As part of the 60th anniversary Festival of Britain celebrations, yesterday afternoon a group of south east London cyclists decorated their bikes with artificial flowers, and headed to the Royal Festival Hall on the south bank of the River Thames. The event was a recreation of the floral parade which took place in Haringey during the Festival of Britain in 1951.

At the Southbank Centre we we greeted with stalls heaving with real flowers and helium-filled balloons, and encouraged to do a proper job on our bikes. This we did, sat around for a good while, drank coffee and chatted. Then came the parade itself, which was brief, and headed by a group of lady Highland bagpipers from Dagenham. Only in England.

I – clad in 21st century Lycra, following an exhausting morning helping my friend Teri lead a Sky Ride Local around the Olympic canal ring – had an interesting ride back to Greenwich along the Thames path, with all sorts of reactions to my decorated sport fixie.

More photos here.