White Bike Cyclist Memorial for Irene Leardini in New Cross Road

 People gathered opposite New Cross Gate station on Friday 6th February 2026 to commemorate the life of cyclist Irene Leardini and to campaign for safer roads in her memory. Irene, aged 39, was among other things an Italian bike mechanic who had worked at Clapham Cycle shop. She was killed by a lorry on 20th January.

A white bike memorial was installed with flowers and candles.

'Irene was a young woman with an enormous love of life. Many many friends and a loving family are grieving her loss and will always miss her dreadfully. Those who loved her say she would have described herself as a happiness seeker and that she was passionate about human rights. She was a cycle mechanic and someone who made a difference in her community. She is a huge loss. Rest in peace, Irene'.

'And Irene is not the only person to be killed or badly hurt on this road. Along its whole length dozens have suffered and many families are grieving and struggling with the ongoing effects of serious collisions. We have known it is not safe for vulnerable road users, walking and cycling here for decades. Yet what could be done to make it safer has not been done. It needs to be done. Now. Safe space for cycling is needed here. If Irene had not had to share this space with a much larger vehicle and its driver, she would be here now. If she had the space she deserved here, her family and loved ones would not be grieving. Safe space for cycling, safe space for people;

'Cycling is not dangerous - this road is' (photo by Alex Raha from Lewisham Cyclists facebook page)

Irene

Sad that this has happened so soon after another cyclist was killed further up the Old Kent Road, and only two weeks after a man was killed by a police car on Borough High Street (see here)

Sports writer/presenter Ned Boulting was there on Friday and has written about it at his substack:

'London has seen considerable improvements over the last decade or so. Some of the infrastructure which has been designed, separating bikes from the motor traffic is genuinely fantastic. But this particular stretch of the A2 is one of many arterial roads managed by TfL rather than the individual boroughs, on which no material changes to protect vulnerable road users have been effected. There are advance stop boxes at junctions, but no clear path to access them for riders. And once the lights change, you’re on your own. It is almost as if the complexities and costs of doing the right thing to protect those who choose to ride are so overwhelming that the default position is simply to do nothing'.

Critical Mass mark killing of cyclist on Old Kent Road.

 Hundreds of cyclists rode down Old Kent Road and New Cross Road last week (Friday 28 November 2025) as part of the monthly Critical Mass ride. 

Critical Mass is a monthly bike ride on the last Friday in over 300 cities, started in 1992 and in London in 1994, to highlight bike-unfriendly cities. With no formal leadership, cyclists meet at a set time and place to ride together. In London, people meet on the last Friday of the month 19:00 on the South Bank under Waterloo Bridge.

Critical Mass outside the New Cross Inn

The ride paused on the Old Kent Road near the Dunton Road junction where a 'ghost bike' memorial had been placed to mark the death of a cyclist a week before. 34 year old Gery (full name not released) was killed there on 21 November 2025';  a driver has been arrested 'on suspicion of causing death by dangerous driving' 

Flare and flowers on Critical Mass ride

The cyclist has not been publicly named at this stage, but there are some very touching messages from friends on site - 'you were one of the most genuine people we ever met, kind, generous and hilarious' - a reminder that behind each road death statistic is a terrible personal tragedy.

Update January 2026:

Sad to report that another cyclist has been killed on this road so soon after Gery. Irene Leardini, aged 39, died on 20 January 2026 after being hit by a lorry on New Cross Road close to New Cross Gate station. Irene, originally from Italy, was herself a bike mechanic (picture below from Insta),

I cycled through there earlier that day and thought to myself how dangerous that section is. Travelling south east on New Cross Road by the Sainsburys junction there is a bit where two lanes of traffic merge into one and where some of the left lane turns left into Sainsburys and some go straight ahead, so as a cyclist if you stay left you risk being hit by left turning traffic but if you go in the middle you risk being hit by vehicles in the left lane going straight ahead.

On that same route towards/from London Bridge, this time on Borough High Street, 35 year old David Clark was killed by the police when hit by a car on 6 January. His wife commented: 'My husband David was not a headline, a statistic, or a passing news story. He was a loving husband, a devoted father to our baby daughter, a son, a brother and a deeply cherished friend. His death has left a profound and lasting void in our lives'.

Rest in power beautiful people, make it stop those of us still here.

Rubbish & Nasty, New Cross Road - noughties ''nu-rave squat-chic"

Was chatting today about noughties New Cross and was reminded of Rubbish and Nasty, a music/retro clothes shop that was at 308 New Cross Road from around 2006-8. It was part of a row of interesting places including Prangsta (304), Cafe Crema (306), and a little earlier the squatted coffee shop at 310. All in a row living under the curse of threatened redevelopment by the landlord, Goldsmiths College (at time of writing mostly empty).

I believe it was run by Ian McQuaid, who used to work at Morps record shop, downstairs in Moonbow Jake's cafe (I think he also put on the Fear of Music nights at the Montague Arms).  Also running the shop was Sophi Soni who created a great Rubbish Fairy shrine behind the shop.

Found a couple of photos of the shrine, including this one from Darryl SE7

...and this one from the Rubbish Fairy herself, on insta now as house_of_doll

The place was mentioned in an article by Joe Muggs, 'Is New Cross the New Camden' in the Standard (9 Nov 2007) which proclaimed it as the haunt of 'nu-rave squat-chic types'

They put on some gigs/parties there, remember seeing Lost Penguin there in 2006.

Life is one big road with a lot of sign

A traffic sign in New Cross Road, near to the bus garage, has been hosting a running commentary on the state of the world for over a year.

The latest iteration photographed today  includes the very timely 'ceasefire now', along with 'Just Stop Oil',  'A wealth tax could easily fund the NHS' and 'support workers  when they strike - tax the rich'

From April of this year 'Boris Johnson should pay his own f*cking legal fees':

November 2022 and there's a call for 'general election now', in smaller print underneath 'Rishi Sunak has too much money' (later somebody not so keen on the electoral road sprayed a black @sign over this, you can see a trace of it on image above)

September 2022 - 'say no to tory tax cuts, F**k the fat cats' complete with cat

(See some other examples of these people's work here)

 

New Cross Gate Rainbows

Glorious double rainbow over New Cross Gate recently (26/8/23), here seen from New Cross Road:

And here from Sainsbury's car park. Failed to find any gold in the supermarket though.

 

The Communist Kebab, New Cross Road

The Communist Kebab is now up and running at 492 New Cross Road. According to those running it 'For the first time in the world there is a communist kebab shop... we don't think of this place as money-oriented, the main thing is here how can we apply the parameters of communism in one shop' (see youtube film, 'Is this the world's first communist kebab shop?')

The Menu includes various radical themed dishes, including the Marx vegetarian option.

Chalk your own messages on the board

'give us roses but give as kebabs'

'The Communist' doner grill and takeaway under construction in March 2023 promising that on the first day '1000 portions of food will be delivered free of charge':

 The site has been a kebab shop in various guises before, including 'London Kebab', and a place of eating and drinking sociality for a lot longer - the 1891 Post Office Directory lists it as Edward Ratcliffe coffee rooms.

[post updated 4 May 2023 following opening]

 

Gormless Rishi and other famous faces on the New Cross Road

Dark clouds gather over the Sainsburys petrol station on New Cross Road - an omen for the Chancellor of the Exchequer Rishi Sunak as inflation rises and people struggle with the cost of living? For it was here that he recently staged that ill dated photo opportunity to demonstrate that he was a man of the people filling up his car, only to be widely mocked after it was broadcast (by Sky News on 23 March) as it was revealed that he had borrowed a Sainsburys worker's car for the shoot and appeared not to know how to pay in the petrol station.

This particular stretch of the New Cross Road has had its fair share of famous visitors, and the experience has not always been a good one. American actor Shia LaBeouf hit the tabloids not once but twice in 2012 and 2014 after getting into fights just across the road in The Rose pub (known at the time as the Hobgoblin). He was dating local actor Mia Goth, press reports this week say they have just had a baby together in Los Angeles, though he is also facing allegations of violence and abuse by ex-partner FKA Twigs.

On a lighter note there was that time in 2016 when Elton John parked his Bentley outside The Rose and popped in to use the loo.

I guess as a main road many notables good, bad and ugly have paused to sample its delights, some of them even able to work out how to pay for things. I remember that the long gone Sirius fish and chip shop near the Walpole, further along New Cross Road, used to boast that Paul McCartney had once stopped there for chips and a pickled onion. Am I imagining that they had a signed photo of him in the shop?

Jane Austen passes through Deptford & Blackheath

I love the notion that as the main road between London, Kent and the Channel, what is now the A2 has been travelled by so many historical personages and movements - everyone from royals to revolting peasants have passed along the Old Kent Road, New Cross Road, Deptford and up to Blackheath and beyond. So I am pleased to be able to add the novelist Jane Austen to the list confirmed to have passed through.

On June 15 1808, Austen wrote a letter to her sister Cassandra describing her journey from London to visit her brother's family at Godmersham Park - located between Canterbury and Ashford in Kent:

'My dear Cassandra,—Where shall I begin? Which of all my important nothings shall I tell you first? At half after seven yesterday morning Henry saw us into our own carriage, and we drove away from the Bath Hotel; which, by the by, had been found most uncomfortable quarters,—very dirty, very noisy, and very ill-provided. James began his journey by the coach at five. Our first eight miles were hot; Deptford Hill brought to my mind our hot journey into Kent fourteen years ago; but after Blackheath we suffered nothing, and as the day advanced it grew quite cool. At Dartford, which we reached within the two hours and three-quarters, we went to the Bull, the same inn at which we breakfasted in that said journey, and on the present occasion had about the same bad butter.

At half-past ten we were again off, and, travelling on without any adventure reached Sittingbourne by three. Daniel was watching for us at the door of the George, and I was acknowledged very kindly by Mr. and Mrs. Marshall, to the latter of whom I devoted my conversation, while Mary went out to buy some gloves. A few minutes, of course, did for Sittingbourne; and so off we drove, drove, drove, and by six o'clock were at Godmersham'

The Bath Hotel in London was situated on Piccadilly on the site of what is now the Ritz.  Plainly travelling by horse-drawn coach was a slow business, with the journey from here to Godmersham taking some ten and half hours - though this did include stops at the Bull Inn in Dartford and the George Inn in Sittingbourne, both of which are still standing if you want to recreate this journey!  The house at Godmersham Park is still there too - and it features along with Austen on the ten pound note.

Another letter from 1796 mentions a plan to visit Greenwich.  Her brother Francis Austen was in the Royal Navy and rose to the rank of Admiral of the Fleet, so no doubt was familiar with Deptford and Greenwich.

Another South London location is mentioned in a letter from 1811: 'who should I meet but Mr. Moore,  just come from Beckenham. I believe he would have passed me if I had not made him stop, but we were delighted to meet. I soon found, however, that he had nothing new to tell me, and then I let him go.'  There was a strong connection between parts of Austen's family and Beckenham. Her dad's cousin Frances Motley Austen (1747-1815) was born in Beckenham, with his mother Ann Motley and grandfather Thomas Motley - a prominent landowner in Beckenham.  So it seems likely that Jane Austen was in touch with relatives in Beckenham, though it is not known if she ever visited there. 

Source: The Letters of Jane Austen. 

Thanks to JaneAustenCork for mentioning this journey on twitter

In praise of Uncle Wrinkle

It's very easy to take for granted places you pass every day, so I want to give some appreciation to a Chinese takeaway that has been in New Cross for as long as I have - Uncle Wrinkle at 299 New Cross Road SE14 since 1995.

As a vegetarian, the great thing about Uncle Wrinkle is that it offers its full range of main dishes -all 19 of them - with bean curd or mixed vegetables, as well as beef, pork, chicken, squid or prawn. Uncle Wrinkle doesn't deliver at present, so if you want to sample its delights you will have to collect.

Oops didn't take a picture of the other page of the menu, which includes my favourite 'Aubergine in Lemon Grass Sauce'.

Music Monday: Otzeki - Falling Out on the New Cross Road

Yes I know this is not exactly news - Otzeki's Falling Out was released last year on Rough Trade. But the video starts with the message  'Thank you Ziggy for bringing freedom and happiness onto the streets of New Cross' and was seemingly shot outside the William Hill bookies at 174 New Cross Road (near to the junction with Queens Road)

318 New Cross Road - a little shop on a big day, 13 August 1977

The currently empty shop at 318 New Cross Road, next door to the New Cross House, was an important location in the 'Battle of Lewisham' forty years ago this weekend, when anti-fascist demonstrators confronted the far right National Front as they marched from New Cross to Lewisham.

 

The shop, most recently 'The Allotment' which closed earlier this year, had been empty too in 1977 when, shortly before the demonstration, it was occupied in the name of the Lewisham 21 Defence Committee. This was a campaign to support local young black people arrested in  police raids as part of an 'anti-mugging' operation and whose march through New Cross in July 1977 had been attacked by the National Front (the arrest of NF members on that day in turn prompted the NF to call their 13 August demo). As the local paper the Mercury reported (4 August 1977) the Alcoholic Recovery Project was due to move in:

'Squat  shock at a shop for charity

Squatters have taken over the new home of a charity for alcoholics. The squatters, members of the Lewisham 21 defence committee. took over an empty shop in New Cross Road, New Cross, last week.They broke in and cleared the place up to serve as campaign headquarters. But when they heard the shop was to become a centre for Lewisham's Alcoholic Recovery Project, the squatters said they would leave… shortly.

The project, a council-adied charity, had been negotiating the lease of the property for four months and was preparing to move in next week. It wants to use the shop as a reception area where alcoholics could go to receive advice and encouragement. The present owners of the property, Courage Breweries, sent a representative to speak to the squatters. He said "we will pursue our normal course of action was squatters, which is to go through the legal channels".

But it would take at least six weeks for the court order to go through, and the defence committee is prepared to "leave quietly". Members have agreed to get out after August 13, the date of the National Front demonstration in New Cross. The house is close to where the Front is due to congregate.

The committee is "defending" a number of young people charged with conspiracy to steal and loitering. It was named after the original 21 picked up in dawn raids by police on May 30'.

 

With the NF assembling in Achilles Street by Fordham Park, the shop overlooking Clifton Rise was a perfect place to act as HQ for anti-fascists on the day of the demonstration. It was probably for this reason that the police raided it on 13 August, sparking the first clashes of what was to be a long and violent day. According to the Mercury (18 August 1977),  at ten past noon police 'moved in to evict SWP squatters occupying a shop opposite Clifton Rise. An incident that lit the fuse for an explosive timetable of violence.... The SWP were occupying a derelict shop next to the New Cross House pub. Police broke down a door and evicted the squatters, arresting 7 people and taking a quanity of propaganda and banners' (not sure whether all those arrested were members of the Socialist Workers Party,  press reports from the time tended to label all the militant anti-fascists as SWP when in fact they were members of many groups and none - though the SWP did play a significant tole in the demonstration that day).

The Alcohol Recovery Project did move in to the shop later and remained there for at least the next twenty years.

Stan Firm inna Inglan at Tate Britain

 Tate Britain gallery is currently displaying 'Stan Firm inna Inglan: Black Diaspora in London, 1960s-1970s', featuring images by 'eight photographers who documented Black communities in London: Raphael Albert, Bandele 'Tex' Ajetunmobi, James Barnor, Colin Jones, Neil Kenlock, Dennis Morris, Syd Shelton and Al Vanedenberg'.

There are a number of outstanding South London images to be seen, including Syd Shelton's photographs from the New Cross/Lewisham anti-National Front protests of 1977...

A smoke bomb in New Cross Road, August 1977 © Syd Shelton

..and Neil Kenlock's early 1970s photographs of the British Black Panther movement, particularly in the Brixton area, including this one of girls with Black Panther bags.

© Neil Kenlock

Fox in the Snow

Fox in the snow, where do you go,

To find something you can eat? 

Cause the word out on the street

 is you are starving

(Prangsta window, New Cross Road, December 2015,

thanks to Jools for photo)

Deptford and Lewisham on film, 1922

The BFI's new Britain on Film Archive, launched today, no doubt has many local treasures among its 25,000 films available to view online. My favourite so far is remarkable film tour of Lewisham in 1922, featuring lots of high street scenes, along with Deptford High Street, Ladywell park and other locations: 'This exquisitely detailed tour of the south-east London borough of Lewisham traverses town centre tramways and the Rivers Ravensbourne and Quaggy, gliding past ornate-signed outfitters and grander edifices like the Chiesman Brothers department store. We visit Deptford High Street and Catford, glimpse women workers leaving a Watney's bottling plant - and schoolboys practising their country dancing'. You can watch the whole thing here. Here's some stills to whet your appetite.

Ladywell Park Cascades

Children playing in the River Quaggy

Bray & Bray opticians, New Cross Road

Chiesman Brothers department store, Lewisham High Street

Munro & Co Drapers, 141-143 Deptford High Street

New Cross Road c.1970

A remarkable picture of New Cross Road in around 1970 by Tony Sullivan.  Much of it hasn't changed, but note on the right on the corner of St James the building with 'A sign is a fine investment'. That is the Pearce Signs factory (featured here before with some photos of the inside of the factory).  Loring House -Goldsmiths student accommodation- now stands on that site.

London's Linguistic Wealth - a new world taking shape?

Multi-lingual wood carving in Fordham Park, New Cross

'One of the most complex, unique and fascinating aspects of London is its linguistic landscape. Its streets are rich with evidence that London is inhabited by people who speak and read many languages. Multi-lingual cacophony fills the air in all public places. Newsagents throughout London display an impressive range of of publications in a variety of scripts used by European and world languages. Business signs, service information, and adverts presented bilingually are a regular feature of the London scene'

There are many different forms of English itself in the city - Whistle and Flute dry cleaners (144 New Cross Road) derives its name of course from cockney rhyming slang for suit. Elsewhere there are signs reflecting African and Caribbean dialects of English.

Smokey Jerkey, New Cross Road

'The linguistic potential of London is a significant resource. Conditions need to be provided for future generations to develop attitudes that will enable them to make this potential beneficial to the city as a whole. Today nobody is truly monolingual. We are all exposed to different languages in education; on holidays; through film, media, music; we  use computer languages; we are exposed to signs and print in different languages on an everyday basis... The way London has embraced its cultural diversity inspires the thought that it cannot be too long before London also wakes up to the potential of its linguistic wealth'

( Dina Mehmedbegovic, '"Miss, who needs the languages of immigrants?" London's multilingual schools' in 'Education in a Global City: Essays from London', edited by Tim Brighouse and Leisha Fullick, London: Institute of Education, 2007)

Hong Kong City Chinese Restaurant, New Cross Road

Can Tho Vietnamese cafe, Old Kent Road

Kagyu Samye Dzong Tibetan Buddhist Centre, Spa Road SE16

For me 'linguistic wealth' isn't about turning this potential into economic value, but a social wealth that is freely available to everyone. Once you start to to pay attention to the range of scripts and languages in the city streets, let alone the different languages you hear being spoken, you are constantly struck by it. Children growing up in London are made aware from an early age of the range of symbols humans use to communicate, they may not be able to read all these scripts but they recognsise them as forms of language and in doing so they gain an understanding of how languages work, including their own main language. 

Polish biscuits and Jewish memorial candles (with Hebrew characters on box) in New Cross Sainsburys

In a world city like London, all parts of the world are represented in the city, and all its tongues are spoken. In Lewisham schools alone, pupils speak more than 170 languages (2012 figures). Is it utopian to see this multi-lingual metropolis as prefiguring a different kind of world human community, where all these languages and their speakers can coexist and intermingle in relative peace? Where these cultures and languages are not hermetically sealed entities but also through their proximity give birth to new forms of culture and language like 'Multicultural London English'? 

Maybe the future of the world is taking shape right now in New Cross Road, Rye Lane and Deptford High Street, and in the playgrounds of local schools.

Gracias - a Spanish name for 'English & Afro Caribbean Groceries' in New Cross Road
(formerly the Washline launderette)

Distribution of Chinese speakers in Lewisham schools 2012 - including Cantonese, Mandarin, Hokkien and other forms. 'Chinese-speaking children in Lewisham are heavily concentrated in North Lewisham, especially the East of Evelyn and New Cross, and in Lewisham Central wards'. Similar maps for other languages at Lewisham Joint Strategic Needs Assessment..