Exhibition: No Ordinary Bicycle: John Kemp Starley and the two-wheeled revolution

John Kemp Starley (1855 – 1901), born in Walthamstow, played a key role in the development of the modern bicycle.

Starley’s modifications to the ‘safety’ bicycle enabled more people than ever before to access this form of transport, leading to the ‘bicycle craze’ of the late 19th century.

The exhibition explores Starley’s developments, still reflected in bicycles today, and celebrates his legacy in terms of the bicycle’s unimagined social impact on health, social mobility and sustainability throughout the decades both here and abroad.