Camden Green Festival 2008
.

Camden Green Festival

Fifteen people turned up at Ealing Town Hall for our traditional ride to Camden Greenfest held at Regents Park. After our usual group photograph we left at 10:23am and proceeded down to Kew Bridge then along Strand on the Green to Chiswick Bridge. Unfortunately Karla got a puncture which Brian has the back stop kindly offered to fix while I proceeded with the rest of the group. The route continued via Mortlake High Street up to the Wetland Centre at Barnes where we waited for Karla and Brian to catch us up. When they arrived we made our way over Putney Bridge, pass Hurlingham Park, Wandsworth Bridge, Chelsea Harbour and Lots Power Station. This was built 1904 to supply electricity to London’s underground system and later to tram and trolleybus networks and to railway depots at Ealing and Acton.

The power station closed 2001 and is now decommissioned which it is planned will become a mixed-use community development. We continued pass the statue of the American born painter James McNeill Whistler 1834-1905 over Battersea Bridge, along Parkgate Road and into Battersea Park pass the Peace Pagoda and then over Chelsea Bridge.

We continued up to Knightsbridge and into Hyde Park via Albert Gate and then up to Brook Gate and pass London's newest monument the Animals at War Memorial. This sculptor was designed by David Backhouse. We proceeded on pass the American Embassy up to Hanover Square, Cavendish Square and round into Langham Place pass John Nash’s oddly shaped Parish Church of All Souls and on pass Broadcasting House. This is clad with 2.63 million blocks of Portland Stone and over 7,500 panes of glass. We then traveled onward up Portland Place at the end of which stands Sebastian Gahagan's bronze statue of Prince Edward, Duke of Kent, son of George III who stared down at us from above this plinth. We take the right hand side of Park Crescent across Marylebone Road and into Regents Park pass Nash’s Chester Terrace into Chester Road where we parked and locked up our cycles. We then agreed amongst ourselves to meet back at 1445 then spilt up to have a look around the festival which seems bigger than last year which attracted 33,000 people. There was something for everyone including a range of environmental activities, entertainment and workshops, eco-fashion, ethical finance and even tea dancing with an attempt for the World’s Biggest Fairtrade Tea Dance.

At the agreed time we met up, apart from several people who choose to make their own way home. We left the park at 1500 via the Outer Circle pass the London Central Mosque, Hanover Gate, then the back streets to Cunningham Place where we stopped to allow Brain to give a pet talk about riding on the Grand Union Canal. We then made our way down to Little Venice and back along the Grand Union Canal where several people peeled off to make their way home whilst the remainders continued on to Ealing Town Hall.

Thanks to Brian for back stopping and for fixing Karla’s puncture and the Grand Union Canal information.

31 miles.