A Bicycle in Barons Court

The “dum-DUM dum-DUM” thuds from the old District Line railway wafted up from some unseen tracks near Barons Court Underground station. The glacial clumps of mansion blocks appear sealed from the inside. No one enters or leaves, but light seeps from behind curtains and shutters. As I turned away from the Underground station, a woman wearing a jean jacket on a bicycle slalomed across the road. She hardly pedalled fast enough to remain upright.

The woman must have just paid an impromptu visit to a DIY store - just before closing time according to my watch - because she carried a slab of white garden lattice under her arm. Rather than dismounting and walking around some posts meant to pedestrianise the adjacent street, she somehow managed to negotiate her way through the barrier with wide twists of the handlebars and a lifting of the lattice.

After she cleared the posts, the woman continued on her way with the same wobbly determination as before and with the white lattice snug under her arm.