Author: Rob Ainsley

Where is it? Akerman Rd, between Myatts Fields and Mostyn Gardens, Camberwell. What’s quirky about it? It’s just the protrusion into our universe of a boiler room thing below the road, but it looks just like a submarine. They should paint it seakelp green, and put a periscope on it. Actually, inside it looks pretty…

Where is it? Running south into Peckham centre. What’s quirky about it? Not just a canal towpath, this is cycling along the canal itself: the old Surrey Canal, which finally evaporated in the 1960s. Why bike there? It’s a neat traffic-free route to Peckham… in the day. Probably best avoided at night, unless you have…

Where is it? Woolwich, out east along the Thames path. What’s quirky about it? That rare thing, a free ride: as the link between the North and South Circular, the ferry shuttling over the Thames between North and South Woolwich has to cost you nothing. So there is, after all, such a thing as a…

Where is it? Greenwich observatory, in the park overlooking the old naval college – but possibly not quite where you think. What’s quirky about it? Your chance to straddle the meridian line. Here, balanced on a knife edge, are the two hemispheres: on one side the mystic east of Woolwich and Dartford and beyond; on…

Where is it? At the beginning of the ornamental canal just after St Katherine’s Dock, east of Tower Bridge. What’s quirky about it? San Francisco bangs on about its steep and eight-hairpinned Lombard St being the ‘crookedest street in the world’ (it’s not: San Fran’s own Vermont St is steeper, and the crookedest street in…

Where is it? On the Grand Union Canal Paddington Arm, about five miles west of Paddington station. What’s quirky about it? The quiet, rural-feeling canal is clearly at ground level – you think. But out of nowhere, the North Circular suddenly appears far below you: disorientated, you realise you’re on an aqueduct. Why bike there?…

Where is it? On Limehouse Cut, where the canal ducks under the A12, just before Bow Locks. What’s quirky about it? It’s Britain’s only floating towpath – it was the only solution to making a cyclable and walkable towpath under the main road.(There’s supposed to be a floating and movable towpath where the Rochdale Canal…

Where is it? The King’s Arms, a pub at 65 Newcomen St, just off Borough, a bit south of London Bridge. What’s quirky about it? Its coat of arms is the only surviving bit of the original, medieval London Bridge, the one that was always falling down or burning up. The arms come from the…

Where is it? Vauxhall Bridge, a bridge in Vauxhall. Cross over the wide, fast bridge and you’d think it’s central London’s most boring crossing. But you’re on a bike, not a bus or car, so stop and peer over the parapet. What’s quirky about it? You see eight large female figures depicting the arts and…

Where is it? 111 Cannon St, in the heart of London, which means a busy road with anonymous shops and bland modern blocks. But at least there’s a pub called The London Stone just down the road. What’s quirky about it? It’s said to be the original centre of London in Roman times: the stone…