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Camden News - SIMON WROE
Published: 23 October 2008

Alan Bennett on his bicycle in Regent’s Park

Author’s anger as cyclists are driven beyond the fringe

HE is one of Britain’s leading playwrights and a 74-year-old man of letters who still cycles every day across Regent’s Park on his way to the BBC.
Now Alan Bennett, writer of the award-winning History Boys, is fighting to stay on his bike in the park – the last of London’s Royal parks to allow cycling, apart from Primrose Hill.
The reclusive writer, who lives in Camden Town, has given his vocal support to the Camden Cycling Campaign (CCC), which insists cyclists should be allowed on the park’s Broad Walk.
Mr Bennett said he would like to see a “less grudging, more imaginative attitude” towards cyclists from transport bosses.
“There’s plenty of room for everybody on the Broad Walk. I’m a very gentle cyclist anyway, so speed limits don’t apply to me,” he added.
A shared-use scheme for cyclists and pedestrians is currently on trial in the tree-lined avenue.
Park chiefs will decide if the cycleway will be made permanent after 18 months.
Mr Bennett began commuting by bike 40 years ago when he was performing Beyond the Fringe with Peter Cook, Dudley Moore and Jonathan Miller.
Cars in London had got faster over the years, he said, adding that the traffic on Regent’s Park Outer Circle was “monstrous and inequitable”.

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