Last night (Sunday) I gave Al78's route a go, and very impressed I was too. I arrived at St.Pancras and (once through the barrier at the High Speed Trains end) I glanced at the time and it was 19:52. My only (I think) deviation from the suggested route was to turn left out of the station heading up towards Goods Way where I then did a double left and came down to Euston Road that way. From then on it was just as Al78 said. I was overtaken by the same bendy-bus about five times before the bottom of Gower Street but once over the fiddly bit at the T-junction and into Monmouth Street it was quiet and pretty much plain sailing. Trafalgar Square and The Mall were deathly silent as everybody seemed to be at home, the restaurants weren't doing much trade. I arrived at the Central Side entrance to Victoria and walked to the barriers for Platforms 15-17 and checked the time....20:16. That's the 24 minutes that the TfL website allows for it's own recommended route so, what with it also being MY best time to date, I was a very happy man last night. Obviously once all the workers, tourists etc. are back things might slow down a bit, but my ability to avoid hold-ups will improve once I have found those little cut-throughs that London always gives us cyclists. Thank you all for your suggestions....I shall keep the others in mind for those days when I need another route to keep thing interesting.
Bill