A great start to MayDay!
Fred | 01.05.2002 10:23
The South London Critical mass gathered at 7.30am in Camberwell Green this morning in bright sunlight. A jubilant mood was in the air - everyone glad to see the nice weather and the crowd of 250/300 cyclists dressed up in costumes and blowing whistles and horns. Two cycle powered sound systems entertained the crowd as they waited for the start.
At 8.10 the critical mass moved of inthe direction of Elephant and Castle blocking one lane of the traffic. The 300 metre long posse slowly meandered chatting and waving to the public - explaining along the way why this was happening. "happy mayday", "pull a sickie", "reclaim the streets" were some of the calls going out to pedestrians. Some cars honked some shouted - but in general the public liked what they saw.
The mass cycled round Elephant and Castle and off towards London Bridge, stopping for pedestrians to cross the road and blocking ant cheeky cars that tried to sneak through. Over London Bridge and into the city - passing the 1000's of commuters on their way to make a killing! Up towards the Bank of England - as memories of the Carnival against Capital raised the spirit, and everyone stopped and shook their bikes in the air.
Off down towards Fleet street and on to The Strand - tourists looked confused but laughed along with the demonstration. As we passed two 'group 4' vans the inmates inside banged hard on the sides - raising a cheer of solidarity from the passing cyclists, one of those moments that make you think of freedom and what it means.
The mass sread out as it approached Trafalgar Square, and we started to hear reports of teh North London Critical mass and how they had reached Horseferry Road Magistrates court, to give a vocal support to the 'fitted-up' Womble 7 at their 3rd day of hearings. As we did a few laps of the square, i left the mass to do this report - but i hear that the mass went on to the American embassy where it tried to meet up with the North London Mass - but was prevented by police, last i heard they had all gone onto Oxford street to group up as one big Critical Mass.
I also heard rumours that there was a West London ride but that is not confirmed.
And on to the next celebration of May Day...
At 8.10 the critical mass moved of inthe direction of Elephant and Castle blocking one lane of the traffic. The 300 metre long posse slowly meandered chatting and waving to the public - explaining along the way why this was happening. "happy mayday", "pull a sickie", "reclaim the streets" were some of the calls going out to pedestrians. Some cars honked some shouted - but in general the public liked what they saw.
The mass cycled round Elephant and Castle and off towards London Bridge, stopping for pedestrians to cross the road and blocking ant cheeky cars that tried to sneak through. Over London Bridge and into the city - passing the 1000's of commuters on their way to make a killing! Up towards the Bank of England - as memories of the Carnival against Capital raised the spirit, and everyone stopped and shook their bikes in the air.
Off down towards Fleet street and on to The Strand - tourists looked confused but laughed along with the demonstration. As we passed two 'group 4' vans the inmates inside banged hard on the sides - raising a cheer of solidarity from the passing cyclists, one of those moments that make you think of freedom and what it means.
The mass sread out as it approached Trafalgar Square, and we started to hear reports of teh North London Critical mass and how they had reached Horseferry Road Magistrates court, to give a vocal support to the 'fitted-up' Womble 7 at their 3rd day of hearings. As we did a few laps of the square, i left the mass to do this report - but i hear that the mass went on to the American embassy where it tried to meet up with the North London Mass - but was prevented by police, last i heard they had all gone onto Oxford street to group up as one big Critical Mass.
I also heard rumours that there was a West London ride but that is not confirmed.
And on to the next celebration of May Day...
Fred
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