Report by BBM

It was a big crowd, there was good corking, but the young lions on the front were pushing, pushing forward and we tended to break up a bit. We started in the usual place, cycled up and around the IMAX, and then headed over Waterloo Bridge.

We then took the underpass more travelled to the Kingsway and headed all the way up to Coram Street where we hung a right. At that point I lost faith in the leading group as we they led us through a shopping centre (Foundling Court or O’Donnell Court I guess). We emerged by Brunswick Square Gardens and Coram Fields, and headed back in the direction we had come but along Lamb’s Conduit Street. Mellow music seemed to be following us wherever we went. Oh, that was us? When we got to Theobald’s Road we hit a left and continued straight down, the road changing into Clarkenwell Road, and then Old Street, but we kept going down until we got to Old Street Roundabout. Here, nobody seemed to know where to go so we just went round and round. Some people tried to pull the mass towards Great Eastern Street, but nobody folllowed them and they returned to the roundabout. Nobody seemed to want to go North up City Road, or to go back the way we came, so eventually (with a little encouragement) the mass headed down City Road in a Southerly direction. At Triton Court we turned left into Finsbury Square, and then followed the square round, finding a way somehow into South Place, Bloomfield Street (heading West again) and then on to London Wall going West. Following an undocumented detour via the Barbican Conservatory and the Museum of London, we made our way South down Aldersgate Street to St Martin’s le Grand then continued West up Newgate Street (which becomes Holborn Street and High Holborn). Here we crossed our tracks, continuing down in the direction of St Giles High Street where we turned left into Monmouth Street. At the Seven Dials we again didn’t seem to know which direction to take, so stopped for a while. Good music, good atmosphere with the lights, good companionship. Eventually we moved on, down Earlham Street to Shaftesbury Avenue, which we followed in a Southerly direction all the way to Piccadilly Circus. From there we went up Regent’s Street, following the Christmas lights, to Langham Place and the BBC. Another stop at the BBC in Portland Place. At first the people in the foyer seemed disconcerted and blocked off the entrance. After a while they started chilling too. By now Critical Massers were dropping like flies and it was eventually a smaller group that headed back down Regent’s Street to Piccadilly CIrcus, then took Coventry Street to Haymarket Street, then Haymarket to Cockspur Street, then Cockspur to Trafalgar Square. From Trafalgar Square a diminished group went straight down Whitehall to Parliament Square, and were turning left into Bridge Street when I bombed out. Enough was enough. Anyway, here’s the video I made:

BBM