London’s Cycling Revolution

Above is part of a graphic created to highlight the dramatic changes in London’s non-casual cycling population. It is a map showing the proportion of people that travel to work by bicycle (compared to the overall population that travels to work) – each of London’s 620-odd wards being coloured by the resulting value, that comes from the 2011 census. QGIS was used to produce the map, the colour ramp used is a “fire” one, with the highest values corresponding to “white hot” colours, then cooling through orange and red for lower values. Yellow dots show the current (pre-December 2013) extent of the Barclays Cycle Hire system, which is revealingly at odds with where the cyclists actually are.

As a keen cyclist myself, it’s fascinating seeing how Hackney is “lit up” in the map, and also how barriers such as the North Circular Road and the Lea Valley act, apparently both physically and psychologically, to stop cyclists commuting across them. Outwith these constraints, traditionally affluent south-west London boroughs have combined with “hipster central” new-wealth north-east boroughs of Hackney and Islington to create an “axis of cycle commuting” across the capital city. The northern parts of Tower Hamlets, and the eastern parts of Camden, are also starting to turn red, as the Hackney cycling cultural influence slowly spreads. Herne Hill stands out in south London as being a popular cycling location, perhaps inspired by the legacy of the Herne Hill Velodrome (from the 1948 Olympics) living on. Highgate is also another hotspot. Perhaps people commute down its famous steep hills to work in central London, and then take the bike back home on the train?

The full graphic also includes a table listing the top 100 areas (wards) for the main measure. The numbers on the map correspond to the top 20 wards in this table – striking to see how many of them are in Hackney borough. The data came from the UK Census 2011 ward-aggregated data releases made earlier this year by the Official of National Statistics.

You can see the full graphic here which includes a number of “headline numbers” I haven’t mentioned here. I’ve listed the 100 wards from the graphic’s table below for convenience.

The “Total Num” is the population (aged 16-74) that travels to work, so not including those that work from home, are students, or don’t work. “Num by bicycle” is the subset of this population that use a bicycle as their primary means of commuting to work.

Rank	Ward	Borough	Total Num	Num by bicycle	% by bicycle
1	Clissold	Hackney	5988	1226	20.5%
2	Stoke Newington Central	Hackney	6269	1274	20.3%
3	Queensbridge	Hackney	6154	1235	20.1%
4	Dalston	Hackney	7199	1395	19.4%
5	Hackney Downs	Hackney	5636	1040	18.5%
6	Hackney Central	Hackney	5663	993	17.5%
7	Victoria	Hackney	5702	955	16.8%
8	Leabridge	Hackney	5946	991	16.7%
9	Wick	Hackney	4540	695	15.3%
10	Chatham	Hackney	5445	829	15.2%
11	De Beauvoir	Hackney	6765	1009	14.9%
12	Lordship	Hackney	4620	675	14.6%
13	Mildmay	Islington	5968	830	13.9%
14	King’s Park	Hackney	3910	542	13.9%
15	Highbury East	Islington	5765	795	13.8%
16	Highgate	Camden	4538	607	13.4%
17	Bethnal Green North	Tower Hamlets	6027	805	13.4%
18	Cazenove	Hackney	5221	689	13.2%
19	Herne Hill	Lambeth	7751	1017	13.1%
20	Haggerston	Hackney	6564	837	12.8%
21	Weavers	Tower Hamlets	6087	776	12.8%
22	St George’s	Islington	5751	703	12.2%
23	Cantelowes	Camden	5127	615	12.0%
24	Kentish Town	Camden	6385	744	11.7%
25	Bow West	Tower Hamlets	5863	671	11.4%
26	Village	Southwark	5608	635	11.3%
27	Brownswood	Hackney	5889	660	11.2%
28	Palace Riverside	Hammersmith and Fulham	3285	357	10.9%
29	Hoxton	Hackney	6844	737	10.8%
30	Highbury West	Islington	8127	871	10.7%
31	Brunswick Park	Southwark	5977	637	10.7%
32	Brixton Hill	Lambeth	8544	910	10.7%
33	The Lane	Southwark	7025	740	10.5%
34	Barnsbury	Islington	5771	600	10.4%
35	St Peter’s	Islington	5799	601	10.4%
36	St Mary’s Park	Wandsworth	8833	913	10.3%
37	Wandsworth Common	Wandsworth	7133	726	10.2%
38	Tollington	Islington	6239	628	10.1%
39	Tulse Hill	Lambeth	7544	757	10.0%
40	Junction	Islington	5567	558	10.0%
41	Vassall	Lambeth	6700	660	9.9%
42	Camden Town with Primrose Hill	Camden	5546	543	9.8%
43	Bow East	Tower Hamlets	7244	707	9.8%
44	Stroud Green	Haringey	6252	609	9.7%
45	Gospel Oak	Camden	4540	442	9.7%
46	Peckham Rye	Southwark	6669	642	9.6%
47	Shaftesbury	Wandsworth	8703	837	9.6%
48	Mortlake and Barnes Common	Richmond upon Thames	5159	495	9.6%
49	East Dulwich	Southwark	6536	624	9.6%
50	Oval	Lambeth	8270	789	9.5%
51	Northcote	Wandsworth	8532	811	9.5%
52	Canonbury	Islington	5704	541	9.5%
53	St Mary’s	Islington	5967	563	9.4%
54	Clapham Common	Lambeth	7380	695	9.4%
55	Prince’s	Lambeth	6938	650	9.4%
56	Askew	Hammersmith and Fulham	7020	656	9.3%
57	Thamesfield	Wandsworth	8505	791	9.3%
58	South Camberwell	Southwark	5982	553	9.2%
59	Holloway	Islington	6869	633	9.2%
60	Munster	Hammersmith and Fulham	5953	548	9.2%
61	Mile End and Globe Town	Tower Hamlets	5856	537	9.2%
62	East Sheen	Richmond upon Thames	4425	404	9.1%
63	Ravenscourt Park	Hammersmith and Fulham	4917	448	9.1%
64	Clapham Town	Lambeth	7986	724	9.1%
65	Queenstown	Wandsworth	8944	810	9.1%
66	Newington	Southwark	6546	589	9.0%
67	Nightingale	Wandsworth	8062	721	8.9%
68	Stockwell	Lambeth	7367	658	8.9%
69	Barnes	Richmond upon Thames	4146	370	8.9%
70	Ham, Petersham and Richmond Riverside	Richmond upon Thames	4195	373	8.9%
71	Thurlow Park	Lambeth	6497	574	8.8%
72	Clerkenwell	Islington	5188	455	8.8%
73	Caledonian	Islington	5935	518	8.7%
74	Finsbury Park	Islington	6373	548	8.6%
75	Crouch End	Haringey	6647	567	8.5%
76	Fulham Reach	Hammersmith and Fulham	5892	497	8.4%
77	Thornton	Lambeth	6235	525	8.4%
78	Balham	Wandsworth	8660	729	8.4%
79	Fulham Broadway	Hammersmith and Fulham	5583	469	8.4%
80	Hillrise	Islington	5077	426	8.4%
81	Ferndale	Lambeth	8868	744	8.4%
82	Larkhall	Lambeth	9197	771	8.4%
83	Shepherd’s Bush Green	Hammersmith and Fulham	6244	521	8.3%
84	Sands End	Hammersmith and Fulham	5947	489	8.2%
85	Coldharbour	Lambeth	7267	597	8.2%
86	Colville	Kensington and Chelsea	3896	318	8.2%
87	Addison	Hammersmith and Fulham	6154	500	8.1%
88	Fairfield	Wandsworth	9123	741	8.1%
89	Bethnal Green South	Tower Hamlets	5471	443	8.1%
90	Notting Barns	Kensington and Chelsea	3657	294	8.0%
91	Streatham Hill	Lambeth	7180	577	8.0%
92	Chiswick Riverside	Hounslow	5428	433	8.0%
93	Tudor	Kingston upon Thames	4128	329	8.0%
94	Hammersmith Broadway	Hammersmith and Fulham	5574	444	8.0%
95	Camberwell Green	Southwark	6471	513	7.9%
96	Queens Park	Brent	7598	600	7.9%
97	Haverstock	Camden	4900	386	7.9%
98	Spitalfields and Banglatown	Tower Hamlets	4619	362	7.8%
99	West Putney	Wandsworth	6772	527	7.8%
100	Fulwell and Hampton Hill	Richmond upon Thames	4747	369	7.8%

The graphic was produced in association with Mediarun and Bolt Burdon Kemp.

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