Mind the gap on Blackfriars Bridge

This is the roadworks at the north end of Blackfriars Bridge.


Having the mandatory cycle lane cut down to an optional one of half-width is bad enough, especially with the line of cones - as yet unliberated by drunk students - that squeezes you right up against those lorries chugging past.


But worse, those covers they've put down have nasty gaps in between, easily big enough to swallow a cycle tyre.


Still, if you do come off your bike here, don't worry: you haven't missed out on much - the bike lane just beyond is closed anyway.

Impromptu art for free, thanks to bikes

London, expensive? Nonsense! There's masses of free events around, and the best way of skipping between them is by bike. Outside Liverpool St station on Friday night, for instance, was one of the many free outdoor concerts as part of the City of London Festival. This violin-accordion duo got a few commuters tangoing, and - thanks to the area in front of the stage being on a busy bike thoroughfare - some impromptu bike ballet too.

(There's some more organised bicycle ballet at the National Theatre's free outdoor series, Watch This Space, on Sun 20 Sep.)


We're fans of such accidental bike art. Going home from the Liverpool St gig - a circuitous affair involving more free concerts and edible tablecloths - we passed these Dutch bikes, parked with pleasing symmetry on some work-unit stairs not far from the encouragingly named Trundle St.


There was even some unintended cycle-parking sculpture on the Walworth Rd, thanks to this van-resistant bike stand near East St. Whoever made these knows what they're doing: despite a topological transformation that wasn't in the design brief, it's still rock solid. Shame they didn't install our fitted kitchen.

(And in case you're wondering about the Dunwich Dynamo... unfortunately, a bad foot meant I couldn't risk it this year. But I'll definitely definitely do it next year...)

Delivering the message about cyclist deaths

My record for participating in protests is small and eclectic. In fact, until yesterday, I'd only demonstrated twice: once against an illegal land war the Middle East, and once for more bike parking at St Pancras International.

Did these protests make any difference? Well, at St Pancras in 2007 the PR department took fright the night before the demo and installed a few stands pronto. We still invaded Iraq though. Make that 1-1, then.

But there was a small protest yesterday (right) at 4pm outside the Crown Prosecution Service in Ludgate Hill, just by St Paul's, to draw attention to the way the law conspires to protect drivers who kill cyclists. Sadly, it came at the end of a week that had seen two, possibly three, more cyclists killed on London's roads.


I was one of the thirty or so who gathered to deliver a statement to the CPS. Booksnake's Flickr page carries the full statement, photos, and more links.

The BBC recently picked up, rather belatedly, on ghost bikes: those white-bike memorials left permanently chained to railings where a cyclist was killed.

Sometimes though there are no railings or any other place to put a ghost bike, as at this spot on Queen St, just north of Southwark Bridge. Here, courier Sebastian Lukomski died in 2004 at the hands of a tipper lorry driver. He is commemorated by a brief message in yellow on the pavement (right). We passed it on the way home from Ludgate Hill.

It may take a lot more yellow and white paint before the message gets through.

Bicycle films

Here, for no particular reason, is a list of my favourite bicycle-related films.

Sliding Dawes
Gumball Raleigh
National Lampoon's Airnimal House
Ridgeback Mountain
The Gary Fisher King

Bring Me the Headset of Alfredo Garcia
Full Metal High-Visibility Jacket
Who Aluminium-Framed Roger Rabbit?
The Texas Chain Tool Massacre
Bike Lane on Elm Street
Chafing Saddles
Miller's Toucan Crossing
Reservoir Cogs
Braking Away
Cool Handlebars Luke
Bloody Taxi Driver
Return of the Pink Pannier
The Brick Lane Bicycle Thieves
Lord of the Chainrings
Gone with the Headwind
Jurassic Cycle Park

Can you do even worse than that? I look forward to seeing your suggestions. For the benefit of the dozier readers of the Guardian bike blog, these are not real film titles. They are slightly altered versions of real film titles which have had a word or words changed or added in order to make a reference to some aspect of cycles or cycling, for amusing effect. Hope that's clear.

Protest today

It's been a horrible week, with one confirmed and at least one unconfirmed killing (at London Bridge on Wednesday, possibly another on Thursday) of cyclists in London - all, with depressing predictability, women crushed by lorries turning left.

There is to be a cyclists' protest outside the Crown Prosecution Service, 50 Ludgate Hill, today at 4pm, to draw attention to the leniency shown to too many drivers involved in such slaughter.

Law-breaking TfL cabs: Something to roo

There's always quirky stuff to see as you bike round London. This jolly life-sized multicoloured marsupial was one of 20 installed round the city for the week of 24-30 June, for example, to promote tourism to Kangaroo Island in Australia. Presumably for health and safety reasons it bears the legend DO NOT CLIMB ON KANGAROO.


Or take this private hire cab last night, parked on double yellow lines by Waterloo and completely obstructing the cycle lane. It's one of 50,000 licensed by TfL to drive round like maniacs under the belief that their badge - visible at the bottom right hand corner of the rear window - allows them to ignore the rules of the road.

In contrast to the 25,000 black-cab drivers who undergo intense training and a have a licence which can be lost if they push their luck too far, the private hire boys have no training and have to pass no test. And, also unlike the taxi guys, there's no mechanism for you to complain when you see them breaking the law.

Just a thought: there's no sign saying DO NOT CLIMB ON CAR. I don't suppose cleats would do much damage to the paintwork of this driver-owned vehicle, would they?

Top-level art in a Peckham car park

On a baking hot June evening yesterday, the coolest place to be was on top of a multi-storey car park in Peckham. The stacked concrete tump is the setting for a 'sculpture park' set of artworks until 30 September: Bold Tendencies III, by the Hannah Barry Gallery.

More importantly, there is a bar at the top for that period – Frank's Cafe and Campari Bar (right) – from where you get a thrilling, and surprisingly green, panorama that sweeps across from the Houses of Parliament to the O2 dome. One of my favourites was the unexpected sight of St Paul's dome surfing majestically on top of Peckham Library (below right).


The bar's address – '10th Floor, Peckham Multi-Storey Car Park, 95a Rye Lane, Peckham'– may not be the sort coveted by Saudi oil sheikhs. But the views would be, particularly the City skyline, Gherkin and all, that you can examine at regal leisure while seated on the gents' loo.

Last night's opening had a fabulous atmosphere, with perhaps 700 people wandering the rooftop to a thrumming jazz trio, and investigating the artworks on the top three levels and trying to work out whether that solitary yellow vacuum cleaner was an artwork or just an abandoned health and safety hazard.


And, of course, the best way to enjoy it all was by bike - indeed, it seemed at least half of the attendees had stashed a bike somewhere to brighten up the park's poo-coloured strata. Everywhere you looked you saw hip, arty, attractive young cyclists. Or in our case, one out of five. But twenty per cent is probably enough to get you a B in GCSEs these days.

Anyway, cycling to Bold Tendencies III gives you the chance to cycle right up to the top of a multi-storey car park (as it's effectively disused); enjoy the views, artworks and a drink or two from Frank's Cafe; and then, rather excitingly, freewheel all the way back down the levels again to the prosaic cinema forecourt and Rye Lane's bustling mini-Brixton. On a glorious summer evening like last night it's hard to think of anything better.


The must-try drink at the top, of course, is the 'Byceclete' [sic]: an Italian cocktail consisting of Campari (which tastes much better than it does at the dentist's), ice, tonic water, and white wine (right).

According to the eponymous Frank, it's named for its popularity amongst those old boys who sit out in town squares in flat caps with their pals nattering in the sun, before charting an approximate course home by bike.

The New York Times insists the spelling is 'bicyclette'. But what do they know about hip? They clearly haven't cycled to Peckham.