United Kingdom
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Information on World Naked Bike Ride events in the United Kingdom...
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The UK World Naked Bike Ride fund meets the cost of insuring rides
across the UK, and provides local organisers with money for
poster/flyer printing, advertising, ride equipment etc.
Please give generously.
Contents
Ride locations
See List of rides in United Kingdom or browse the United Kingdom category
Future rides
The 2011 rides will be held in June 2011. London will likely hold their ride on Saturday 11 June 2011, and Brighton on Sunday 12 June 2011. There is a possiblity of holding a southern hemisphere solidarity ride (this happened in Brighton in 2009).
The following rides have been confirmed as taking place in June 2010:
Friday 11 June 2010
- Southampton (assemble from 6pm for a 6.30pm departure)
- Manchester (assemble from 6pm for a 7pm departure)
Saturday 12 June 2010
- Edinburgh (assemble from 2.15pm for a 3pm departure)
- London (assemble from 3pm for a 3.30 departure) - also a 15 mile feeder ride starts near Heathrow around noon
- Cardiff (assemble from 3pm for 4pm departure)
Sunday 13 June 2010
- Bristol (assemble from 11am for a 1.30pm departure)
- Brighton & Hove (assemble from 12pm for a 1.30pm departure)
Saturday 19 June 2010
Other potential ride locations
Other towns that may participate in the future are:
- Bath
- Belfast
- Cambridge
- Exeter
- Glasgow
- Leeds (There is currently strong interest in a ride happening here)
- Oxford
- Totnes
These rides can be brought into being if organisers step forward and offer to work to make them happen. All rides are organised by local riders.
Other upcoming events
The World Naked Bike Ride anticipates holding a stall at the following events (among others).
Environmental Rock
Monday 3 May 2010, 12 noon - 6pm (times are approximate, check website for details)
The Hobbit pub, 134 Bevois Valley Road, Southampton, SO14 0JZ
Camden Green Fair And Bikefest
Sunday 6 June 2010
Regent's Park, London, NW1
(please get in touch if you can help with leafletting at this event).
Events After the WNBR
National Climate Camp
Global day of action
4 December 2010
As in previous years, there will likely be a bike ride protest before the main march in London. Although it's not advisable to go naked in cold weather, you could bring your WNBR flag and go "as bare as you can bear". Regardless of how you participate, the demo is very important and well worth attending.
Press enquiries
Press work is usually handled by local ride coordinators or press officers. For UK-wide information, see the United Kingdom Media Information page.
Posters
For the 2009 rides, full colour A4 posters have been printed for each ride. If more are needed, PDF versions of them can be downloaded for:
to be printable locally.
FAQs
The United Kingdom FAQ page answers questions especially relevant to UK riders and organisers.
Legality
UK laws relating to public nudity
The following links will be of interest to people organising rides in the UK:
- Sexual Offences Act 2003, Section 66 - Exposure (c/o the Office of Public Sector Information)
- Wikipedia: Sexual Offences Act 2003
- Laws relevant to nudity in public places from the Naturist UK Fact File (NUFF)
- Vincent Bethell explains UK law including his not guilty verdicts plus letters from New Scotland Yard saying Breach Of Peace is not applicable to public nakedness view main site: Stop Racist Human Skin Phobia (SRHSP)
Police restrictions
From 2004 to 2009, there have been 30 UK Naked Bike Rides with a cumulative total of 7,000+ riders in 11 locations, and no arrests.
It is unlikely that police will object to nudity at future rides in England and Wales. Local police officially acknowledged the legality of full nudity at all seven rides in 2008 and all five rides in 2007. They required people to wear clothes at three English rides (Brighton, Manchester and Bristol) in 2006, but have made no such restrictions at later events.
In contrast, Scottish police have never allowed full nudity at the two Edinburgh rides in 2004 and 2008.
For UK rides where full nudity wasn't permitted, police requirements of body coverage seemed to be similar. The groin area needed to be covered, as did female nipples. However, buttocks could be shown by either men or women.
Media coverage
This section needs updating. There have been much TV, Radio, print and online coverage of the WNBR in the UK, but most of this info is stored with the local ride's webpages.
General
2009
- The Guardian, The Guide, 13-19 Jun 2009: "World Naked Bike Ride"
- The Guardian Ethical Living Blog, 12 Jun 2009: "Riders get naked for a weekend of anti-car cycling demonstrations"
- Road.cc, 12 Jun 2009: "Naked bike rides today get your kit off and get on your bike!"
2007
- Morning Star, 10 Jun 2007: "Streaking cyclists highlight car addiction"
2006
- Don't Panic Media, Transport issue, Apr/May 2006: "World Naked Bike Ride 2006"
- Bike For All News, 4 May 2006: "Get set for bare butt biking on June 10th"
- BBC Learning English Weekender programme, ? Jun 2006: "Naked Bike Ride"
2004
- Bike Biz News, 12 Jun 2004: "Bike Week kicks off with glorious weather and media exposure"
History
Summary of the History
2010 - a prediction of 2,700 riders in 9 rides (all rides are part of part of Team Green Britain Bike Week 2010)
2009 - 2,330 riders in 7 rides
2008 - 1,842 riders in 8 rides
2007 - 1,437 riders in 5 rides (all were part of Bike Week)
2006 - 1,067 riders in 5 rides (all were part of Bike Week except Bristol)
2005 - 270 riders in 2 rides (both were part of Bike Week)
2004 - 130 riders in 3 rides in the UK during the first year of the WNBR
Please note, we haven't included in 2009 the 2 reported spontaneous rides with 2 riders each.
2010
Southampton - Fri 11 June, 6pm
Manchester - Fri 11 June, 6pm
Edinburgh - Sat 12 June, 3pm
London - Sat 12 June, 3pm (with a pre-ride route from Heathrow starting at noon)
Cardiff - Sat 12 June, 3pm
Bristol - Sun 13 June, 11am
Brighton & Hove - Sun 13 June, 12pm
Sheffield - Sat 19 June, 10am
York - Sat 19 June, 4pm
2009
- York: Fri 12 June, 5pm (100 riders)
- Southampton: Fri 12 June, 6pm (150 riders)
- Manchester: Fri 12 June, 6pm (100 riders)
- Sheffield: Sat 13 June, 10am (18 riders)
- London: Sat 13 June, 3pm (1,200 riders - largest daytime naked ride in history)
- Cardiff: Sat 13 June, 3pm (62 riders)
- Edinburgh: Sat 13 June, 3pm (2 riders - spontaneous/self-organised ride)
- Brighton & Hove: Sun 14 June, 1.30pm (700 riders)
2008
- Southampton: Fri 6 June, 6pm (156 riders)
- Brighton & Hove: Sat 7 June, 11am (400 riders, 8-mile route)
- York: Sat 7 June, 4pm (90 riders)
- Sheffield: Sun 8 June, 2pm (29 riders)
- Manchester: Fri 13 June, 6pm (90 riders)
- London: Sat 14 June, 3pm (1,000 riders, 6-mile route)
- Cardiff: Sat 14 June, 3.30pm (37 riders)
- Edinburgh: Sun 29 June, 3pm (30-40 riders) Police prevented full nudity, as in 2004.
2007
- York: Fri 8 June, 5pm (65 riders, 5-mile route)
- Southampton: Fri 8 June, 6pm (102 riders)
- Manchester: Fri 8 June, 6pm (50 riders)
- Brighton: Sat 9 June, 10am (220 riders, 7-mile route)
- London: Sat 9 June, 3pm (1,000 riders, 6-mile route)
2006
- York: Fri 9 June, 5pm (60 riders, 5-mile route)
- Manchester: Fri 9 June, 5pm (30 riders). Police prevented full nudity.
- Brighton: Sat 10 June, 10am (160 riders, 6-mile route). Police prevented full nudity.
- London: Sat 10 June, 3pm (800 riders, 6-mile route)
- Bristol: Sat 14 October (17 riders on a spontaneous route for 1 hour). Police prevented full nudity.
2005
- London: Sat 10 June, 3pm (250 riders, 6-mile route) The first ride for which police consented to nudity in advance.
- Bath: Sun 11 June (20 riders at the Wacky Races event for The Wheel Thing)
2004
- Edinburgh: Sat 12 June, afternoon (70 riders on a spontaneous route). Police prevented full nudity.
- Sussex: Sat 12 June – two brave riders made the smallest UK WNBR to date
- London: Sat 12 June, 8pm (58 riders on a negotiated spontaneous 2.5 mile route through Hyde Park)
Links
Websites
- WNBR UK (this website)
Discussion groups
- WNBR UK Yahoo! group
