Meet Crunchy the Credit Crunch Monster

I celebrated the warmer weather today with another of my radial rides - this one took me over near Old Street and Liverpool Street.  It was there that I met Crunchy.  Actually, I wouldn't have known that it was Crunchy if it hadn't been for the blue plaque underneath:

Alongside the plaque there's a motto for our crowded and crunchy urban existences...and even the tube trains seem to have run out of space underground.

(Great Eastern Street, EC2)

Just around the corner in Leonard Street, Masker has been at work:

And these road signs did actually make me stop.

Sunshine!

It feels like it was the first time this year, and it was welcome.  My alarmingly  clunky bottom bracket managed to get me to the Wolds of Woolwich and back.  Here's a well-preserved bit of shop front that has far outlasted the shop itself.  It's on the corner of Eglinton Road and Herbert Road, SE18.  I'm trying to figure out whether it once had an entrance on both sides of the tile work.

Here it is a bit closer up, looking a bit like a big tin of peas:

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After cycling just over 3000 miles last year, I've set myself a 4000 target for this year.  And I'm already behind the 10.92 miles a day schedule.  But only by about 3 miles.  Most of this cycling will probably take place in and around the area as I continue my impossible ''ride every road'' project.  This is where I've got to so far.  (The red radials mark where I need to go next to keep expanding the circle).  It's only an area of just over 50 square miles, which would have taken no time to cover in open countryside.  In London, there are an awful lot of roads between Walworth and Woolwich, Borough and Bexley, Beckton and Beckenham, Bromley and...er...Bromley...  I've now forgotten more roads than the average Londoner has ever known.

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You can't put a bus lane there!

A festive Boxing Day ditty....

As I have never ever seen such a spectacular night's day of cricket, I thought a  mightily contrived Christmas song might be appropriately catchy....

On the first day at Melbourne my true love sent to me

12 balls for Watson

11 Aussies cussing

10 runs for Ponting with...

9 working fingers

8 for 77!

7 for 77!?

6 for 77!!!

5 no balls....

4 each for the swingers

3 stumps still standing

2 batting sessions

And they still couldn't knock up a ton...

Union Cycle Works

I noticed this sign back in September but the workshop, behind the Deptford Project Café, under the arches of the old horse ramp up to Deptford railway station, was closed.  Then, about a month later, Deptford Dame did this post with a link to an article about it on the East London Lines blog. 

Having recently spotted that Union Cycle Works were holding 'Open Tool' sessions on the 1st Saturday of the month, I eventually got down there to have a look around this morning.  Union Cycle Works is run as a community project that gives work skills training to disadvantaged people and, as a bonus, have started their 'Open Tool' sessions for people who don't have the room or the necessary tools at home.

I walked in as a complete stranger and got a warm welcome from Joe (though East London Lines names him as Jo Harrington) who was very happy to take the time and explain to me what they were doing and when they were doing it. 

So, if you need to get any fettling done and you don't have the room or tools at home, this might be just the place to bring your bike and, for a voluntary contribution, get a bit of advice and the use of their tools.  This place could prove to be a very useful little resource that not many people seem to know about yet.  So shush, don't tell everybody!. 

And you can also get a good meal and coffee in the railway carriage while you're at it.

Bike Buddies and Shop fronts

A short while ago somebody wrote in to the Bike Radar forum about a commuting journey into town from south east London.  They were having some doubts about doing the journey.   A handful of locals responded, offering  to accompany the person in.  We thought it would be a good idea to put up a list of people who would be able to help new or returning commuters make that mental leap from thinking wistfully about riding in while watching cyclists filter past their bus to actually doing it.

And so an online Google docs spreadsheet was born.  It's a list of experienced riders, what time and which way their route takes them, with contact details.  Nobody's pretending to be a qualified cycling instructor - it's just people who are already out and about who are happy to encourage a few more out onto the road.  Because it was first set up in south east London, a lot of the routes so far run from there into town - but there are also names from further afield and it's not restricted to any given area.  It should work the same for any regular commuting destination.

So, if you are a regular cyclist willing to give a bit of encouragement or if you are thinking about taking the plunge, have a look at the ''Cycling Buddies'' page up above.  It might be possible to rendez-vous.

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It was high time I took my camera with me on the bike to take few photos.  I was up around Spitalfields and then back via Borough.

Opposite the church in Fournier Street, E1, just over Commercial Street from the market is the remains of the Market Café's frontage over the windows.

Then, just south of the market, in Crispin Street, E1, is this shop front for all those looking for notable paper bag merchants.

And, two doors away - for nut nostalgics - there's Percy Daltons (I assume they're no longer trading but maybe they're still around.)

And around the corner in Brushfield Street, E1, there are a couple of well-preserved shop fronts.  First there's A Gold's.

Which, once upon a time, was a French Milliners.  More recently they've been trading in foodstuffs though.  Once again, I'm assuming that  Little Lemon Ladies is something you eat and not what type of clientèle they serve.

Just to the left is a boundary marker which caught my eye because I've only just discovered that the old parish I live in was also called Christchurch

And immediately to the right of Gold's is another picturesque shop front, Verde's.

This is the view from around the corner - the woman behind the shop window has just realised she's being framed.  (And I've just realised my bike and red jacket are visible in the reflection - still, it's good to be visible when you're on a bike....)

From there, with my toes getting numb from the cold, I went over Southwark Bridge - on the Cycle Superhighway number 7 - to Borough.

This Monster one in Borough High Street is pretty well known - I'm just adding it to my collection.

And another one I'd never spotted before further south on the SC7.  But I can't for the life of me remember what street this wardrobe dealer - ''Wardrobes Built to any size'' - was in, nor had my toes recovered enough circulation for me to stop and try to figure out what the previous name was - just a few letters are legible in the picture.

Music pub, Kennington

I came across the Sir Robert Peel in Langdale Close, SE17 on my travels.  Not only does it do music in that after-work hiatus on a Friday night (Juanita will be performing right now, until 7:30) but above each door it has a tune, complete with music.  I've never seen that before.

 and

 Here are the lyrics for the 2 songs.  The connections between the two seem to be a) Jimmy Roselli has recorded them both and b) they both reprise the changing of hair colour from gold to silver. 

PAL OF MY CRADLE DAYS  (1919)
Recorded by: Rose Marie; Ann Breen; Jimmy Rosselli;

What a friend, what a pal, only now I can see,
How you dreamed and you planned all for me,
I never knew what a mother goes through,
There's nothing that you didn't do.

Chorus:
Pal of my cradle days, I've needed you always.
Since I was a baby upon your knee,
You sacrificed everything for me.
I stole the gold from your hair.
I put the silver threads there,
I don't know any way I could ever repay,
Pal of my cradle days.

Greatest friend, dearest pal,
It was me who caused you
Every sorrow and heartache you knew,
Your face so fair Is wrinkled with care,
I placed every line that is there,

Repeat Chorus: End

WHEN YOUR OLD WEDDING RING WAS NEW
(Douglas / McCarthy / Solieri)

Jimmy Dean - 1964
Jimmy Roselli - 1967
Sonny Knowles - 1990
Also recorded by: Joe Longthorne; Rose Marie;
Sydney Devine; David Alexander; Schmitt Bros;
Ray Anthony; Nighthawks Barbershop Quartet;
George Wallington Trio; Majella; Pat Roper;
Tony Kenny; Don Cornell.


Shades of night are falling
Bringing memories
Memories of a bygone day
Though it may be December
Though we're old and gray
To me you're still my blushing bride of May

When your old wedding ring was new
And each dream that we dreamed came true
I remember with pride how we stood side by side
What a beautiful picture you made as my bride
Even though silver crowns your hair
I can still see those gold ringlets there
Love's old flame is the same
As the day I changed your name
When your old wedding ring was new

Bicycle Quoits, Onions and various fadeds.

Bicycle quoits looks like a fun game.  Does anybody know the rules?

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In the middle of this extensive cyclepath, by College Road, Dulwich, the council have thoughtfully provided a bin with a place to stub your cigarettes out.  I admit to liking the occasional roll up but I can usually cover that kind of distance without having to light up.

(On the positive side, though, it will protect you from colliding with the lamp post.)

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There was even a man in a beret selling onions and garlic outside this rather busy shop in Lordship Lane today.  Wow, I thought, a genuine French Onion seller!  Well, the writing and the prices are French so he may well have come over from Brittany but that bike hasn't gone anywhere for a long time to judge by the flat tyres...shame, really, I preferred the illusion.

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I spotted a few faded signs around the west end of Lordship Lane a while ago and remembered to bring my camera with me went I passed by today.  This one is on the corner with Blackwater Road.

And not far away on Pellatt Road, just off the north side of Lordship Lane, there's this one

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Below, a pretty well-known one from Stepney Green on an earlier day's ride.  I've uploaded it simply because it's the best-preserved sign I know of around here.

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You get to spot some strange things when you're exploring the  [snigger, snigger] back routes.  This is something I saw while I was behind [ahem!] Daren...