Where to park your bike securely in Central London

 

Free bike parking with security cameras

The City of London car parks provide secure parking free for bicycles (and motorcycles)  

Baynard House near Blackfriars EC4V 4BQ:  Free for bikes, 24h security, humans on site - extra bike racks outside glass fronted security office, accessible toilet (according to the Facebook group London Cycling)

Another recommended one is near the Barbican on London Wall ​EC2V 5DY which is an underground car park.

Other City of London car parks which provide free secure parking for bicycle are:

Minories E1 8LP

Smithfield EC1A 9DS

Tower Hill EC3R 6DT

For more information: https://www.cityoflondon.gov.uk/services/parking/motorcycles-and-bicycles

Paid for secure bike parking 

This has been recommended on another websites:  https://www.spokesafe.com 

Some locations include lockers, repair stations, pumps and charging points for ebikes

Exmoor August Bank Holiday weekend

We stayed at Base Lodge (a grade II listed Victorian house) located close to Exmoor and the South West Coast path.

Exmoor is ideal for walking, mountain biking, wildlife spotting and other outdoor adventures. There is a wide range of landscape types within walking distance: coastal, woodland and moorland, and traditional pretty rural villages.  

The walks included Minehead to Porlock via Dunkery Beacon - lots of colour on Exmoor and some excellent views and a very pretty circular walk from Minehead via the picturesque village of Selworthy.

Check out the gorgeous photos from this weekend 

Time for a Walk – Evening Walks for 2017

As British Summer Time approaches, it’s about time to spend some summer evenings outside.

In these brief histories of time, we will cross London in search of ways to track the passing of the days. So unwind, and spend a little time with Clog. These are walks when you won’t need to ask what the time is, because we will pass the time every now and then. Though I don’t guarantee either that all the clocks will be working or that there will be sun enough for sundials.

So expect sundials, clocks of all shapes and sizes, bells, and even a street where the night watchman used to tell the time on the hour. We will pass the randiest clock in Soho, follow a unique trail of 11 sundials, find where bells were made until this year, see Winston Churchill’s face in mid-clock, find the watchmaking district of London, and go to the home of time itself to discover why time is mean.

Some clocks do more than display the hours and minutes. The walks will be timed to take advantage. So expect bells that ring tunes, a couple of giants striking the quarter hours, and Mr Fortnum and Mr Mason doing their hourly exercise. Of course we will have to arrive on time to catch these moments.

The walks will normally begin between 6 o’clock and 7 o’clock, after the walk we may stay for a drink until a pub landlord calls ‘Time Please’.

More details for each walk, including meeting times and places, will come out a few weeks ahead of the walk, by email and on the calendar.



Dave



Provisional Timetable – dates and routes may well change:



The Times they are a-changing – newspapers over time – East from Temple Wed 5 April

Telling the time by bells and stars - Stepney Green to Liverpool St Tue 25 April

South London’s Sundial Trail – Forest Hill to Dulwich May

Time for a little luxury – Westminster to Marble Arch May

Clocks in the City – St Pauls to Tower Hill June

Station clocks and Railway time – Kings Cross area June

The home of time – Blackheath to Greenwich July

The clock and watch industry – Chancery Lane to Farringdon July

A riverside sundial sunset stroll – Richmond to Twickenham August

Imaginative timepieces – Oxford Circus to Temple August

Don't forget to follow us on social media


   / 

Go with the Flow - Evening Walks for 2016

You can lead a horse to water.....or maybe to Sadler’s Wells.

So to follow last summer’s horse-drawn London walks, there will be a series of evening walks on the theme of water in London: water for life and water for pleasure. Geology, engineering and entertainment as we take in the remains and sites of London’s watery history, and the more decorative water features of today.

Expect to hear about and see most of aqueducts, reservoirs, springs, wells, spas, public baths, water towers, fountains, watergates, pumps and pumping stations, lost and new rivers. Learn about cholera and epidemiology – presume the first time that word has made it into a Clog email. Discover where free water was dispensed outside Tesco’s. Enjoy the lavish Victorian architecture of the water industry. Learn about the protectionist behaviour of the Honourable Company of Water Tankard Bearers. See the Devil’s Conduit.

A word to manage expectations. Apart from the New River, most of these walks won’t follow riversides. Much of London’s water history has been buried or replaced as water supply has become safer over the years. So sometimes there’s not much to see but the stories are worth hearing. The leader will bring along some old pictures and maps of how things were. But he will also try to include other London ephemera on some of the routes – Charlie Chaplin’s garden, a former Catholic friary, the Cinema Museum in a workhouse......

The detailed programme is still to be finalised but will include:

Tuesday 26 April -  Water in the City: London’s first lost river

Thursday 21 April - Chelsea Waterworks – from reservoir to source

Wednesday 4 May - Streatham Wells and around

The 17th century New River

Backwaters of Lambeth

Wells, Spas and Reservoirs of Hampstead

All dates are provisional at this stage; dates for the others will follow later. The leader will send out more details of the first walk before Easter.

A few other possibilities are being researched and he will schedule these later in the summer. Woodberry Wetlands is scheduled to open in the spring; if it’s open in the evening we will try to visit. 

Currently there are no plans for water polo, tap dancing or similar events but the year is yet young....

Park in the Dark walks

Coming soon - a series of guided evening walks in the Royal Parks, an opportunity to have a heightened sensory experience - sounds and smells with distant lights and views

These walks will be on Tuesday evenings:

• The Green Park - 26 January
• St James's Park - 2 February
• Hyde Park - 9 February
• Bushy Park - 23 February
• Greenwich Park - 1 March
• Richmond Park - 8 March
• Regent's Park & Primrose Hill - 15 March
• Kensington Gardens - 22 March