• Ride 1. Cunning Cover-ups: London’s Best-hidden Ventilation Shafts. 
• Ride 2. Parks and Hills and a Cemetery

Cunning Cover-ups: London’s Best-hidden Ventilation Shafts. 

A rather unusual topic for a ride, devised by JohnS who led the ride. It proved very popular with 17 riders taking part. Below is John’s report and photos of the 10 cover-ups visited plus a set of notes about each in a downloadable file.

We set off from Canada Water just after 10am on a nice clear morning, sixteen riders heading for our first target on Culling Road, a huge green structure designed by Ian Richie to ventilate the Jubilee Line below. Then onwards through Victoria Park to join the quietway to Albany Road at Burgess Park, where we saw a standard Victorian era sewer pipe, its elaborate decorated metalwork sadly eroded over time. Then on through the wonderfully quiet Urlwin Street and so to Kennington, and Vauxhall Bridge. At Pimlico tube station we admired the metal structure designed by Eduardo Paolozzi for London Underground in 1982, before wending our way to Hyde Park. To the north-west of the park we entered Leinster Gardens to inspect nos 23 and 24, their fine frontages intact but with empty space behind, the houses having been demolished to provide ventilation for the Metropolitan line on its construction in 1863. We wandered round the block to Porchester gardens to see the empty space in the terrace, and some of our hardier members risked life and limb to stick their phones high in the air over the wall, capturing a picture of a passing train on the rails below.

It was time for coffee, and we sat peacefully by the Serpentine for half an hour before moving on to Wellington Arch, one side of which was gutted of its contents in the 1958-62 reconstruction of the site, to provide an emergency ventilation shaft for the underpass below. And so onwards, now moving across, we hoped, to the river at Westminster Bridge … but no. Police directed us away from the protest venue at Parliament Square, and we cut across directly, via Trafalgar Square, to our next site by the Law Courts in the Strand. There we admired the five-lamp cast iron post that serves a double function, providing ventilation for the public toilets below. Next to St Paul’s: in Paternoster Square we saw the wonderful fluted column in the centre, with its pineapple top, which provides ventilation for an underground service road. Just to the left, we were, alas, stopped by a new temporary barrier from entering the side street to examine the gigantic Thomas Heatherwick structure, a magnificent way of ventilating an electric power station below. We had to satisfy ourselves with a partial view from the alleyway’s opening, but that was enough, as we were now moving

onwards to Finsbury Circus, to see the squat obelisk that commemorates George Dance , who laid out the Finsbury Estate in the 1770s, but which is in fact a very recent construction, dating from 1999, whose modest role is to ventilate an underground gas tank. And finally to the Bank of England, there to see the statue of James Henry Greathead, the engineer who designed the first tunnelling machine for the Underground, and whose memorial provides a ventilation shaft for Bank Station below.

We ended our ride at London Bridge, all sixteen riders still present. There we parted, with just five riders choosing to return all the way to our point of departure at Canada Water.

Thank you, Angela, for volunteering to be our back rider…great to have you (back) with Healthy Rides!

More photos of the Leinster Gdns mock house.

Parks and Hills and a Cemetery

14 riders for this quiet ride with Bruce leading. Meandered slowly up through Pekham Rye Common and Park, then across Nunhead and down to Sevenoaks Rd. Rather than do the usual and ride direct to Ladywell Fields we turned right at Crofton Park Rd and cycled up the not too steep gradient to Blythe Hill Fields. Not a space we visit very often, just that, an open space, with spendid views north to Canary Wharf and the City. A steep downhil path and roads took us to Ladywell Fields and the Ravnsbourne River. Took Nat route 21 (Waterlink Way) for a short distance before turning off just before the footbridge over the railway. Following a route past the Ladywell Water Tower wee soon at Brockley and Ladywell Cemeteries, these days just one cemetery. Made a short loop on the quiet pths in the cemetery then out and across to Hilly Fields. This path up the hill is steep so most walked – not porblem as quite short. At the top the reward – a hill top cafe. Had a decent break for refreshments before taking a long downhil route to Brookmill Park, again meeting the Ravensburne River. From here headed back to Peckham using initially Cycleway 10, then Bridgehouse Meadows, Brimmington Park and Meeting House Lane. Back safely and on time. Route map at https://www.google.com/maps/d/edit?mid=1TYwOGhEJ3S8IFaz_LjyAn2vibRnieig&usp=sharing

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