Where is it? 5 Strand Lane, off Strand/Surrey St, hidden away in a back lane and probably half a building site. What’s quirky about it? It’s a National Trust property which is the “remains of a bath – possibly Roman”. To see it, you press a light switch on the outside wall and peer in…
Author: Rob Ainsley
Quirky London 5: The oldest shopfront
Where is it? 56 Artillery Lane, in higgledy-piggledy back streets off Spitalfields Market not far from Liverpool St station. What’s quirky about it? Built in 1756, it’s said to be the oldest surviving shop front in London. Don’t know what it ever sold – top hats, probably, or lampblack or snuffboxes or vittles or something….
Quirky London 4: The oldest house
Where is it? Cloth Fair, just south of Smithfield Market. What’s quirky about it? It’s said to be the oldest surviving house in London, a miraculous survivor of the Great Fire, the Luftwaffe, and the even worse Developers. It’s been sympathetically restored quite a bit, apparently, but would be instantly recognisable to its original inhabitants…
Quirky London 3: The Giant Plug
Where is it? At the west end of Ganton St, just off Carnaby St in swinging Soho. What’s quirky about it? It’s, um, a giant plug. Maybe a reminder of those ancient days when your company’s computer was the size of a small factory, and your electricity bill the size of a round. Why bike…
Quirky London 2: Trompe l’œuil houses
Where is it? A bit north of Hyde Park. Head west from Paddington Station about half a mile to the end of the road and it’s there in front of you. What’s quirky about it? Nos 23 and 24 don’t exist, despite being decorated with proper window and door frames and balconies. The windows are…
Quirky London 1: The Flat House
This is the first in a series of route-research posts about quirky stuff in London best experienced by bike. Of course, London’s full of quaintly useless old stuff whose purpose is lost in antiquity, much of in Parliament Square. But this set is about curios that make a good target for a bike ride, and…
London: Waterlink Way
The Waterlink Way, ambling six or so miles south from Greenwich to South Norwood, is one of south London’s pleasantest leisure rides. For most of its length it runs through traffic-free parks alongside the Ravensbourne, a watercourse that can’t decide if it wants to be a stream, a river, or clump of reeds. Today was…
Copenhagen v London 5: Bikes of a different colour
Copenhagen is a superb city for real cycling – for getting from A to B on two wheels. In fact, most Copenhageners say they cycle because it’s quick and easy, not for environmental or health reasons (though they’re pleasing by-products). That happens to reflect my view, too. The Danish capital will be in the media…
Copenhagen v London 4: Not waving but turning
Copenhagen’s cyclists have a hand signal I’d not seen before. It consists of raising one hand level with the head, the palm flat and facing outwards, as if acknowledging a friend (right). At first you think people are just being sociable and waving to each other, but then you realise it’s a hand signal with…
Copenhagen v London 3: Cargo? Not by car
Cargo bikes are a much more common site in Copenhagen than in London. Denmark’s postal service for instance is keener on delivering mail by bike than Britain’s Royal Mail, which is discouraging the use of bicycles. (And, in the current round of strikes, the use of their own service altogether – though as Bike Radar…