My New Commute

I completed my work on John Carter of Mars, and have now begun work on Dark Knight Rising. Double Negative occupies 3 different buildings in the Soho area, so I am transitioning from the Shaftesbury Avenue building to the Mortimer Street building. It is located north of Oxford Street, so I needed to look for a new bike route to get to work.

I was told of a less busy route that has a real bike path that would take me almost all the way from our small apartment to my new office while avoiding cars.

I still bike past the old church down the street from us.

And the old "The Wall" school, which is just about done with it's major facelift.

And then past the neat old Victorian clock that has just recently been restored.











Shortly after that, I head down a road that doesn't allow cars to pass on it. It is a lot more relaxing not having to weave around buses and cars.





I pass another neogothic church that looks a lot older than it is. It always makes me think of the church where the priest was killed by the falling lightning rod in "The Omen".




I then ride down the one somewhat nasty hill on my commute. It is fun going down on the way to work, but not so fun going up on the way home. I have gotten better at it, and I think I have found the least painful way of cresting it for the return ride.





Essentially, I peddle along a route that is just north of the roads I used to ride. They are just less traveled roads with some neat older residential buildings and hotels.

I pass a college called "Goodenough College". I hope that isn't advertising regarding the quality of education they provide.

I do have one traffic moment usually at Russell Square, where I have to turn left into traffic, and then make an immediate right accross it. I always wave at the statue of the Duke of Bedford just around the corner after making the crossing.

I then pass the lion guarded back entrance to the British Museum.

I pass through one more beautiful square which is flanked by these magnificent mansions with black and white brick entryways. In the center is a beautifully manicured garden.

From there, it is a few more blocks to Tottenham Court Road, where I make a right turn at the Jack Horner Steak and Ale Pub, fairly common pies and pub grub, and then a quick left onto a side street.








I pass another pub, the Newman Arms pub, which also serves very filling meat pies and mash in their upstairs pie room.








I then turn onto Mortimer Street, where I get a great view of the BT tower just a few blocks away. I very odd building resembling a space ship crashed into London.



Two more blocks and I am at work. It is a very modern building, which also houses a fashion design company and an alcohol advertising company that handles the UK promotions for Jack Daniels.



For the journey home, I follow much of the same route, but due to one way streets, I have to go a little differently. It does afford me a couple other cool sites such as this really interesting gothic church.

There were some interesting figures released that showed that bicycles and their related sales and businesses is a thriving 1.2 billion Pound industry in the London area. Who would have thought.