maynardcase.co.uk linkfest

Cycling to work
Decided to bike into work today. The gf has been stealing my bike and cycling to her place of work 2.5 miles away most days, but Wednesday is her day off. As it was a beautiful day, and as I’d been woken up at 5.35am by my pager, I figured I may as well beat the rush and cycle in the 18 miles from Surbiton to Canary Wharf. Got packed up and off by 0630, and navigated the 18.35 miles in one hour, twenty-two minutes and fourteen seconds. Average speed: 13.3 mph.

Not too shabby, I hope. I realise that the cycle couriers amonst us will be scoffing at my pitiful efforts but it’s still faster than the average speed of inner London traffic.

Following trends started a mere three months ago, here is the map of my route:

Surbiton to New Malden Fountain roundabout via the back roads, along Burlington Road to the junction with the A3 where we go left and over the overpass. Whizz along Kingston Road until you get to Merton, when the road eventually branches left at Collier’s Wood station. Up past Tooting, Balham, Clapham Common (wave at the ducks on the pond), Stockwell, Oval, Kennington. Be very careful around the whirling circle of death and uninsured drivers that is Elephant and Castle, following signs for the A3 and on towards London Bridge. Over said bridge (eyes right for the more scenic Tower Bridge) and take a right onto some random City road, which joins the road leading past the Tower of London. Disembark briefly and cycle the wrong way along the pavement of Short Street, then cross at the pedestrian/bike crossing onto the cycle path next to the DLR. Follow this all the way along past interesting street murals and the locks and warehouses of Limehouse. Do yet another dodgy maneuver to get over onto the road leading down to the underground roundabout by Canary Wharf and onwards, then take a left at the traffic light roundabout, and then under Heron Quays to the bike racks round the back of my building.

Bonus points to anyone who steals my bike, as they will have been able to work out where it’s parked. It’s a blue Specialized ex-MTB, secured with one of those locks you can open with a bic biro. Although if you could let me know, so I don’t have to get changed at the end of the day?

Please sponsor me!
The hidden motivation is that I’m doing the London to Brighton bike ride - a pretty hefty 58 mile trip from Clapham Common to Brigton seafront, taking in lots of countryside, the M25 and a couple of pretty unpleasant hills.

The ride is for charideee, specifically the British Heart Foundation, which funds research into heart disease as well as educating people and providing specialist life-saving resuscitation equipment.

So: if you would like to sponsor me, feel free. The site linked uses WorldPay, who I’ve found to be generally fine and non-spammy. If you’re not keen on that but you still want to sponsor me, mail me and we can sort out another form of money transfer.

Working in Canary Wharf doesn’t have many advantages. But the odd car show here or there is a bonus, especially if people like Land Rover decide to take it seriously.

They not only slap hundreds of their latest models throughout Jubilee Gardens…

… and have a rollercoaster-style ramp to show off…

… but they install an obstacle course so that they can give people demos of what one can do in a proper four wheel drive:

This is the famous Lloyds of London building, as seen from St Mary Axe. It’s still a great building and nothing looks anything like it.

This is a view from the base of 30 St Mary Axe, also known as “The Erotic Gherkin“. Wonderful and spectacular building, in my opinion - although there is a “love it or hate it” vibe about the place. The Guardian certainly likes it…

The City of London is a very old area, and as such has many little windy streets (often with really bizarre/silly/funny names). Not the kind of environment that cars in general do very well in - so it’s impressive that the City of London Police have got some of their policepeople on mountain bikes!

The only problem really is realising that they are police, despite the fairly clear labels all over the place. I wonder how many black cabs cut them up before they realise?

This is a rather nice shot of the Embankment, looking down from the main junction from Blackfriars.

This is just south of St Paul’s, looking down towards the river where the Wobbly Bridge Millennium Bridge leads across to Tate Modern (the tower in the distance). A lovely bit of design and practical for wheelchair users and … well, and skateboarders as well.

St Paul’s Cathedral is an amazing building that you can never really take for granted. Unfortunately most of it is swathed in scaffolding for its restoration but I managed to get this rather nice shot of the dome while cycling home today.

I work near Bow Church. There’s a pub on the corner of the courtyard so went for a few beers there last night, where you get this rather nice view of the steeple.