The Traditional Shops & Restaurants of London

"A gentleman," Winston Churchill once observed, "buys his hats at Locks, his shoes at Lobbs, his shirts at Harvie and Hudson, his suits at Huntsman and his cheese at Paxton and Whitfield."

Luckily for the gentlemen (and gentlewomen) among us, all of these shops and dozens more are still in business, providing the traditional British goods and food that they've been supplying Londoners for a century or more. More than fifty venerable stores and eateries, including Witcomb Cycles, are profiled in this book.

Bespoke shirt-makers, hatters, haberdashers, perfumers, bookstores, chemists, an umbrella maker, and chocolatiers are only a few of the small specialist shops included, most of which are located in the most quaint and beautiful settings in London.

The Traditional Shops & Restaurants of London: A Guide to Century-Old Establishments and New Classics
Authors: Eugenia Bell and Phil Nicholls (photo)
Publisher: Little Bookroom
Year: 2007
ISBN: 1-892145-46-4
Size: 11.94 x 14.48 x 2.79cm
Number of pages: 256
Weight: 386gr
RRP: £9.99

A Bicycle is Born

All our bicycles start their lives in a small box as nothing more than a few tubes of steel. Another small box brings the lugs that will help hold the finished frame together.

Barry's favorite material is steel. He usually uses Columbus steel, imported from Italy, but he can also use Reynolds steel depending on the customer requirements and needs.

When a customer orders a new bicycle, Barry spends some time measuring them and finding out what sort of cyclist they are. He can then apply this information to the geometry of the new frame, making sure it is perfectly suited to the customer's specifications.

Contrary to most other framebuilders, Barry does not work with a jig, a guide, to build his frames. He has been in the trade for almost 50 years now and can work by sight only. His creations are perfectly balanced and will last decades. The only tool he really needs is a hearth for the brazing of the frame. The hearth at Witcomb Cycles comes from the old E.A. Boult workshop and was bought second hand in 1928.

It takes about 3 days from the opening of the box of steel tubes for the basic frame to be completed. The frame is then polished and shot-blasted, then returned to us for checking the quality, build, and trueness of the frame. At this point we add on any braze-ons such as cable guides, water-bottle screws, mud-guard and luggage rack eyelets, plus any other frame attachments that are requested. Again the frame is filed down and shot-blasted, then coated in primer.

It returns to the workshop for one last check, and then the long process of enameling the frames is ready to start but that's another story...

Deptford, Properly

Deptford offers an interesting collection of original and sometimes quirky shops and businesses, from Manze's, the century old pie and mash shop, to the egg shop or our own workshop.

Tucked away in the alley on the side of our shop, is another addition to this wonderful collection. Deptford Properly, a new café which opened in August this year, is already drawing a crowd of regulars. And that includes some of our staff!


With its bohemian chic look of mismatched crockery and second hand furniture, the café , which is run by the Utrophia Arts Project, also has a gallery showing works by local artists. Crafts objects are also on display and for sale and special events take place on Sundays, such as a knitting circle (second and fourth Sundays of the month).

Most interesting of all is the delicious selection of vegetarian meals, home-made cakes, sponges and other muffins. So if you are visiting our workshop, do it Properly and go and say hello to our friends across the road.

Deptford Properly is open, Wednesday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday, from 10am till 7pm.
(We REALLY recommend the cheesecake.)

Deptford Properly

Witcomb Cycles on the web

Almost two weeks after the end of the London Cycle Show, search engines are starting to yield their crop of reviews from various cycling sites. And it seems that Witcomb Cycles' return to the public gaze has indeed been noticed. Below are a few extracts:

Zeitgeist and Me
There was one exhibitor who did delight my tweedy old-fashioned tastes in all things cycling and that was Witcomb Cycles. Ernie Witcomb and his son Barry have been hand-building lugged steel frames in south London for over 50 years. Nothing has changed in the styling, the odd concession to modernity aside, they are pretty much indistinguishable from a road bike of the 1940s. They are beautiful works of craftsmanship, each frame individually tailored to the height, weight and riding style of the customer. Of course such attention to detail and bespoke design does not come cheap (upward of £1500 for a frame alone) but it is a pleasing sight to see someone making things on a small scale, with care and tremendous skill rather than shipping the whole operation off to a sweat shop overseas with an "it'll do" attitude. The Renaissance Monkey

Handmade in London
The well respected Witcomb Cycles were at the show celebrating nearly 80 years of producing handmade bicycles. Ernie Witcomb, founder of the Witcomb brand back in 1949, was present to enthuse about his bicycles, even at the ripe old age of 89. Witcomb Cycles' range has undergone changes in recent years, and the beautiful white carbon frame, carefully colour-coordinated to match the company's distinctive colour scheme, naturally drew crowds. But the real crowd pleaser at the stand was the selection of intricately designed classic framesets on display. The attention to detail and expert craftsmanship on the frames is exactly why Witcomb have earned so much respect, and the models on display were breathtaking. However, the recent transformation of the Witcomb brand, which now commands a £1,350 base price tag on its steel frames, may prove to be a controversial move. A position as one of cycling's prestige brands is no less than Witcomb deserves, although whether this will isolate the mainstay of the company's urban-cool admirers or drive people towards less distinctive imported carbon-fibre frames remains to be seen. Cycling.tv

Harold's top picks...
Witcomb Cycles: There were a lot of high-end, computer-designed aerodynamic slabs of carbon on show, but I've got to admit that I'm a sucker for a hand built bike, especially one with such a classic look and proven heritage. The custom design and finish I had my eye on at the show would be a little tough on my own wallet, all polished chrome and carefully sprayed tubes, but I can at least daydream. Cycling.tv

The TredzTalk reviewer simply "had a massive soft spot for the Witcomb frames" while Domestique on Another Cycling Forum thought that our "Barbers pole" designs were "pretty tasty". Road Cycling UK are happy to proclaim "Witcomb Cycles back in business". Others, on London Cycle Sport thought that images speak louder than words: here and here. Local bloggers have nice things to say about us too:

Absent Moments
Firstly news of great things afoot over at the south end of Deptford High Street. Our very own local bike makers Witcombs are having a big revamp. Far from planning to move out of the city, as was gloomily predicted in the Deptford Lives film I saw at the festival earlier this year, they have launched a new line of frames (customise the look as well as the technical details, courtesy of local lad and leading designer Tony), cleared out the shop, and there are even rumours of a cafe! Meanwhile, Barry and Ernie have now got a blog, so check it out and see what's happening over that neck of the woods. Deptford Dame (thank you for the link, your Ladyship)

Lewisham Council have also produced a few articles about us in their various publications which are still available online (as pdf files) if somewhat older and not completely accurate:
The Frame Game - Business Life, Feb/Mar 2006
Made to Measure - Lewisham Life, Jul 2007

Finally, Witcomb Cycles now has its own Wikipedia entry.

Mr Phoebus

Sir Edward Elgar started cycling in 1900 when living near Malvern, and his first bicycle were Royal Sunbeams. He purchased two of the machines with 28inch frames and three brakes and nicknamed them both Mr Phoebus. He was proudly pictured with it in an article appearing in The Sketch in 1903.

Elgar's most creative period, the first decade of the 20th century, were his cycling years. He would often cycle 50 miles in a day, and found inspiriation for his music when riding in the countryside of Worcestershire, Herefordshire, Gloucestershire and occasionally Shropshire. One of his cycling companions remembered: “As we rode, he would often become silent and I knew that some new melody or, more probably, some new piece of orchestral texture, had occurred to him”. In his birthplace museum there are maps of the area on display on which Elgar traced the routes of his rides.

Worcestershire County Council has installed cycle stands and a plaque celebrating Edward Elgar's status as a keen cyclist behind the Elgar Statue in the High Street, Worcester.

Five stands and a plaque have been installed at a cost of £2,000 following requests from the South Worcestershire Cycle Group.

The Malvern Hills Brewery have named one of their ales after Elgar's bikes.

Sculpting Elgar, Jemma Pearson talks about her creation of her cycling statue of Elgar - BBC Video Nation.