Urban Adventures. The London Climbing Centres (LCC) 8 Centres challenge
- Louis Kennedy
- Feb 19
- 5 min read
Updated: Mar 18
In November 2022: I found myself in London, picking up my first stint of industrial rope access work. The idea was to bridge the autumnal "off-season" with work that actually pays. I say this because for those with experience in the outdoor industry this is something of a novelty. I had recently completed my industrial rope access (IRATA) level 1 qualification, and the idea was to find work near my family home in Clapham in South West London and reconnect with some family and friends, whilst also funding my outdoor career. In theory it was perfect, In practice however, being stuck in the city for the longest stretch since I left school at 18 was a tough pill to swallow— I am fully aware this was somewhat of a first world problem...
I really disliked my sixth form years living in the city. I am quite ADHD in nature and I had a lot of untapped energy at school and I felt caged in an urban environment. I struggled to relate my peers at school and failed to properly engage with the work I was set in the classroom. As for many of us, I found my sanctuary in Indoor climbing. I would spend approximately 16-20 hours a week at London climbing walls. Even occasionally skiving off school to sneak in a session. Climbing was everything to me as a teenager and 10 years later it still provides me with the same feeling of accomplishment; just in a slightly different way.
Thus Autumn 2022 demanded a new routine: adult life in the city. I found myself retracing my teenage steps to familiar territory. Namely, VauxWall Climbing Centre (funnily enough in Vauxhall, central London...). Tucked under the railway arches beneath Vauxhall train station and just a short journey from my family home in Clapham. Vauxwall was a tight nit and friendly hangout characterised by largely very steep boulders and creative setting. I had been a member on one of the first iterations of their youth development programme: "the vauxsquad" and as a result have lots of great memories of time spent climbing there.
So revisiting the wall on a regular basis brought a few things into sharp focus, particularly as I tried to recapture the nostalgia and psych I had for training as a teenager. The first was, since its Olympic debut, climbing had exploded into the mainstream. It was trendy now and I was still very much not. It had veered off in a different direction to what I had remembered with my rose tinted glasses and to be honest that memory isn't likely wholly accurate. I had likely spent the last 7-8 years deviating even further away from the indoor norms becoming a Mountaineer. That is to say an avid connoisseur for largely static climbing, with a niche enjoyment for being wet, cold and slightly scared (a.k.a. Type 2 fun...). In those years, climbing had become less about performance and more about the overall experience. The companionship, hardship and adventure involved in navigating dangerous beautiful enviroments from Scottish seacliffs and stacks to negotiating 4000m peaks in the alps.
The conception of the London Climbing Centres (LCC) 8 Centre Challenge!
I met up at Vauxwall West with an old school friend Xav Burgess. We arrived to find the wall rammed with people and were informed that there was a neighbouring LCC wall that was theoretically quieter and but a 15 minute walk away. Neither of us had visited Vauxwall East, so we took it a queue to explore a new wall and inadvertently discovered that a single day pass gave access to all eight climbing centres under the LCC brand — including the freshly opened Euston Wall in North London.
Our adventure to Vaux East yielded more busy indoor climbing and we quickly retired to our regularly scheduled post climb pub session and somewhere deep into the haze of alcohol fuelled conversation, we had a eureka moment: why not try and visit every centre in one day?
The rules we constructed were simple:
Visit every wall
Climb something at each one
Cycle between all eight
It was simple, stupid and right up our street. It's amazing what boredem can yield. A quick and very unscientific Google search told us it would take around 12–13 hours and about 100km of cycling. We immediately decided it would be even better on a tandem bike, but we couldn’t find one to borrow and weren’t quite ready to part with a £100 to rent one. So, regular bikes it was (the Tandem bike round is still up for grabs!) Thus, fuelled by our boredom and exercising a perhaps questionable use of free will, our very own urban odyssey began to take shape.
On the 26th November, we met on Clapham Common at 0600 sharp ready for our adventure and psyched to breathe in 100km of polluted air. The uncertainty of our journey quickly began to unravell on the first leg of our journey. Our shoddy plans had yielded the wrong opening times and Croy Wall was closed for another hour...! Our early alpine start was in tatters... We cycled to the local Tesco to mourne our loss over a meal deal breakfast, and returned only to discover the wall had been booked out for a private university bouldering competition. After politely explaining what we were attempting to do the staff, very kindly allowed us in for a quick 10 minute climb and thankfully the rest of the day continued slightly more smoothly.
We got lost once or twice, navigating off our phones. Xav cycled through countless amber and red lights... I would then loose Xav because I was too wimpy to follow him through the oncoming traffic. The journey allowed for a very diverse and memorable tour of the city sites from Tower Bridge and the Shard to some of the more bleak and nameless busy carriageways leading out of the city. Arguably our greatest mistake was our exemplary nutrition plan. Hungry and tired after climbing at Euston Wall, we stopped off at the McDonald's in St Pancras and scoffed a large big mac and 20 chicken mcnuggets each... This did no favours for the gut on the very long slog out to Harrow Wall. I would say my overarching memory from the experience though, was that London roads are rubbish and I am convinced that I have a map of the potholes and speed bumps of the city firmly imprinted on my gooch. This was made all the worse because I had worn cotton boxer shorts and to say things were a bit raw after 100km of cycling is an understatement... (If I did it again I would defitintly wear padded cycle shorts!)
To round up the London Climbing Centres (LCC) 8 Climbing Centres Challenge. I think it's fair to say that it is an unconventional means of spending a rainy weekend in London, but it satisfies the main criteria that constitute an adventure. An element of risk, an uncertain outcome and a degree of hardship. At nearly 11 hours it is rather a big tour of the city and something of a mini Ultra Marathon. That is to say I would be hard pressed to convince myself to do it again and the whole experience felt like something of an extreme commute or an exercise in negotiating traffic. On the flip side however, you do get to see some interesting buildings and sites along the way, climb some cool boulder problems and I would 10/10 prescribe if you are bored.
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