Cycling in London – changing patterns across the Thames
Recently, there was some excitement and press releases as a new update of walking and cycling data from the City of London was published. In the City of London’s own press release, this was “the biggest increase in cycling in the Square Mile since records began”, but it also noted that these records began in 1999.
It would be a great tragedy if we didn’t have any records for cycling prior to 1999. London has been a city that has seen mass cycling in various forms at different times during its growth. I have previously highlighted some excellent history in a Thames TV series on transport about cycling between the wars. Commutes across town from affordable housing to areas of industry were not unusual, and shorter distance cycling more common still.
Thankfully it turns out that Transport for London (TfL) have retained some but not all data from other surveys, such as the Thames Screenline.
The Thames Screenline is a survey going back to 1976, for which detailed data has been retained back to 1986. This biennial survey was last undertaken in 2024, and as a special treat TFL included some data on the Greenwich and Woolwich Foot Tunnels (though nothing on the cable car, alas).
The City of London data shows a pretty rapid increase in recent years for the share of cycling in the City of London, with it going from 24% of daytime vehicles in 2019 to 39% in 2024.
Further to this, the City of London also provide their current data for three bridges, but excludes Tower Bridge.
We can also see this data in TfL’s screen line data back to 1986, and the increases are striking. Even for Tower Bridge.
| Year | Blackfriars Bridge | London Bridge | Southwark Bridge | Tower Bridge |
| 1986 | 2.7% | 3.6% | 2.0% | 1.7% |
| 1988 | 2.4% | 4.4% | 2.2% | 2.2% |
| 1990 | 3.4% | 3.3% | 2.8% | 2.2% |
| 1992 | 3.1% | 4.5% | 2.8% | 2.5% |
| 1994 | 3.7% | 5.7% | 3.5% | 2.8% |
| 1996 | 3.3% | 4.1% | 5.0% | 3.1% |
| 1998 | 4.4% | 5.9% | 4.2% | 3.1% |
| 2000 | 4.5% | 6.7% | 6.0% | 3.1% |
| 2002 | 4.7% | 7.3% | 8.9% | 4.5% |
| 2004 | 8.1% | 9.0% | 9.2% | 5.5% |
| 2006 | 8.4% | 14.3% | 16.7% | 6.2% |
| 2008 | 13.5% | 17.4% | 18.1% | 6.2% |
| 2010 | 15.5% | 18.5% | 23.6% | 11.2% |
| 2012 | 18.1% | 24.7% | 33.7% | 14.8% |
| 2014 | 21.2% | 24.9% | 35.2% | 14.6% |
| 2016 | 36.0% | 26.5% | 37.2% | 19.3% |
| 2018 | 31.9% | 46.7% | 41.0% | 16.5% |
| 2022 | 35.7% | 51.5% | 32.4% | 17.4% |
| 2024 | 40.2% | 56.9% | 36.3% | 18.6% |
If only we had some old data we could compare this to…
Well, actually, we do. The Metropolitan police used to survey traffic. I don’t know over what years, and as yet the Met Police archivist is yet to discover what else is in their archives, but I have a set of surveys from 1933, 1935 and 1937. Processing this into usable data is taking me a while to get around to, but I’ve done some quick analysis for bridges for one page covering two years.
Using this data alone, we can see some interesting features to previous cycling figures.
| Year | Blackfriars Bridge | London Bridge | Southwark Bridge | Tower Bridge |
| 1935 | 21% | 20% | 24% | 16% |
| 1937 | 20% | 22% | 24% | 17% |
At some point in the last decade, we have gone past these figures. However, we have two further questions we should ask whilst we look at this:
- Is the City of London currently the place with the highest proportion of cycling on its crossings?
- Has it always been that way?
Well… yes, and no.
| Year | West London | Central London | City of London | East London | Total |
| 1935 | 31.7% | 20.8% | 20.0% | 20.0% | 31.7% |
| 1937 | 24.9% | 22.3% | 20.8% | 21.0% | 29.3% |
| 1986 | 2.1% | 3.6% | 2.6% | 0.0% | 2.4% |
| 1988 | 2.0% | 3.4% | 2.9% | 0.2% | 2.3% |
| 1990 | 2.0% | 3.7% | 3.0% | 0.1% | 2.4% |
| 1992 | 2.0% | 3.9% | 3.2% | 0.1% | 2.5% |
| 1994 | 2.6% | 4.2% | 3.8% | 0.0% | 3.0% |
| 1996 | 2.2% | 4.2% | 3.5% | 0.1% | 2.7% |
| 1998 | 2.5% | 4.1% | 4.4% | 0.1% | 3.0% |
| 2000 | 2.3% | 4.3% | 4.9% | 0.2% | 3.0% |
| 2002 | 2.7% | 5.2% | 5.9% | 0.2% | 3.6% |
| 2004 | 3.4% | 6.6% | 7.8% | 0.3% | 4.5% |
| 2006 | 4.4% | 9.2% | 10.8% | 0.2% | 6.0% |
| 2008 | 5.2% | 9.9% | 13.5% | 0.3% | 7.1% |
| 2010 | 4.9% | 12.9% | 16.0% | 0.3% | 8.0% |
| 2012 | 5.3% | 14.1% | 20.7% | 0.4% | 9.4% |
| 2014 | 6.8% | 16.6% | 22.3% | 0.2% | 10.8% |
| 2016 | 5.9% | 15.7% | 28.9% | 0.2% | 10.8% |
| 2018 | 6.5% | 15.9% | 30.7% | 0.2% | 11.4% |
| 2022 | 8.2% | 19.0% | 34.0% | 0.2% | 13.6% |
| 2024 | 9.6% | 21.7% | 38.6% | 2.1% | 16.1% |
We seem to have wound up with a very central London focussed recovery in cycling over Thames crossings.
There are some sensitivities in this data. The sudden jump up in cycling in East London in 2024 is because – incredibly – until 2024 TfL simply hadn’t bothered to measure where 90% of cycling journeys across the river were made in the Thames Screenline. Incredibly measuring cycles crossing using the Greenwich and Woolwich Foot Tunnels is described as a “one off in 2024 for City Planning.” It is unclear if TfL actually held any data on this during their planning for the now-open Silvertown Road Tunnel or the now-cancelled Rotherhithe to Canary Wharf Walking and Cycling Bridge. Though to be fair, in the 1930s it seems the police weren’t interested in counting cycles using the Greenwich Foot Tunnel and Woolwich Foot Tunnel either, so it’s possible East London cycling share over the river is understated in the historical figures as well.
The historical context on East London is fascinating though – just look at these numbers for the key crossings in East London – imagine these levels of cycling today.
| Rotherhithe Tunnel | Blackwall Tunnel | Woolwich Free Ferry | ||||
| Year | Cycles | % | Cycles | % | Cycles | % |
| 1935 | 896 | 12% | 1,146 | 13% | 2,054 | 47% |
| 1937 | 908 | 11% | 1,315 | 13% | 2,856 | 53% |
There are some anomalies in the older data as well though – in 1935 the Chelsea Bridge was closed for works, and in 1937 Wandsworth Bridge was closed.
I intend to do more digging into this data, and experiment with some graphs, but I wanted to quickly publish this to see what others think.
What do you know about historic cycling in London?