Carlton Reid
@carltonreid.com
Specialist journalist: WIRED.com and more. Press Gazette Transport Journalist of the Year 2018. Finalist: Travel Photographer of the Year 2024 https://authory.com/carltonreid Signal: carltonreid.67 Associate Fellow of the Royal Historical Society.
Bypass still has 1930s signage. The bypass linked Kenpas Highway and Fletchhampstead Highway. Always amazed this sign has been left in place.
January 16, 2026 at 4:22 PM
Bypass still has 1930s signage. The bypass linked Kenpas Highway and Fletchhampstead Highway. Always amazed this sign has been left in place.
The one-mile A46 Kenilworth Road cycle track — built in 1939 — hasn’t been resurfaced recently but I rode this morning on the Coventry bypass connector (a 7 mile cycle track) and new asphalt means it looks new even though built in 1940. www.britishcycletracks.com/cycle-track/...
January 16, 2026 at 4:19 PM
The one-mile A46 Kenilworth Road cycle track — built in 1939 — hasn’t been resurfaced recently but I rode this morning on the Coventry bypass connector (a 7 mile cycle track) and new asphalt means it looks new even though built in 1940. www.britishcycletracks.com/cycle-track/...
Fruitful day in the National Cycle Archives at Warwick University. On a previous visit several years ago I suddenly realised this nearby cycle track and footway must have been 1930s in origin. Confirmed later: www.britishcycletracks.com/cycle-track/...
January 16, 2026 at 4:13 PM
Fruitful day in the National Cycle Archives at Warwick University. On a previous visit several years ago I suddenly realised this nearby cycle track and footway must have been 1930s in origin. Confirmed later: www.britishcycletracks.com/cycle-track/...
It’s now an Ibis and I stay every time I hit the archives. (I’m a trustee of the charity behind the archives, the Cycling History Educational Trust.)
January 15, 2026 at 9:52 PM
It’s now an Ibis and I stay every time I hit the archives. (I’m a trustee of the charity behind the archives, the Cycling History Educational Trust.)
My favourite hotel in Coventry — it’s a former cycle factory, dating to 1890. I’m staying tonight before rifling through the National Cycle Archives tomorrow.
January 15, 2026 at 9:48 PM
My favourite hotel in Coventry — it’s a former cycle factory, dating to 1890. I’m staying tonight before rifling through the National Cycle Archives tomorrow.
Think framebags and top tube bags were introduced recently by bikepacking luggage brands? Not so. Ad in CTC Gazette, May 1892:
January 15, 2026 at 1:16 PM
Think framebags and top tube bags were introduced recently by bikepacking luggage brands? Not so. Ad in CTC Gazette, May 1892:
THEN AND NOW: Igtham, Kent, 1888 v today.
January 13, 2026 at 1:41 PM
THEN AND NOW: Igtham, Kent, 1888 v today.
"You are not stuck in traffic. You are traffic."
January 11, 2026 at 4:50 PM
"You are not stuck in traffic. You are traffic."
Still can’t reveal the project I’m working on or for which (mainstream) third party I’m doing it for but I shall be discussing smart, respectable folks such as this handsome couple.
January 9, 2026 at 11:36 AM
Still can’t reveal the project I’m working on or for which (mainstream) third party I’m doing it for but I shall be discussing smart, respectable folks such as this handsome couple.
Summary of the book can be found in this Motorists’ Front of Jude’s spoof. web.archive.org/web/20250209...
January 9, 2026 at 11:27 AM
Summary of the book can be found in this Motorists’ Front of Jude’s spoof. web.archive.org/web/20250209...
That Rover, of course, became the Rover car company which went on to make the Land Rover and Range Rover. 60+ car marques started as bicycle companies, as I showed in Roads Were Not Built For Cars.
January 9, 2026 at 11:25 AM
That Rover, of course, became the Rover car company which went on to make the Land Rover and Range Rover. 60+ car marques started as bicycle companies, as I showed in Roads Were Not Built For Cars.
And here’s a George Moore woodcut of a natty-looking cyclist on an 1887 Rover Safety bicycle.
January 9, 2026 at 11:23 AM
And here’s a George Moore woodcut of a natty-looking cyclist on an 1887 Rover Safety bicycle.
This is what period cyclists — of 1880s and beyond — looked like in their official CTC uniforms.
January 9, 2026 at 11:21 AM
This is what period cyclists — of 1880s and beyond — looked like in their official CTC uniforms.
Important to note that the popular image of a 19th Century cyclist as a gentleman wearing top and tails is largely wrong (an image promulgated from the 1930s on).
January 9, 2026 at 11:19 AM
Important to note that the popular image of a 19th Century cyclist as a gentleman wearing top and tails is largely wrong (an image promulgated from the 1930s on).
And note the penny farthing suspension device: “Cyclists may now ride a bicycle over a full-sized brick or kerbstone or dog …”
January 9, 2026 at 11:16 AM
And note the penny farthing suspension device: “Cyclists may now ride a bicycle over a full-sized brick or kerbstone or dog …”
My favourite bicycle name of all time: the Psycho. [Advert from CTC Gazette, February 1887.]
January 9, 2026 at 11:14 AM
My favourite bicycle name of all time: the Psycho. [Advert from CTC Gazette, February 1887.]
Jesmond Dene engines must have been close. The Old Engine is on the way to what became Goldspink Lane. "Barn Flat" (Burn Flatt?) was half way up Benton bank to where the church and Cradlewell shops would be built. Map by Graham, 1952, after Dendy. jesmondresidents.org/wp-content/u...
January 8, 2026 at 1:31 PM
Jesmond Dene engines must have been close. The Old Engine is on the way to what became Goldspink Lane. "Barn Flat" (Burn Flatt?) was half way up Benton bank to where the church and Cradlewell shops would be built. Map by Graham, 1952, after Dendy. jesmondresidents.org/wp-content/u...
Les Turnbull's map of 1745:
January 8, 2026 at 9:59 AM
Les Turnbull's map of 1745:
I've emailed the Georgian ad agency to see if I can get a bit more info on the shot. Once you look closer at the image there are telltale artefacts that the Photoshop operator didn't remove, such as this skewed kerb and an object that should have been painted out:
January 7, 2026 at 10:29 AM
I've emailed the Georgian ad agency to see if I can get a bit more info on the shot. Once you look closer at the image there are telltale artefacts that the Photoshop operator didn't remove, such as this skewed kerb and an object that should have been painted out:
And this — now it's obvious! — artefact:
January 7, 2026 at 10:23 AM
And this — now it's obvious! — artefact:
Now geo-located to central Cambridge, thanks to help from @cobcarey.bsky.social The H is still there. www.google.com/maps/@52.202... Exter
January 7, 2026 at 9:55 AM
Now geo-located to central Cambridge, thanks to help from @cobcarey.bsky.social The H is still there. www.google.com/maps/@52.202... Exter
Anybody have the backstory to this (1980s?), pre-Photoshop/gAI photo?
January 7, 2026 at 9:20 AM
Anybody have the backstory to this (1980s?), pre-Photoshop/gAI photo?
This famous shot — from 1980s? — is potentially inspirational.
January 7, 2026 at 9:19 AM
This famous shot — from 1980s? — is potentially inspirational.
“Six, seven,” 1880s style, but said by adults — “Largess!”
From Bicycle Touring Club Gazette, December 1882.
From Bicycle Touring Club Gazette, December 1882.
January 6, 2026 at 11:41 AM
“Six, seven,” 1880s style, but said by adults — “Largess!”
From Bicycle Touring Club Gazette, December 1882.
From Bicycle Touring Club Gazette, December 1882.