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.
