Cycle – Flower – Power: Manchester to London Cycle Ride (Grand Depart)

On Thursday 14 May a small team of cyclists will set off from Manchester Art Gallery to cycle to Bethnal Green in East London on a ride to promote Manchester Galleries Partnership’s environmental activities, which include urban gardening, a wildflower rooftop garden, urban beekeeping and the promotion of staff cycling.

The journey of approximately 250 miles will take three days with stopovers in Swadlincote in Derbyshire, Compton Verney art gallery in Warwickshire and the city of Oxford.

The ride is a partnership event with The Chelsea Fringe Festival, Grow Wild, River of Flowers and The Pillbox Kitchen in Bethnal Green. It is also one of the events of The Chelsea Fringe Festival which runs from 16 May to 7 June. The Chelsea Fringe Festival is an alternative to The Chelsea Flower Festival and last year attracted 200,000 visitors to its events.

For the event our project partner, River of Flowers, will curate a bespoke Manchester-themed wildflower and edible seedmix. Packets of the seedmix will be distributed at events and locations along our journey, helping us to promote the importance of urban wildflower planting and pollination. A unique inclusion in the seedmix is White Melilot which originated from the old canal bed of the Manchester, Bolton and Bury Canal which itself started only 500 meters away from Manchester Art Gallery.

The ride culminates at The Pillbox Kitchen in Bethnal Green, also part of The Chelsea Fringe, who will make honey ice cream using Bee- Raphaelite honey from our rooftop hives. There’ll also be talks on urban wildflowers and urban bee-keeping along with wildflower seed giveaways.

Last year our project partner Grow Wild, based at Kew Gardens, funded a small orchard of apple trees outside the gallery and this year are funding a sensory and medicinal garden which will be completed in April ahead of the ride.

More information on the Cycle – Flower – Power: Manchester to London Cycle Ride website.

 

PLEASE NOTE: This event is listed in our cycling events calendar for Greater Manchester. It is not organised by Manchester Friends of the Earth nor the Love Your Bike campaign and does not necessarily reflect their policies. We recommend checking with the organisers in case of a change of time or location.

Event Details

Manchester
60+ miles

Location Manchester Art Gallery
Manchester, M2 3JL
Start Thursday 14 May 2015 7:30am
Finish Thursday 14 May 2015 8:30am