Kennington takes on the City

I don't know whether the marches in London today scared the parents but today's Pedal Power Kennington trip in search of gold in the City of London had just two pupils, one regular and one whose bike we'd fixed on Monday at a Dr Bike at his school.

I'm pleased to say both pupils had a fabulous time.

Our first port of call was the Bank of England Museum to pick up a bar of gold. We arrived within their opening hours but they had locked the doors early to prevent us (or anyone else) from entering, apparently out of their fear that the students' march today turning nasty. There were an incredible number of police throughout the city though we saw no students.

With the bank shut to its customers we decided to nip down to the Monument, where the staff were pleased to see us and let us in. The views from the top of the 311 step tower are fantastic

I got a little nervous on the spiral staircase three quarters of the way up when I saw this sign

We managed to make our way down safely and were given certificates

We then moved on to One New Change which has a wonderful view of the adjacent St Paul's Cathedral from its roof terrace

We then meandered past more van loads of police to see the tranquil tent city (where my photographic skills deserted me), before returning to Lambeth via Southwark Bridge and the superficial highway 7.

Dead curious and curious dead things

Yesterday's Pedal Power Kennington Ride, on All Soul's Day, saw us reflecting on the dead, our version of Dia de los Muertos / Day of the Dead.

Our first port of call, in the nick of time before the 5pm closure, was the Grant Museum of Zoology. This is a fabulous, free museum which houses not one, but two sets of Dodo bones - they're scarce given that the bird became extinct around 1700, following the Dutch arriving in 1638 in the birds' island home of Mauritius.

We then hopped on our bikes for a quick ride to the British Museum to check out the Egyptian Mummies, c2686 BC-AD 395, before that museum shut at 5.30pm. (photo by Klafubra, under Creative Commons)

From the British Museum we headed back to UCL to see the Auto-Icon: a wooden cabinet containing the preserved skeleton of philosopher and jurist Jeremy Bentham (1748 - 1832), dressed in his own clothes and nowadays with a wax head - the original being looked after in a safe! 

On our journey home we happened upon a projection on, I think, the University of London in Malet Street. We were dead curious, but didn't have time to find out more.

Next week, all things being equal, we're be going with the pupils to The Monument and to the Bank of England to pick up a bar of gold.

Lawn Tennis, Mozart, Fossils and Kayaks

Today's Pedal Power Kennington was, by request, to Chelsea. We nipped over Lambeth Bridge, past the home of the Major who wrote the rules of Lawn Tennis to the new Pimlico Academy (stopping to admire their climbing wall), and then just south of Sloane Square where we admired the house Mozart lived in when he wrote his first symphony.

Next stop was a shop specialising in crystals and 140,000,000 year old fossils, selling for £220,000!

We went past the Royal Hospital for the Chelsea Pensioners and turned to cycle down the Kings Road, stopping for some chips from McDonalds. We made our way down to the Thames at Battersea Bridge and took the lovely shared use pavement along the river past Albert Bridge to Chelsea Bridge where we admired the Kayakers in the small dock, before making our way back on Cycling Superhighway 8 to Lambeth Bridge and home. It was quite a long ride for our Year 6 cyclists, coping with some proper London traffic at dusk. They did really well.

From small acorns..

We had a small Pedal Power Kennington ride today with four pupils (three regulars, one new). We cycled over Waterloo Bridge to Covent Garden, for the Apple store, market and street entertainers. Then over to the law courts and chambers (unfortunately Ede and Ravenscroft were shut so we couldn't ask to try on a judge's wig). Returning via Blackfriars Bridge, one moment we were hemmed in by taxis, cars and vans, the next we were a small group amidst the thousand plus cyclists attending the LCC Flashride. The children were gobsmacked. I suspect there'll be more attending the next ride!

Bike the Borough last Sunday

It was a gloriously sunny day to cycle through Lambeth enjoying Archbishops Park, Clapham Common, Tooting Common, Brockwell Park, Myatts Field Park, Kennington Park and the South Bank.

While more than the first year, numbers participating in Bike the Borough aren't yet huge - the maximum in our group was about 20 at any time, so I'd reckon maybe two or three hundred people did all or part of the route.

It's a delight to discover parts of Lambeth you've never seen before. I found two blue plaques I hadn't seen before and as I headed for home from Archbishops Park I passed a railway arch lock up  and noticed this submersible used in the filming of BBC's The Deep (2010):

WOW what a great ride and visit

Pedal Power Kennington had been looking forward to today's ride for months, ever since I'd found out it is possible for a group to go up the 334 steps of the Palace of Westminster Clock Tower and see Big Ben strike the hour!

It's something very few people get the chance to do....and it's free at the moment (though an entrance charge is in the offing)! You have to write a letter of request to your MP and they can ask the authorities to arrange the visit for up to 16 people (a big thanks to Kate Hoey, our MP. You then send your list of people and other details about them to the authorities two weeks before the visit to get police clearance, and roll up at the appointed time on the day.

The tour is brilliant, but you're not allowed to take photos so you'll have to book your own tour (or, for a sub-prime experience, watch it online ) .

What made the trip even better for our group is that most of us live or go to school within sound of the bells, plus about half the group were born in St Thomas' Hospital directly opposite - the first photo of my daughter has the clock face in the background.

We had a quick practice ride, then set off as it started to rain. We went over Lambeth Bridge and, being in good time, went along the Mall to Buckingham Palace before cycling to Parliament Square and parking our bikes on the racks outside Portcullis House.

After the tour it was straight over Westminster Bridge (past the first Ice Cream van of the year parked and trading in the bus and cycle lane on the red route) and back to Kennington. Not a long ride but a great afternoon out that we'll remember for a long time to come.

A small but wonderful group ride

Pedal Power Kennington had a gentle ride down the northbank of the Thames to Chelsea Bridge, went over it and mosied around Battersea Park before taking the south bank back via the Tideway houseboat village

 stopping by the MI6 building to scavenge the foreshore which yielded a tasty coconut we enjoyed eating at the end of the ride.