The other day I was on about the bike parking space provided in new flats being terrible. One commenter, who clearly knows more about rules and regs than me, suggested the requirements on newbuild were actually pretty good.
Hmm. Well, if yesterday was anything to go by, I was generous in my assessment. We were out visiting, up in Islington, near Clissold Park. And this (right) was the hallway of the recently-built flats in Myddleton St. On our visit there were ten bikes there, and this isn't unusual.
The pokey cupboard just visible to those with good eyes at the right of the bottom picture is, apparently, 'the bike parking'. You can just about get two bikes into it, though you could probably stretch that to three if you could persuade residents to commute by unicycle instead.
There's nothing outside you can lock anything to, though there are several car spaces immediately outside (not all used). Turning over just one of them would have provided secure parking for all of these bikes. If this is line with rules and regs, then the rules and regs are clearly not good enough.Great fun for the kids who live there, though, who have a ready-made set of climbing frames, and don't therefore need to go to Clissold Park.
Now, Islington kids are brighter than average, like all kids. So, on the basis that some of them will fulfil their promise and grow up to be architects, developers and politicians, let's hope those formative clambering experiences will encourage them to make things better in future.
