It's All Rideable

The first day of the month and so it's Theme Day in the world of City Daily Photos.

Since the theme of "bicycles" was announced, I have been looking to see if I could find an old fashioned, classic bike, after all Nottingham is the home of Raleigh Bicycles.

Sorry to say that I haven't, so I went for a rummage in my archive and came across this scene from a blue plaque unveiling in memory of a local cycling legend called Sid Standard.

Sid owned a cycle shop in Beeston and was also a member of the local cycling club.  He sadly died 12 years ago, on a cycling trip in Derbyshire. So to honour his memory, a blue plaque has been put up on the side of his shop, which is still a cycle shop in September last year.

For the classic bike spotter, you can see a Raleigh Chopper in the left hand window, next to the former mayor of Broxtowe Stan Heptinstall.

Down South, London Town

A special day today, as I and several of my friends set off for London in a coach to perform a edited version of the Raleigh play that we performed last summer.

The organisation that provided the funding for it, the Arts and Communities Research Council, wanted to know how their money was spent. So instead of Andy and Julian the writer and director explaining what they did, they decided to show them instead. As this was the better way of doing it.

We all had to meet at the Jubilee Campus by 7.30am, to catch the coach. Usually I am not even up at this time, so it was a real shock for me. It was light, so that was something. The journey down went OK, and we were in central London by 11am.

We performed at about 1pm, and the show was very well received. We then had to dismantle the set ready for the next group. It didn't take too long.  Julian then asked us all what we wanted to do before the drinks reception at six. Some of the ladies wanted to go shopping (surprise, surprise) while the others (me included) wanted to go to the British Museum.

I had never been before, so I was quite excited at seeing all the artefacts and the building itself, which has had a new glass roof installed. I had seen a few photos on Flickr, but of course, I wanted to take some myself.

As you can see it's quite something. The old library used to be separate from the museum, but with the roof and the creation of the Great Court, it has become a brilliant, light space, complete with the obligatory shop and cafe.

Talking of cafes, I couldn't resist taking a shot of this replica van that had been kitted out as a mobile coffee shop.

Bicycle Clips

Tonight Gail and I went to a local hotel called The Belfry for a Christmas party organised for the people she works with at the hospital.

There was a bit of a 70s, 80s theme, and some people had dressed in period costume. Someone even dressed up to resemble Mr T. But we just wore normal clothes.

The food was quite good, but we left before the disco started as Gail didn't feel very well for some reason. Not the food, just a lot of coughing, as we were both coming down with colds.

Whilst I was waiting for Gail, I noticed that the hotel had dedicated a wall to local bike company Raleigh. Besides a bit frieze on the wall featuring photos and advertising pictures about the company, there were six picture frames hung on the wall, and each one contained a model of one of their famous bikes.

The one above depicts one of their tandems from the early 1900s, whilst below is probably their most well known and idolised models; the Chopper from 1970. They look very realistic and must have taken quite a time to make, as they look scratch built, rather than being made from a kit.

Post Modernism

The university's Jubilee Campus was built on the land where Raleigh once stood. It was a massive site, covering acres and acres.

I didn't see the empty land when they had cleared away the buildings, but I could tell how big it was by what has been taken up by the university so far. Some 65 acres.

Here's some of the buildings that have replaced the factories. I think I may have shown these separately in the past, but not altogether. I took the shot on Saturday, whilst making the most of the break between the two performances.

The building that looks like a slab of red cheese is called the International building, while the tall structure in the middle is called Aspire and finally the other building is simply called the UNIP (University of Nottingham Innovation Park) Reception.

Titchy Wheels

Well sadly it's over. But I'm relieved too. The play about Raleigh that I have been involved in for the past couple of months saw it's final performance yesterday at the Jubilee Campus of the university.

It co-incided with a day of celebrating cycling and Raleigh's 125th anniversary.

We put on two performances in the afternoon, with an hour break in between. This gave me time to have a look around at the exhibits, demonstrations and events.

In the play the Raleigh small wheeled bicycle from the 1960s is mentioned; and nick-named 'titchy wheels' with some derision. So I was quite pleased to see an example or two of the said bike on display, amongst some others. Including the more famous and beloved Chopper

You could buy a little saddle bag for it which went on the carrier over the back wheel. It wasn't very big, so you couldn't really go shopping with it, unless you were only going for a loaf of bread and a jar of jam.