Led Ride: Brixton Neighbourhood Ride

Brixton Neighbourhood Ride

All are welcome on this free family-friendly Neighbourhood Ride taking two to three hours to gently explore Brixton and its neighbouring area. The ride, which will mainly be on quiet streets, starts at 10.30am, with a free bike check just beforehand, in Max Roach Park (named after the jazz drummer) on the corner of Brixton Road and St John's Crescent, SW9. On the ride we'll be passing some of Brixton's fantastic and long-lasting murals, such as the 1981 'Nuclear Dawn', and following a little of the unbuilt inner London motorway that was planned in the 1960s to roar through Brixton, resulting in the Barrier Block being built. We'll also pay tribute to the Effra river (and its tributaries) which, before it was covered over, was practically navigable by boat from Brixton to the Thames at Vauxhall. We're going to rock down to 'Electric Avenue' (as Eddy Grant sang), the first shopping street to be lit by electricity, and we'll be checking out various embellishments to the buildings before passing Brixton Tate Library, with the bust outside of Sir Henry Tate - sugar magnate, philanthropist and Streatham resident. We'll gradually work our way up to the last remaining windmill in inner London (there were twelve in Lambeth alone) before heading across Blenheim Gardens (not the ones attached to Blenheim Palace, the monumental stately home in Oxfordshire). We’ll see two recently built houses, the exquisite eco-friendly Tree House and it's neighbour, a rather more imposing house that was featured on C4’s 'Grand Designs' programme. Riding on, we’ll pass the house where David Bowie, the face of the ten pound note (Brixton), lived until he was six, and will end back at Max Roach Park.