A Sunday Ride Around London
Sunday 24th July 2016 – Willesden to Brick Lane Loop
There is no better way to see the many and varied sights of London than by bicycle, with delightful surprises around nearly every corner.
Yesterday morning I set out from Brondesbury Park in Willesden to explore the London East End. The route I created for my Garmin GPS led me through Queens Park to the Grand Union Canal where I followed the towpath to Paddington, then along quiet backstreets through Bayswater to Lancaster Gate into Hyde Park, where I enjoyed a smooth, wide, paved bike path all the way to Hyde Park Corner. Crossing the road, I proceeded along Constitution Hill, past Buckingham Palace, down the bike path alongside The Mall, turning right into Horse Guards Road and left into Birdcage Walk, which soon brought me to the start of the Cycle Superhighways near Big Ben at Westminster. At Westminster Bridge I turned left onto the fabulous new East-West route as far as Tower Gateway, then turned left onto the CS2 route to Brick Lane.
Along the way I couldn’t resist stopping at Speakers Corner in Hyde Park, where there was a huge vocal crowd gathered around an Islamic preacher, standing on a soap box and waving around a copy of “The Glorious Qur’an”. Speakers Corner can certainly get a bit lively on a Sunday morning! Watch the video to see how the preacher had to keep reminding his audience that he was the one on the soap box.
Every year I come to London I discover a new exciting area, and this time the revelation has been Brick Lane in East London. Once a slum area remembered for the Jack the Ripper murders, Brick Lane is now a vibrant place featuring galleries, restaurants, bars, interesting street food & coffee shops, markets and vintage clothes shops. It is also famous for its street art, with artists from all over the world coming here to paint.
The Brick Lane market is only open on Sundays, so the street was swarming with bargain-hunters and foodies. A troupe of Cuban Salsa dancers, dressed in white, danced its way along the already crowded street, parting the crowd as it went. Everywhere I looked there were vintage shops and market stalls, but what was of more interest to me was the multi-cultured food feast all around me. It would be impossible to come away from the Brick Lane Sunday market still hungry!
Eventually I dragged myself away from the Brick Lane market, only to find myself entering the nearby Spitalfields market … and more food! Then as I rounded the corner near Liverpool Station I was drawn by a crowd gathered around watching a fantastic display of Argentine Tango dancing.
My next surprise was the historic Bunhill Fields Burial Ground in Old Street where many prominent people are buried, including: John Bunyan (1628-1688) author of Pilgrims Progress; Daniel Defoe (1660-1731) author of Robinson Crusoe; William Blake (1757-1827) artist and poet; and Thomas Bayes (1702-1761) mathematician remembered for his theories regarding statistics and probability.
Further along Old Street I came to a cafe & wine bar cycle shop with the quirky name Look Mum No Hands. Naturally I was compelled to stop and what I found inside was a cyclist’s idea of heaven … a fabulous bicycle shop/workshop, packed with bicycles and interesting cycle-related products, serving great coffee to a large room full of brightly-clad cyclists watching the final day of the Tour de France on a big-screen. What better way to finish a perfect Sunday ride around London!
