Page 10 - PBCSeptember2014

Pickwick Bicycle Club Magazine Volume 11 No.2 September 2014 !10

Tale of two-wheelers: historic Pickwick Bicycle Club honoured with new plaque.
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144 Birthday of oldest Dickensian society in the world marked with
commemorative plaque at former Downs Hotel. (Ella Jessel Wednesday 25 June 2014)
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Members of the Pickwick Bicycle Club stand in front of the new commemorative Plaque.
Left to right, Sergeant Buzfuz, Samuel Pickwick, Alfred Jingle, Jack Martin,
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Mr Dumkins, Mr Pott, Bullman, and Mr Brooks. (Photograph: Hackney Citizen)
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Wearing jaunty straw boaters and impeccable striped blazers the gentlemen of the
Pickwick Bicycle Club met at Downs Road last Sunday, to unveil a plaque in their honour,
reminding the borough of it’s rich cycling history.
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The Pickwick Bicycle Club was founded in Hackney Downs in 1870 – back in the “dark ages
of cycling”. The Club was christened after Charles Dickens’ first novel the Pickwick
Papers and is both the oldest cycling club and Dickensian society still running, in the
world. All the members of the Club are known by sobriquets and are named after the
male characters in the Pickwick Papers such as Alfred Jingle, Sergeant Buzfuz and Mr
Dumkins. The Club President is always known by the name of the main protagonist,
Samuel Pickwick.
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Current Club President Mr Pickwick otherwise known as Peter Legg said that the former
Downs Hotel was the true home of the Club and the history of the Club is
“all around Hackney”. He said: “The founding members were pioneers of the bicycle.”