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Vigil and die-in for Moira Gemmill in London tonight Stop the Killing protest (courtesy Stop the Killing Coalition) 02

Vigil and die-in for Moira Gemmill in London tonight

Top design director was fifth cyclist to die in London this year
by John Stevenson
Mon, Apr 20, 2015 11:33
3

A vigil and die-in will be held in London this evening in memory of Moira Gemmill, the fifth cyclist to die on the roads of the capital this year.

Moira Gemmill, 55, died after being hit by a tipper truck at the notoriously hazardous junction of Lambeth Bridge and Millbank on April 9.

A leading light in Britain's design community, Ms Gemmill was renowned for her work as head of design at the Victoria and Albert Museum from 2002 to late 2014. She is credited with transforming the V&A to maake it feel, in the words of Mark Jones in The Guardian, "cared for and tended, light and airy, tranquil and engaging".

Ms Gemmill had recently been appointed director of capital programmes at the Royal Collections Trust, where she was to work on Windsor Castle, Buckingham Palace and Holyrood Palace in Edinburgh.

Five cyclists have been killed in collisions with motor vehicles in London this year. All five vehicles involved were HGVs and four were construction vehicles, leading to a call from Peter Murray, chairman of the New London Architecture forum, for architects to insist construction firms ensure that only lorries with properly trained drivers and the necessary safety equipment are employed on their sites.

Tonight's commemoration is being organised by the Stop Killing Cyclists advocacy group. Participants are asked to meet from 6pm for 6.30pm on Lambeth Bridge.

Stop Killing Cyclists said: "We ask as many of you as possible to attend and to remember our fellow cyclist as well as highlighting for the fifth time in just four months, the need for space and decent infrastructure for cyclists."

Moira Gemmill
London
collisions with HGVs
Stop Killing Cyclists
John Stevenson

John has been writing about bikes and cycling for over 30 years since discovering that people were mug enough to pay him for it rather than expecting him to do an honest day's work.

He was heavily involved in the mountain bike boom of the late 1980s as a racer, team manager and race promoter, and that led to writing for Mountain Biking UK magazine shortly after its inception. He got the gig by phoning up the editor and telling him the magazine was rubbish and he could do better. Rather than telling him to get lost, MBUK editor Tym Manley called John’s bluff and the rest is history.

Since then he has worked on MTB Pro magazine and was editor of Maximum Mountain Bike and Australian Mountain Bike magazines, before switching to the web in 2000 to work for CyclingNews.com. Along with road.cc founder Tony Farrelly, John was on the launch team for BikeRadar.com and subsequently became editor in chief of Future Publishing’s group of cycling magazines and websites, including Cycling Plus, MBUK, What Mountain Bike and Procycling.

John has also written for Cyclist magazine, edited the BikeMagic website and was founding editor of TotalWomensCycling.com before handing over to someone far more representative of the site's main audience.

He joined road.cc in 2013. He lives in Cambridge where the lack of hills is more than made up for by the headwinds.

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Quince | 9 years ago
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I hope this isn't insensitively off topic, but does anyone know if Buckingham Palace are still resisting the implementation of the East-West Cycle Route from outside the residence? In the light of this incident, I can't help but bring it to mind.

I hope the vigil gets the attendance it deserves.

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zanf replied to Quince | 9 years ago
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Quince wrote:

I hope this isn't insensitively off topic, but does anyone know if Buckingham Palace are still resisting the implementation of the East-West Cycle Route from outside the residence? In the light of this incident, I can't help but bring it to mind.

I hope the vigil gets the attendance it deserves.

The Royal Parks are resisting the implementation, to their shame.

The vigil was well attended but I have my own opinion about the effectiveness of them but this is not the time for it.

https://youtu.be/0_LR7lduwsI

Theres also plenty of photos on Twitter

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Pippo | 9 years ago
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How about only letting construction traffic in overnight? - did it during the Olympics and it worked just fine

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