Where is it? Trafalgar Square, Strand, and ultimately to Arnold Circus.
What's quirky about it? It's Strand Ley, one of the many lines of mystical forces across London and Britain identified by Alfred Watkins. He noticed that whenever there were two points of great, ancient spiritual significance - Glastonbury Tor, say, or Lord's - they were always connected by a straight line. Which can't be a coincidence.
Why bike there? Can't you feel the force?
Where is it?Between Page's Walk and Mandela Way, off the northern end of Old Kent Road, on a triangular patch of grass.
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 good martial arts training. It ends up at stylish Peckham Library: half book repository, half Stirling Prize winner, half surfboard. At its north end, this bit of cyclable canal turns west into Burgess Park, site of the old canal basin, and the tarmac cycle path has an odd bridge-from-nowhere-to-nowhere (right) going over it.
Where is it? Greenwich observatory, in the park overlooking the old naval college - but possibly not quite where you think.| Except it's not the GPS zero. The line shown by the observatory is the 1884 meridian; today's zero, at least the one that your GPS will show as 0.0000 longitude, is a hundred metres east in the park (map, right: the marked line is in blue, the GPS zero line is in red). | View Larger Map |
Why bike there? Greenwich is a lovely, mostly traffic-free, bike ride along the Thames path. In the park, it's a nice ride up to the observatory for that view . You can see the splendour of the old Naval College, now home to Trinity College of Music, with the blocks of Canary Wharf behind and, over to the east, the exoskeleton of the O2 dome.
Why bike there? Calm, delightful, traffic-free canalside cycling from touristy St Kat's Dock to... well, as far as Paddington or Birmingham, if you want (see Quirky London 10). The Ornamental Canal has a trim, Dutch new-build feel to it. 
Why bike there? The ride here from Paddington along the towpath is traffic-free and pleasant, going past Notting Hill. You might just see David Cameron or Madonna on a bike, but more likely some Polish blokes sitting on a bench with cans of lager.
Where is it? On Limehouse Cut, where the canal ducks under the A12, just before Bow Locks. 
Why bike there? It's a relaxing and pleasant trundle up the towpath from St Katherine's Dock, by London Bridge, along the ornamental canal, over Limehouse Basin and up the Cut. 
The arms come from the bridge's southern gatehouse, and were added on to the medieval bridge in the 1728. (Presumably that '1760 GIIIR' stuff is a later addition.) That bridge was replaced by a new one in the 19th century, which was in turn taken up brick by brick and shipped to Arizona, and replaced with the concrete bore we know and do not sing about today.
One holds a palette and a little sculpture of a person (right, who may be holding an even littler sculpture of a person, etc, in a Borges-style recursion). The best is Miss Architecture 1906, who holds a model of St Paul's Cathedral (top right). 
What's quirky about it? It's said to be the original centre of London in Roman times: the stone to which all distances in Britannia were measured. Things are more modern now, of course: we have a horse's bum to mark that (see Quirky London 20). It's been moved around quite a bit over the centuries and nobody's quite sure how old or original it is, and to be honest one stone looks much like another. 
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 through a grimy window with a grille. You'll see something like the picture on the right (nicked from Wikipedia), or possibly just a grimy window and a grille. Apparently you can make an appointment with Westminster Council on 020 7641 5264 to view it, free, though don't say you're going by bike: they're a bit anti that sort of thing.
Why bike there? Cloth Fair (right) is a pioneering bike contraflow street, so you can legally ride the wrong way up a one way street. The ancient church of St Bartholomew opposite does some funny bun-throwing stuff every Good Friday. 
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 only painted on (right), because there's nothing behind: the 'houses' sit over an Underground railway. Like so much in London, they're just a facade.
Why bike there? 
Anyway, it was a very agreeable evening, and it was good to chat to Dani and his PR genie Tyler, both thoroughly good company. Upmarket retro fixies or SSs are probably not for me, but there'll be plenty of people with a whizzy job in the City who want an off-the-shelf piece of kit as cool as these. One stylish young lady there had had her bike built in black and pink, to match one of her outfits.
Mind you, it was pretty obvious that this was a bikey event. There were several attractive and dashing young people of either sex, sometimes both, and there was some beady-eyed, nudge-nudge slavering going on - all of it over the bikes, on display on the launch-party cafe walls, though.
After all, its natural space is being eroded, it's under constant attack, and though it seems to be thriving in some areas, overall its numbers are struggling. As cyclists we know the feeling. 
One of our favourites is this one (right) at City Hall. Peer inside through its portholes, and you see a plastic melange of London architecture, roamed by more elephants.
It's still Britain's most famous best-kept cycling secret: an annual ride of 200km through a full-moon July night from London to the Suffolk coast along with about 500 other people. 
This is the 18th DD, so it's come of age. Now it can go out and do irresponsible things, such as go to the pub, or vote.
The Fair Trade festival offers a range of activities highlighting the organisation's activities, such as Hook-a-Banana (like hook a duck, only more equitable) and banana jousting (so you can have fight after one too many at the bar and still get one of your five a day). And various free samples. Which is fair enough.
It's being hacked up as part of the preparation for the two Cycle Superhighways opening this summer. Cable St will be part of CS3, Barking to Tower Gateway.
But don't worry, the works are only temporary. The sign there tells us they'll be finished by Friday 7 May. 
