Davis Vilums, from Latvia, said the achievement makes him feel ‘part of the city’.
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A man from Latvia has completed the five-year task of cycling every single street in the centre of London, and said the experience has made him feel “part of the city”.
Davis Vilums mapped his cycle routes over half a decade in a task which also spanned multiple bikes and homes.
“When I came here for the first time I just fell in love with it,” the 32-year-old told the PA news agency.
“Even when I was growing up, following all the British media and shows, I just wanted to be part of this culture and this city, and I think I kind of achieved that – doing this was also kind of becoming a Londoner.”
The computer programmer, who first moved to the UK seven years ago, completed the majority of his journeys on his way to work, tracking his progress with GPS and GoPro footage.
He also highlighted his routes on A to Z maps of London.
“I was doing the same route every day and sometimes I was taking casually different routes just to see something else, to have a look around,” he said.
“I just decided I should log these streets I’ve taken – and the best way to do that was colouring in the streets.
“The first year flew very fast, the map expanded the central area, it was easy to accommodate this journey within my commute, but over time the routes got longer and longer so I ended up spending like two hours in the morning just commuting to the office.
“Sometimes it felt like it takes too much time but the closer I got to the edge of my maps I felt more and more excited.”
Mr Vilums completed his final street near Kilburn High Road in the north-west of the capital as it is furthest from his home in the south-east, finishing his half-decade journey at the end of September.
“I felt a sense of accomplishment, I felt that I’d done something and I don’t know exactly what to do next after this but I felt very proud,” he said.
Mr Vilums has been contacted by people across the world since achieving his goal, having posted a map of his routes to the social media site Reddit.
Among them was someone from Vancouver, Canada, who had completed a similar challenge.
Mr Vilums added that, although he has completed the map, he is still cycling and that in many ways the challenge is continuing.
“Currently my priority is going and revisiting the most enjoyable cycle paths,” he said.
“Like Regent’s Canal – I love that road … I couldn’t even explain it in proper words. Cycling is the best way to get around in central London.”
LONDON (AP) — David Bowie’s bedroom could soon be London’s newest tourist attraction.
The house where the musician grew from suburban schoolboy to rock ‘n’ roll starman has been bought by a charity that plans to open it to the public.
The Heritage of London Trust said Thursday that the 19th-century railway worker’s cottage in the south London suburb of Bromley will be restored to its 1960s decor and open to the public next year.
Visitors will be able to visit the 9-foot by 10-foot (2.7-meter by 3-meter) bedroom, “where a spark became a flame,” the charity said. The trust hasn't said how much it paid for the house.
Bowie, born David Jones, lived in the house from 1955, when he was 8, until 1967, when he was a 20-year-old working musician hungry for fame.
Geoffrey Marsh, co-curator of the Victoria and Albert Museum’s hit 2013 exhibition “David Bowie Is," said the house is where "Bowie evolved from an ordinary suburban schoolboy to the beginnings of an extraordinary international stardom.
“As he said, ‘I spent so much time in my bedroom, it really was my entire world. I had books up there, my music up there, my record player.'"
From Bromley, Bowie went on a creative journey that took him to Philadelphia, Berlin and New York, through eye-popping style changes and musical genres from folk-rock to glam, soul, electronica and new wave. His songbook includes classics such as “Space Oddity,” “Changes,” “Life on Mars,” “Starman,” “Young Americans” and “Heroes.”
The house project, backed by Bowie’s estate, has received a 500,000 pound ($670,000) charity grant and is seeking donations from the public. The heritage trust aims to open the house in late 2027 for public visits and creative workshops for children.
The announcement came as fans mark a decade since Bowie’s death at age 69 on Jan. 10, 2016, two days after the release of his final album, “Blackstar.”
A decade on, Bowie’s cultural legacy in music, style and design continues to inspire. His 90,000-item archive opened to the public last year at the V&A Museum's David Bowie Centre in east London.
George Underwood, a childhood friend, said that the house was where “we spent so much time together, listening to and playing music.
“I’ve heard a lot of people say David’s music saved them or changed their life,” he said in a statement. “It’s amazing that he could do that and even more amazing that it all started here, from such small beginnings, in this house. We were dreamers, and look what he became.”
