Knights errant of the road

Once one of London’s most distinctive tribes, cycle messengers are a dying breed

LAST TIME I WAS IN TOWN, something felt oddly different when I stepped into Clerkenwell Road, but I couldn’t put my finger on what it was. Then I realised what was missing: bicycle couriers. There were Deliveroo riders galore whizzing about on electric bikes but traditional tattooed road-warrior messengers of the sort that were common in the 1990s and 2000s, I didn’t see a single one. Could one of London’s most distinctive tribes be dying out? According to Jon Day, author of Cyclogeography: Journeys of a London Bicycle Courier, the short answer is yes. He worked for three years as a courier in the early 2010s and even then the profession was in decline. The problem, as with almost everything, is the internet. Thanks to ever-increasing bandwidth all those things…

You're reading a preview of

The Critic (Digital) - 1 Issue, December/January 2025

DiscountMags is a licensed distributor (not a publisher) of the above content and Publication through Zinio LLC. Accordingly, we have no editorial control over the Publications. Any opinions, advice, statements, services, offers or other information or content expressed or made available by third parties, including those made in Publications offered on our website, are those of the respective author(s) or publisher(s) and not of DiscountMags. DiscountMags does not guarantee the accuracy, completeness, truthfulness, or usefulness of all or any portion of any publication or any services or offers made by third parties, nor will we be liable for any loss or damage caused by your reliance on information contained in any Publication, or your use of services offered, or your acceptance of any offers made through the Service or the Publications. For content removal requests, please contact Zinio.