Cycle all over London

Published November 23, 2022 Updated July 22, 2024

Cycle all over London playing cards published by Transport for London Street Management, 2003.

2003 United Kingdom Games & Print Services Transport

Published by Transport for London Street Management this pack is intended to promote cycling, and in particularly the London Cycle Guides, a series of 19 free cycle maps that cover the whole of the Greater London area. Cartoons of different cycling characters are repeated in each suit, and there are 2 identical jokers, which means there are 14 different designs in all.

Cycle all over London playing cards published by Transport for London Street Management, 2003 Cycle all over London playing cards published by Transport for London Street Management, 2003

Above: Cycle all over London playing cards published by Transport for London Street Management, 2003, printed by Games & Print Services of Canvey Island

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By Peter Burnett

Member since July 27, 2022

I graduated in Russian and East European Studies from Birmingham University in 1969. It was as an undergraduate in Moscow in 1968 that I stumbled upon my first 3 packs of “unusual” playing cards which fired my curiosity and thence my life-long interest. I began researching and collecting cards in the early 1970s, since when I’ve acquired over 3,330 packs of non-standard cards, mainly from North America, UK and Western Europe, and of course from Russia and the former communist countries.

Russian Playing Cards

Following my retirement from the Bodleian Library in Dec. 2007 I took up a new role as Head of Library Development at the International Network for the Availability of Scientific Publications (INASP) to support library development in low-income countries. This work necessitated regular training visits to many sub-Saharan African countries and also further afield, to Vietnam, Nepal and Bangladesh – all of which provided rich opportunities to further expand my playing card collection.

Since 2019 I’ve been working part-time in the Bodleian Library where I’ve been cataloguing the bequest of the late Donald Welsh, founder of the English Playing Card Society.

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