Rouleur 20: Farewell to Perren St.

We couldn’t let the twentieth edition of the magazine pass by without marking several milestones in Rouleur’s short but celebrated lifetime.

Riders take a back seat for once as we celebrate the art of the bicycle, with legendary manufacturers De Rosa, Nagasawa, San Marco, Time and TA all receiving the Rouleur treatment, with images from Gerard Brown, Taz Darling and Ben Ingham.

We have included a style section with a difference, shot in the weird and wonderful Essex bungalows of east London’s cycling clubs. Regular columnists Johnny Green, Matt Seaton and William Fotheringham wax lyrical on their component of choice. Mike Barry – father of Team Sky pro and Le Metier author Michael Barry – turns out to be a world authority on the seemingly dry, yet strangely intriguing, subject of derailleurs…

That’s 162 pages of bikes, bits and the stories behind them, marking our departure from Kentish Town and Rapha HQ to our very own offices in Shoreditch. What better way to celebrate Rouleur’s coming of age than with the perfect symbol of tinkerers and bodgers alike – the bike shed, shot on the roof of Imperial Works, Perren St.

“It happened by accident…well, most of it. We wanted to shoot the inside of a bike shed, so we spoke to set designer Rhea and model maker Luke and the rest was down to some seriously hard graft by them.

“The fact that we shot it on the roof at the old Rouleur HQ and Rapha's offices at Perren Street was down to Taz deciding it was the perfect setting, and as we'd just moved out, it just seemed fitting. Which meant that the shed had to be rebuilt there…

“We can't thank Luke aan de Wiel, Rhea Thierstein, Simon Watts, Samara Tompsett, John Sutcliffe (the model), Gino (the other model) and Ben Ingham enough as they all worked really hard to make the one shot work. That's it really - the farewell to Perren Street.

Guy Andrews - Editor

De Rosa | Herbie Sykes
Specialties TA | Graeme Fife
San Marco | Guy Andrews
Time | Rohan Dubash
Nagasawa | Daisuke Yano
What Goes Around | Guy Andrews
Ugley | Ian Cleverly