On the bike

At the end of last month, I thought that I had been off two wheels for long enough and that it was time to get going again. So off to Clapham Junction to visit the stand at Grant Road.

Part of the motivation being that it was getting hot, and I remembered from the plague days that cycling in hot weather seemed to work better (for me anyway) than walking. Air cooling worked.

So I took the 10:49 out of Epsom. To notice that the gym in what had been the useful Wetherspoon's at Raynes Park had shut. Maybe be right next door to another gym was not the brightest idea after all.

Pulled a Bullingdon at Grant Road, and pedalled off to Borough tube station, via Waterloo and London Bridge without problem or incident. Just some kind of celebration around the bust of [ ], just by the block of flats where Jeffery Archer lives (or perhaps lived. Not heard of him for a while).

Opened by Mr. Modi himself, back in 2015, as reported at reference 1. I was not able to find out why we erected a bust of an Indian philosopher who lived around the time of our Empress Matilda and who is introduced at reference 2, let alone why we erected it on the Albert Embankment, not far from a Bullingdon stand as it happens.

But this day's celebration did involve at least some people in very colourful clothes.

From the stand just south of Borough tube station, to  Prezzemolo & Vitale just north of it to buy some of their fine spiral sausages. Plus a heft focaccia sandwich involving mozzeralla, some kind of ham and stuff.

The only catch was that I failed to find a seat in the shade in the street food area across the road - failing to notice the adjacent church yard, which would probably have served. So I had to eat sitting in the sun, which took something away from the otherwise fine sandwich.

Having not got into the church next door on a previous occasion because something colourful and Nigerian was just starting up, on this occasion I got caught up in 13:00 mass, it turning out that there was an Anglo-Catholic side to the church. A very small congregation with the chap in the snap above, lifted from reference 4, probably presiding. In his No.2 uniform, it being an ordinary weekday. Half an hour, no music and very little audience participation, although there was communion and there was hugging at the end. I declined the first and largely avoided the second - only largely despite being right at the back of the church.

Fine white flowers in front of the altar rail, presumably carried over from Easter. At least one of the older ladies in the audience sounded as if she was Borough born and bred - more than was true for the rest of them I dare say.

But not in the same league at all as the Easter Saturday service at Westminster Cathedral, previously noticed.

The body of the pews appeared to be pine, but there was hardwood trim. I was impressed by the care and expense which had gone into this last, as snapped above. Can't see a modern version including such a tricky joint, even if it does please the eye.

Captured the piano noticed at reference 5. No-one seemed to mind.

From there, proceeded to the 'Blue Maid', a newly reopened house on the way back to London Bridge. No food, not that I wanted any, and the manager explained that they had decided that, with so much good quality food on offer in the area, trying to compete on that front was not a runner. Better to stick to drink.

The pint of 'Five Star' was very good indeed, with a very clean taste, such as I have occasionally tasted in the wilds of East Anglia, not too far from the Greene King brewery. I have always been something of a fan of bitter from the big brewers, but this craft brewer, to be found at reference 6, did know his stuff.

The place itself was not very old, but there was old outside the window. Borough is quite an old borough, after all.

A rather sketchy website, which Bing failed to find at all, is to be found at reference 7. While Bing offered the curiosity above.

Followed up with a quick visit to the M&S at London Bridge, where I took in a litre of Pink Lady. Which tasted fine, but with an odd after taste, perhaps something to do with the beer before. Perhaps something to do with getting a litre of juice from no more than ten apples, which did not strike me as very many.

In any event, a good deal cheaper than the stuff I had bought a day or so previously in the margins of a visit to Hampton Court.

PS 1: we took most of the sausage on May Day, as snapped above. Very good they were too. And did not take very long to cook at all, under half an hour as I recall, if slightly fiddly. A task which had been delegated to BH.

PS 2: I have now burrowed down into Instagram from reference 7. The house looks much older from the outside, at least from across the road (where I did not go), than it felt from the inside.

References

Reference 1: https://www.london-se1.co.uk/news/view/8534.

Reference 2: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Basava.

Reference 3: https://www.prezzemoloevitale.co.uk/.

Reference 4: https://www.borough.church/.

Reference 5: https://psmv5.blogspot.com/2025/04/piano-103.html.

Reference 6: https://fivepointsbrewing.co.uk/.

Reference 7: https://www.thebluemaid.com/.