Werner’s Boxing Day Ride

And here is Wermer’s report. Especially grateful for his seasonal efforts lieading the Lights ride and this one.

Nine riders joined me at the start. One dropped out because she was inappropriately dressed, it was a bit warmer and less windy than on Christmas Day but still not a day for shorts. A hundred years ago in 1925 the winner of a competition to design a telephone kiosk was announced. It was Gilbert Scott’s proposal, the K2:https://www.britishtelephones.com/k2.htm. Deployment started in 1926, of the 1700 installed during the following years around 200 survive in London and are Grade-II listed. That’s slightly too many even for us but we managed to visit 15 in 11 locations, one each in Southwark and Islington and the others in the City:
      St Thomas’ St
      Cloak Lane
      Watling St
      Blackfriars
      Fetter Lane
      Fleet St/Bell Yard
      Carey St
      Smithfield Central Market
      Charterhouse Square
      West Smithfield
      Austin Friars

  When the “iconic” London phone kiosks are mentioned usually no distinction is made between the K2 and the K6, a smaller and lighter modification, the result of a review to make nationwide deployment
  easier and cheaper. Fortunately two locations have mixed pairs next to each other so we
  could play spot-the-difference: https://historicengland.org.uk/listing/the-list/list-entry/1209639
  and https://historicengland.org.uk/listing/the-list/list-entry/1262591  and in the futures iders will know immediately which model they encounter in the wild (and bore their companions).
  As it was a Boxing Day ride we also took advantage of a very quiet day in the City and crossed traffic-free major streets and rode some of the narrow lanes and alleys, which are not much wider than a handlebar.  Of course, it’s also panto season so a detour down College Hill to stop at Whittington House. At least one rider was surprised to discover that Dick Whittington was a real person (unlike Peter Pan and Mother Goose) although there may be some doubt about his cat. To include an authenticated feline we also stopped at a monument for a cat about whose existence there is no doubt, Dr Johnson’s Hodge in Gough Court. It currently has to share the location with a dog, one of the sculptures on the Snoopy trail in the City we crossed a few times (it was covered by a pre-Christmas healthy ride).
  A coffee stop is mandatory on Boxing Day, the impression was that there were fewer people around this year and therefore fewer open hostelries but we found one in Paternoster Square.  One rider’s mechanical problems in Gough Court had taken a bit longer to sort out but nobody insisted on getting back at 12:00 exactly so we added 10 minutes for the Christmas tree in Leadenhall Market (fortunately not as overcrowded as on a route check on the 23rd when it was packed with every influencer who filmed themselves under the artificial snow drop). Some more cobblestones up and down alleys between Cheapside and Lower Thames St before returning to the Needle.

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