pumpkinstrokemarrow

And here is the helpful account from TFL to prove it - a helpful account which is available more or less instantly. I suppose they started out with the intention of providing users with online access to the account and so were able to do a good job. Much harder for the people who have to graft user access on after the event.

The plan was to pay a ceremonial visit to South Molton Street, by way of homage to our recent visit to South Molton itself, although I was unable, on the train into town to make up my mind as to route, beyond thinking that I would cross Vauxhall Bridge rather than heading off into south east London. As it turned out, it was a bright sunny morning on the bridge with the river looking great in the sun, so I decided on a left turn along the embankment, not that one could see all that much of the river from there.

Got to Chelsea Bridge to be greeted by a bit of old style public sculpture (see August 30th), florid green affair which might be condemned as a touch peado if one thought to erect such a thing now, but which was quite OK at the time. Which all goes to show that calling the Victorians repressed is a bit of an over simplification. Hang a right up Flood Street and dock the Bullingdon at the junction with the King's Road, having got reasonably close to the half hour limit. Don't want to get done for an unnecessary pound after all; matter of pride. Needing to take a walk for the ten minutes or so before I would be allowed to take another bike, off down Flood Street in the other direction to see if I could get into the Chelsea Physic garden on the strength of the BH National Trust membership (they will sometimes just look you up on their computer if you don't happen to have one's card about one's person). Access denied. Problem 1 was that it did not open until noon. Problem 2 was that it turned out not to be a National Trusty place at all but another independent. They are also looking for volunteers, so maybe that would be an option when other options start to run out of puff. Ought to get a good class of volunteer at such a place. Head back north to see if I could get into Christ Church. Access denied. The lady who was watering the roses explained that they had given up opening the church because they could not muster a rota of volunteers without which there was too much theft and vandalism - and this in one of the most expensive areas of London; an entirely suitable place for the pretentious Commander Bond to have his diggings. A pity, as a subsequent read of the story of the church on their web site made it sound interesting.

Cracked on until I reached an interesting looking building called Rossetti House. Looked it up this morning to find that Rossetti had indeed lived in the area, in a house with an acre of garden, but not this one. Perhaps this one was in a corner of what had been the garden. But I do now know that its flat 3 made £1.3m last time it was on the market - so what on earth would the whole acre be worth now? Must make it to the Rossetti house proper some time soon and in the meantime I can ponder on what connection the painter might have to http://www.rossetti.com/. Perhaps it is a common enough name among Italians.

Back to the bike rack, and checked out the very same bike again and headed off to Mayfair. Round Hyde Park Corner (turning left so no big deal), up Park Lane and around Marble Arch, following the full blown route for motorised vehicles rather than taking any short cuts, east down Oxford Street until I got to Bond Street. Checked the bike back in, checked that South Molton Stret was still there and then walked down to Conduit Street, by which time I was allowed to check out another and head back to Vauxhall Cross. Good to be reminded of how much money there is in the West End in the form of expensive clothes and expensive cars. Slightly put out by the amount of traffic - including what seemed like a great many very large buses - and the number of traffic lights, but still made it to Vauxhall Cross with 6 minutes to spare. Not impressed by the fairly new DT in the bus station which there were no facilities for the drying of hands.

The fourth leg of the day's biking was from Fitzrovia south, having tubed it up to the north of town in the meanwhile. Managed to get shouted out once by a passing cyclist as I poked my nose out from between two buses, not noticing him coming up fast on the outside. Cut up once by a middle aged cyclist, younger than me that is, who cut me up on the left at some traffic lights and then proceeded to obstruct me by his slow get away at the change of lights. I forebore shouting at him. Having checked in for the last time, off to the South Bank Centre to try out the DTs there, to find that the place was full of accessible noisy activity, not the quiet and tranquil place it used to be at all. Furthermore, I could not find an unoccupied DT and what I did find only offered rather poor quality paper hand towels. All in all not very impressed with the state of DTs in top notch tourist destinations at this very important time for the disabled - a time when one might expect there to be a lot of them about. To be fair, the first time that I have not been impressed.

Closed the proceedings by buying some excellent Savoy cheese - possibly raclette - from a cheese stall next to the South Bank Centre. Also a loaf described as London White, which was not much like the white bloomers that I used to buy, not least because it was cooked for rather longer than is the custom in London, but which went down pretty well with the cheese nonetheless.