Celebrating 30 years since Camden High Street

Ride meets at 12pm, leaves at 1pm

A larger than usual crowd of approximately 800 to a thousand cyclists showed up on the South Bank for this evening’s ride. regular riders put out a leaflet asking the crowd if they would go to Stamford Hill to paint a new bike white for Stephanie Turner, who had been killed at the location exactly 10 years previously. A vigil had taken place before 10 years ago, which had been organised by a group called Stop Killing Cyclists. A white bike had been put in place where Stephanie was killed but drunk vandals had destroyed the original bike. The replacement needed painting.

The ride left at 7:30 and went north across blackfriars Bridge. A group of suspected phone thieves joined the ride on black friars Bridge. The ride then stopped on farrington Street at the junction with charterhouse Street and the word was put around that they were on the ride. After a few minutes they left shooting off on their e-bikes north on farrington Street and were not seen again for the rest of the ride. This was really great to see as leaflets have been put out for the last year warning people of their potential presence on the ride, and to slow down and stay together, listen out and talk to each other, in case they try to infiltrate the ride. By raising people’s awareness of the gangs through the flyers, people are aware that the ride doesn’t necessarily have to keep moving all the time.

The ride started again and began heading up towards angel Islington. When the ride is larger it takes longer to pass through junctions, and there were several instances of car drivers losing their patience and becoming very aggressive with riders corking junctions, including one incident where an SUV driver got out near upper Street and assaulted one of the sound system riders.

The ride stayed together very cohesively all the way to Stamford Hill. At the location the replacement bike for Stephanie Turner was sprayed white, flowers and photos replaced on the bike, and the footpath was sprayed with the words RIP and NOT FORGOTTEN.

After a stop of approximately 15 minutes, the ride moved off again when the police arrived. The ride then handed east towards the northern end of Stoke Newington, and then headed back towards tower Bridge, following the main road down past Liverpool Street station. This is a long straight drag, but the ride stopped numerous times at large junctions so that people behind could catch up.

The ride circumvented a traffic jam near Monument instead of filtering between the traffic, (again an improvement on previous behaviour!) and instead crossed over southwark bridge, and then heading East again on the South Bank before finishing up at potter’s Fields.

This evening’s ride commemorated the tenth anniversary of when CM London visited the Caledonian Road in 2015, where 15 year old Alan Cartwright was murdered in a knife attack by a bike thief. Two other cycling groups, The Fixed Pirates Crew, and Bikestormz, also joined in with the ride this evening, as a statement against knife crime.

About 600 riders set off and first visited the Caledonian Road, heading towards the City and then north from the Old Street roundabout. At the Cally pool where Alan Cartwright was killed, riders erected a banner and lit distress smoke flares. The banner said “Bikes Up, Knives Down / Bikestormz, Fixed Pirates, Critical Mass / United Against Knife Crime”. Alan’s family was not in attendance due to a quiet family gathering but sent their immense gratitude to riders coming back after to long to remember Alan’s awful death. The ride stopped for about twenty minutes and then moved on. Detectives from the Met Police were in attendance but kept their distance away from the banner and memorial.

The second stop for the ride was on Tufnell Park Road, outside the home of Mohamed Abdi Noor, aka Blanco, who had been murdered in a knife attack near the junction of Holloway Road. Blanco was an active member of the Pirates and had been on several CM rides before his murder. He was only 21. At this stop, friends of Blanco spoke on the microphone and talked about what a fantastic person he was. Three members of his family then spoke, talking about their anguish from what had happened, their voices breaking as they talked. They were overwhelmed with emotion, as the riders three-cheered for Blanco and then made as much noise as possible with their bells and horns and voices.

The third stop was at the south east corner of the outer circle of Regents Park, having ridden along the eastern side of the park. This was in response to recent morning incidents with cyclists in the park, where thieves on motorbikes had been using hammers and knives to threaten riders for their bikes. The ride stopped for about fifteen or twenty minutes here, and then moved on.

The ride headed back south, down towards Holborn, and then east via St Pauls, then London Bridge, and finished in the small park opposite Hop Kingdom, where the Fixed Pirates were having a raffle prize draw as a fundraiser for one of their riders Laura, who has been diagnosed with terminal cancer. The pirates there raised the banner above their heads to more cheers from the crowd as the tickets were drawn. The police came to ask for the noise to be dropped down, and then left shortly afterwards.

A larger than usual crowd for a January ride assembled on the Southbank, on a dry evening but with the ground underfoot still damp from rain earlier in the day. Many of the initial attendees were on Lime or Santander hire bikes in groups of 3 or 4, possibly as “new year’s resolution” riders to come and see CM for the first time. A popular video circulating on a social media platform documenting the various rides of 2024 may also have been a factor in getting new people along.

In mid-January a 22 year old man was killed in Stratford on a busy section of the High Street, near the Waterworks River bridge. Leaflets were handed out at the start of the ride asking people if they would consider travelling to this location, to install a white bike as a tribute to the unnamed fallen rider. The other side of the leaflet warned attendees to be aware of the potential of phone thieves in balaclavas infiltrating the ride. Thankfully they were not present again this month.

The ride headed south first, avoiding the traffic in the west end, towards the Bricklayers Arms and then north across Tower Bridge to travel east through Whitechapel. Despite this being a long straight drag out to Stratford, the ride stayed reasonably well together, and stopped intermittently to let others behind catch up. By the time the ride had arrived in Stepney, almost all of the casual / first time rider groups had individually peeled off and headed back to central London. Whitechapel High Street is unappealing to cycle on with friends, and casual riders would likely not have wanted to travel all the way to zone 3.

The ride went up and over the Bow roundabout flyover, and after a bit of confusion with some riders stopping at the greenway path, the ride ended up at the junction where the young rider had been killed two weeks previously. A locked bike acquired by CM participants was sprayed white, with red smoke distress beacons lit up. People living in flats and the guests in the adjacent Holiday Inn looked on from their windows and applauded as the riders chanted “Whose streets? Our streets!” and rang their bicycle bells and hornits.

After about fifteen minutes at the junction, backing up the traffic, the ride then headed north on Carpenter’s Road, travelling through the Olympic area and then into Hackney Wick, then travelling back towards Potters Fields (where the ride ended) via Mare Street, Bethnal Green Road, Shoreditch, and then across London Bridge. The rest of the ride passed without incident. The number of riders with large backpack mounted speakers has increased, likely after the post-Christmas sales, so the ride is rarely without loud music any more.

A fun ride around a mostly deserted London, for a Friday night, with some older faces from the past appearing on the ride. Uneventful, other than everyone just getting on famously and having a good time – a great way to end what has been a decent year for CM London. Roll on 2025!

The ride left Southbank at 7.35. A smaller crowd than usual of about 400 riders appeared on the Southbank as the dark kicked in. The ride headed south down Waterloo Road towards St George’s Circus and Elephant and Castle, first of all, stopping repeatedly for people to catch up for perhaps a bit too long at each junction, causing some frustration for riders.

The ride headed down Walworth Road, turning left down Thurlow Street, heading through the Aylesbury Estate and again stopping for a while at the northern side of Burgess Park. The ride then stopped again at the junction of the Old Kent Road getting temporarily lost and misdirected going down Mandela Way, which opened out onto a one-way-only exit onto the Old Kent Road, with barriers impeding progress, forcing the riders to mount the path towards Tower Bridge Road.

The ride then headed north via Bermondsey Street with people filming and… cheering as the ride headed up this narrow street, which was busy with drinkers on a Friday evening. At the northern end of Bermondsey Street, the ride stopped again. Reportedly, a phone was stolen outside London Bridge Station by three phone thieves in Balaclavas.

The ride crossed London Bridge and headed north up Bishopsgate, where three phone thieves in Balaclavas were spotted and turned left along London Wall. three or four city police officers had joined the ride and the phone thieves disappeared.

The ride continued to head west towards New Oxford Street via Holborn and headed all the way to Oxford Circus, turning south down Regent Street after a stop at Oxford Circus, passing through the Christmas lights and ending then at Trafalgar Square after a relatively short two hours duration.

Grey skies and light rain finally cleared about an hour before Mass rolled out at 7:30pm, in complete darkness as the winter draws in and the clocks due to go back the following night. The crowd of about 4 to 5 hundred rolled south first of all, avoiding Waterloo Bridge which usually ends up splitting the Mass, then doubling back at St Georges Circus and heading north over Blackfriars Bridge. Being the Halloween ride, many people had brought costumes and props along. There were skeletons, a ghost nun, the Mario Brothers, and various horror film characters in attendance.

The pace of the ride was medium rather than slow, and there was a bit of filtering happening rather than waiting for the traffic to clear and move on – but at several points the car traffic was immoble (for other reasons like roadworks and Friday night congestion) so the riders squeezed through the gaps. This strings the Mass out but the leaders of the ride (usually younger wheelie riders) are slowly getting better at stopping and waiting for the ride to catch up from behind. There were a few older kids & younger teenagers on the ride accompanied by parents, riders on longboards, and again a hand cranked wheelchair rider along with the usual bicycles and electric unicycles.

The ride went east through the southern part of the City and then out to Whitechapel, then heading north and turning back west towards Shoreditch. Near Aldgate a coach driver had mistimed their turn and was wedged stuck at a junction, blocking the road to the Mass – which eventually riders just had to go around the back of via the path.

Unusually at Shoreditch High Street, the ride turned north and continued up the long straight drag, through Dalston, then Stoke Newington, then up to Stamford Hill, and just kept heading north towards the eastern side of Finsbury Park, then past the Harringay Ladder, through Hornsey, then Wood Green, and finally finishing up at the Alexandra Palace.

It is very rare that the ride would go this far north, especially later into the evening. Normally the ride would head back to central London. Anyone who stayed on to the end was rewarded with a pit stop – after a long climb! – with fantastic views of London at night from the top of the hill. There were two groups at the end of the ride – one nearer the top of the hill. People were tired after the climb and there did not seem to be much impetus to gather the ride up and head back to central en masse, so eventually most people drifted off home individually or in small groups and there was no large group heading back to the usual finish points of Tower Bridge or Southbank or the Leake St. Tunnel.

It had been raining constantly for the two days in advance of today’s ride, but thankfully, by midday on Friday, the rain had stopped and the streets had begun to dry up. A smaller-than-usual crowd of between 500 and 600 riders gathered on the south bank. A BMX trick and stunt rider entertained the gathering crowd underneath Waterloo Bridge, dressed as a jester with spirals and paint on his BMX.

The ride left south bank at 7:30pm and headed south towards Elephant and Castle roundabouts, stopping at traffic lights and waiting for the rear to catch up, keeping the bloc of riders fairly consistent, The ride then headed out south, passing by Kennington Park, again stopping and waiting quite well at large junctions for people behind to catch up and move off as a block again. There was also a nice diversity on the ride, including some families with children, recumbents, and a handcrank-driven wheelchair.

Leaflets were handed out at the start of the evening, asking people to stay together and not to filter through traffic lights. As the nights draw in and it gets darker, in the past the ride has also been infiltrated by phone thieves. The other side of the leaflet warned people about their potential presence on the ride again during the winter.

The ride then took the eastern fork at Kennington and headed down towards Brixton. The ride went as far south as St Matthews Church, and then young wheelie riders looped back around the triangular junction the way the ride came, straight into traffic, filtering between cars. This filtering continued pretty much all the way back up towards the Kennington Junction, where eventually the ride stopped and waited for everyone to recombine.

The ride drifted back towards central London via Little Portugal, stopping again occasionally where the BMX trick rider entertained the waiting crowds. The younger wheelie riders charged on ahead near Lambeth North station, but the remainder of the ride stopped and waited for everyone to catch up, and the fast riders were gone from the ride. The bloc then headed across Westminster Bridge and along the embankment, finishing unusually at St Paul’s Cathedral on the steps. where people socialised for longer than usual.

The ride left the Southbank at 7:30pm as it usually does these days, with about 800 riders in attendance. The weather was good and again with the summer months, there were a lot of newer and first-time riders there, including groups of teenagers still off school. Unusually, the ride turned right coming out of “Theatre Avenue” and did not head up the slope towards the IMAX roundabout, instead going under Waterloo bridge and south on Belvedere Road, then halting in Chicheley Street to regroup and bunch up before heading out on to the A3200. This was actually better in some ways to start moving the ride off into car traffic than the slope and the IMAX roundabout, which is a narrow road and strings out the Mass as it only gets started. There were no City Of London Police in attendance for this ride, compared to the previous two months. There were also no phone thieves trying to inflitrate the ride.

The ride headed in a large bloc through the Vauxhall gyratory, whooping and cheering coming out of the rail tunnel and travelling down Nine Elms Lane towards the old Battersea Power Station. This is a long straight stretch, and as the road opened up ahead, a group of younger riders accelerated off the front of the ride. As the road narrowed past the south western corner of Battersea Park, these riders squeezed between the stopped cars ahead, with others following them. This meant the ride got separated into multiple sections, with car traffic in amongst the ride.

After about 1.5km of this “filtering”, some older riders were able to stop the ride, and allow it to recombine into a single group again, before heading down towards the Wandsworth roundabout. For the remainder of the ride, there was no more filtering through stopped traffic, corking of large junctions was effective, and the ride regularly paused at major intersections to allow the riders behind to catch up with the front, so the Mass moved off safely together without allowing people to drop off the back.

The ride continued to head south west but then turned up towards Putney, and crossed the river at Putney Bridge into Fulham. The riders then piled en masse into Eel Brook Common for its customary midway stop for about half an hour. The “Goldfinger Soundsystem” bike was in attendance on the ride and some riders were dancing in the common as the DJs took turns to play some tracks. This affluent part of the city would be unaccustomed to Critical Mass visiting, and residents nearby came out to their doors making phone calls, with one walking through the stopped riders. The Police arrived very shortly afterwards in a van and a car, but then left again without any sort of contact.

The ride then headed back towards central, avoiding Kensington and Chelsea, travelling back in along the embankment, and turning back towards south across Chelsea Bridge when roadworks impeded sensible progress for the ride. The ride then retraced its steps heading northbound in through Battersea, finishing up at the steps of Potters Fields next to Tower Bridge.

The ride left Southbank at 7:30 as it usually does these days. Between seven and eight hundred riders assembled, with many friends and colleagues of Matheus Piovesan in attendance, who had been killed at the start of the month in Shadwell. A report from the Evading Standards summarised this part of the ride:

“Friends of Mr Piovesan and cycling activists from Critical Mass London unveiled the ghost bike – an old bike spray-painted white – on Friday evening near the location he was hit. An estimated 800 people were present at the event, which was part-protest and part celebration of his life. An earlier celebration had been held by his friends in Victoria Park on July 7, the day following his death.

Brazilian friends of Mr Piovesan had contacted Critical Mass riders via social media, and asked for support to mark the passing of their friend. He was from Rio Grande do Sul in Brazil and had been living in London for more than five years. He was a journalist and music producer, with a regular show on Brixton Radio, and also a keen leisure cyclist. He lived with friends in Limehouse and was returning home from central London after working a shift in a brewery at the time of the crash.

The Critical Mass ride headed to Shadwell, where friends and family of Mr Piovesan had gathered. The crowd paused in Cannon Street Road, and occupied the length of the narrow street. Car traffic on this section of the street is usually fast moving, coming off the nearby A1203, but there are no calming measures on the road as it approaches the residential area and the first-generation CS3 “cycle superhighway” on Cable Street.

A bike donated by community bicycle shop Babyldn Bikes was locked to the fence adjacent to where Mr Piovesan had been killed. Cargo bike riders carrying mobile sound systems played his favourite music, as his friends spray painted the bike white and adorned it with colourful glitter. As the “ghost bike” was being spray-painted, nearby residents watching out of their windows applauded. Mr Piovesan’s ex partner addressed the crowd, thanking them for their support, saying that the carnival atmosphere and energy was something Mr Piovesan would have loved.

Many of the friends and family were crying, as smoke flares were lit as a sign of cyclists in distress. They then applauded as the ride moved on after a stop of 20 minutes.”

After this stop in Shadwell, the ride headed north towards Hackney. The ride split in two at the southern end of Mare Street, as a group went to London Fields, but others went on towards the skate park at Mabley Green, where a BMX and Skate jam was happening underneath the flyovers of the A12 adjacent to the Hackney Wick marshes.

After watching the tricks on the ramp for about twenty minutes, the ride then turned back and returned to central London, heading back via Bethnal Green and Shoreditch, before finishing up at the Potters Fields steps next to Tower Bridge.