Ride day dawned in Wallington with a cool drizzle, but in the event the weather not only improved but served us splendidly, even if it meant those of us who had left home early were a little over-dressed.
The congregation for elevenses at Pembroke Lodge was impressive and heart warming; As, Bs, Norwesters, Easy Riders, forty five in all. We had mixed the groups as much as we could so we all got a chance to meet people we don't normally ride with, and under the guidance of six fully certificated leaders we left at ten minute intervals on this year's Magical History Tour ("Step right this way").
Elevenses
Last year it was Brunel and the Pilgrim Fathers, Judge Jeffreys, and Edward III. This year it was mathematicians, Cavaliers, brutalist Hungarians, famous athletes, greedy developers, the Great Stink, the Dambusters, the Suffragettes, and West London football clubs of either code.
Clive's class is photobombed by Paul's outside the house that was firebombed.
So all the good girls and boys who paid attention know that Bertrand Russell discovered Euclid at the age of eleven and equated it in later life to falling in love. They know that the Earl of Holland lost his head to the Roundheads and thereby reluctantly passed on his 500 acre estate that stretched from Holland Park to the Fulham Road. They know that in retaliation for Emo Goldfinger building an ugly house near his own, Ian Fleming used the architect's name for one of his most memorable villains. They thereby learnt never to upset a poet, a songwriter or an author. They learnt that there was once a cinder track and a velodrome at Paddington Rec and they learnt that there is injustice in the world, for although Bradley Wiggins and Roger Bannister are celebrated there with plaques, there is no such recognition for Ged Lawrenson, who played football on that very site.
Teachers and pupils alike experienced a feeling of satisfaction eating in a pub which had been rebuilt brick for brick by those who destroyed it for illicit profit and, especially considering their nonchalance when informed that forty cyclists would be descending upon them, the staff served up decent food at decent prices and, for all but a handful, pretty promptly.
We visited the blue plaque marking the dwelling place of a man credited with saving tens of thousands of lives (Joseph Bazalgette) and, round the corner, a man of great courage who in the service of his country destroyed the lives of tens of thousands (Guy Gibson) and in between we missed Crocker's Folly, now a Lebanese restaurant but built as a grand hotel by Frank Crocker in the erroneous belief that he had a cast-iron tip-off about where the site of the terminus of the Great Central Railway was to be built. Those of us in the last two groups had Helen to point out our omission and tell that tale.
Paul's class at the grave of a Tory MP
We toured South Kensington, where we don't often ride, and visited the grave of a woman who started off as a radical, who became a terrorist and who wound up as a Conservative Member of Parliament (Emmeline Pankhurst). We crossed the Stamford Bridge and which of us knew beforehand that that famous champion of feminism and sobriety, Oliver Reed, played rugby for Rosslyn Park?
The Remnants of John's class at the end of the school day
By the time most of us had rolled up at l'assaggino in time for tea or coffee and elegant pastries we were brim full of information and ready for any exam.
Thanks to everyone who helped, especially the leaders John A, Sue F, Ged, Tim G and Clive, and the back markers and direction-prompters. And thanks to everyone who turned up and enjoyed the ride. Feedback at parents' evening was very encouraging. School may be running a similar event next year.
1 comment:
.....unlike esteemed athletes Bradley and Roger I was an abject failure on the fields of Paddington Rec. (My Westminster Council football team always seemed to loose!).
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