on the tube station for a couple of hours before I could get on. If you're going from Paddington to Liverpool St on the tube, be careful you get the right station now they've split the circle line, I used the wrong one once, and ended up going the long way round: 18 stops instead of 9.

2 hours really? You need to work on your standing where a door opens strategy.

The circle line has always been a circle and hence there has always been a choice. It hasn't been "split" at all

 

[biggs682]

(assuming no train strike )

Who would imagine a train service bought to a standstill

 

[vickster]

Who would imagine a train service bought to a standstill

ASLEF & RMT?

 

[Dogtrousers]

The circle line has always been a circle and hence there has always been a choice. It hasn't been "split" at all

It's not a circle any more. It's a kind of spirally thing. You can't go direct between Baker St and High St Ken any more. You either get shunted off to Ladbroke Grove (anticlockwise) or have to change at Paddington or Edgware Rd (clockwise)

But you're right that there has always been a confusing choice of stations all masquerading under the name "Paddington". They changed things around and started running non-circular circle line trains from the Ham & City platforms next to the canal entrance a while ago.

Time wasting site: London Tube Map Archive http://www.clarksbury.com/cdl/maps.html

But, as said, the wonderful Elizabeth line (or Elizabethan Line as my wife calls it) means we can forget about all that now and zoom straight to Liverpool St in air-conditioned comfort.

 

[T4tomo]

It's not a circle any more. It's a kind of spirally thing. You can't go direct between Baker St and High St Ken any more. You either get shunted off to Ladbroke Grove (anticlockwise) or have to change at Paddington or Edgware Rd (clockwise)

even in the olden days it often was a case of doing a similar thing around Aldgate and Tower Hill.

{Pedant alert} The tracks haven't moved, its just how LU TFL or whatever they call themselves run their trainset around them. Even before Elizabeth lined herself up you often had to hop out at Edgware Rd, its now just a bit clearer on the latest maps.


i prefer this style, make it more obvious where your should be walking rather than changing tubes 3 times.
https://assets.londonist.com/uploads/2020/07/tubemap_mark_two.jpg

 

[mjr]

ASLEF & RMT?

Surely more the fault of the paymasters adding a load of stuff about ticket office closures and driver-only trains at the 11th hour?

 

[Dogtrousers]

i prefer this style, make it more obvious where your should be walking rather than changing tubes 3 times.
https://assets.londonist.com/uploads/2020/07/tubemap_mark_two.jpg

Nice, but they would have done better to completely leave off mainline services, rather than cherry picking just Thameslink, and doing so incompletely. It gives a weird impression: Trains to Brighton from London Bridge, but none from Victoria? I eventually figured out why it was like that but it's still a bit odd.

 

[Dogtrousers]

even in the olden days it often was a case of doing a similar thing around Aldgate and Tower Hill.

{Pedant alert} The tracks haven't moved, its just how LU TFL or whatever they call themselves run their trainset around them. Even before Elizabeth lined herself up you often had to hop out at Edgware Rd, its now just a bit clearer on the latest maps.


i prefer this style, make it more obvious where your should be walking rather than changing tubes 3 times.
https://assets.londonist.com/uploads/2020/07/tubemap_mark_two.jpg

Now in full time wasting mode
Here's a snippet of a Harry Beck map from 1934, clearly showing the three tube stations at Paddington.

And here's how they represent it now. With added Elizabethan line goodness.

It's a bugger's muddle and no wonder people get confused. And quite why they persist with two separate stations both called Edgware Road, when they have been so pernickety about the naming of other stations is something I don't understand.