Day 8: Islington to Merstham, The Cronx

Safe from harm from last nights events we have another civilised breakfast and prepare for our ride through London. On the list today is Park Lane, Picadilly, Knightsbridge, Brompton, Barnes Common and Croydon. As we leave Maddy's brothers flat (cheers Dan) we head up Essex Road and see the Mini Mart that was ransacked. We stop and talk to the owners who are having repairs done. No one was harmed but plenty was taken. We speak to the next shop who enquires about our journey and they seem to think it's all going to happen again tonight and have already decided to close early. They seem genuinely scared as do people from the area who are chatting outside. We depart and head for the West End. Back along the Euston Road and rejoin the Edgware road where we left it yesterday. As we battle with the small lanes and big lorries we laugh at the fact that now the area is full of restaurants and people from the middle east, delicious smells wafting through the air and the hubbly bubbly water pipes giving off a sweet fragrance, we could be in Istanbul already. We survive Marble Arch and wheel our way down Park Lane. We stop half way down to take a photo of us with a piece of art. It's a giant arm with the hand cradling an old Fiat 500, slap bang in the middle of the road. We allow some other tourists to gawp in wonder at it and cycle off down Park Lane and take a left into Piccadilly. At the end of Piccadilly is Trafalgar square and the Strand where in lies a bureau de change with very favourable rates if you order online, so we stop at a Pret a Manger and lean the laptop on their window sill and order up our euros. Ten minutes later we've traversed Trafalgar Square and are just swapping our sterling for euros. At the next window a couple are doing the opposite and we remark to each other how we should have done it outside and we could have both had better rates. They have just been travelling round the world with a theatre company performing Shakespeare for the last 6 years. I mention we have a friend who is off with a theatre company travelling as well. After a quick check with Maddy it appears all three work for the same company. Hi Richie and Natanya if your reading this and also Hi Eilidh. Break some legs. And thanks for the donation. We head back towards Piccadilly heading up to Piccadilly Circus from the very bottom of Regent Street. I try my luck in a fast food place but am told all wasted/out of date food gets thrown at 6ish if I come back then they could help me out. There is a sushi bar next door and I try there too. The manager is relieving her boss who is off and is not quite sure what to say to me. But by a stroke of luck a director is in today. I tell him about the quest and he immediately offers both me and Maddy whatever we want for lunch. So big thanks to Nikolai at Itsu on Regent Street.

Duck and noodle wraps with pomegranate sauce and miso soup go down a treat after a hard night not rioting. Stuffed to gills we head off in the sunshine back down Piccadilly towards Knightsbridge, it's so nice to have the weather be kind to us and before long we've arrived on the Thames Path ,National Cycle Route 4 on the Thames via Brompton. We meander along the side of the Thames and peel off for Barnes Common. Stevens visited here to see the tricycle gathering that was happening. The common is now a nature reserve and we take the path through the woods and head on out to Croydon, scene of last nights riots and looting and I am a bit apprehensive about what lurks in the “Cronx” tonight. We will probably arrive about kicking off time so will have to be vigilant. Enjoying the sunshine we womble through Wimbledon Common and down to Croydon. We arrive in Mitcham just outside Croydon around 4pm. We stop at a petrol station to fill our water bottles and it is jam packed with cars, queuing back on to the road. Further into Croydon we realise why. Every shop has got the shutters down, it's eerie. In time we come across some locals who tell us tales of post offices being ram raided as well as shops being looted and people walking along the street carrying plasma tv's and bags full of clothes. The people we speak to are mainly pensioners and are scared and rightly so. Reeves furniture shop had been there for five generations and the gutted hulk of the building that is left hits home how dangerous things could get. A family run business at the heart of Croydon seems a strange target. Many TV crews are reporting with the buildings remains in the background. As the church bells ring five o'clock it feel like a scene from a western. Neighbours can't believe what has happened. Disenfranchised youths with no futures or just opportunists and organised crime, I'll leave that for another day. A gathering of people is happening off in the distance outside the train station and the police have cordoned the road off. We decide it's probably for the best that we leave exploring the finer points of Croydon for another day. South we travel through Purley to Coulsden and most of the shops are shuttered, some brave shop keepers stay open but already have the shutters halfway down. Car showrooms have emptied the forecourts of cars and other shops have boarded up windows just in case. When I talk to the Manager of Waitrose in Coulsden she explains that the window got broken last night but they are staying open. A cycle shop on the edge of Croydon is totally boarded up and the guys leaving the shop tell me there is nothing left in the shop. It's four units wide not a small dinky place.

Surviving the “Cronx” we aim to get south of the M25. We fall about half a mile short but our reward is a beautiful undisturbed meadow. We head for the long grass and hide the bikes in some trees. A pasta and bean and mushroom soup concoction fills our bellies and the news reports things going on in Manchester and the Midlands. We feel safe here and drift off to sleep, despite the helicopters whirring around overhead all night.