Support road.cc

Like this site? Help us to make it better.

Architect Francis Golding, injured at Holborn last week, dies of injuries

Tenth cyclist to die in London this year

The cyclist hit by a left-turning coach at Holborn last week has died of his injuries. Francis Golding, 69, was hit on Thursday evening at the junction of Southampton Row and Vernon Place.

Mr Golding was taken to St Mary's Hospital for treatment, but was pronounced dead at the hospital on the evening of Friday 8 November.

He is the tenth cyclist to die on London’s roads so far this year and the third since 2007 to be killed at this junction.

The coach and Mr Golding are believed to have both been turning left toward Euston at the time of the crash.

Sainsbury’s security officer Omar Sillah said: “I heard a bang and I rushed out to see what was happening. I saw the man on the floor bleeding. His body wasn’t moving.”

Metropolitan police said that the coach stopped at the scene, but the driver was not arrested.

Francis Golding was an architecture expert and planning consultant who was head of the Royal Fine Art Commission 1995-1999.

Most recently Mr Golding worked as a townscape consultant, advising architects and developers on how new buildings should fit in with their surroundings.

Police have appealed for witnesses. The collision is being investigated by officers from the Road Death Investigation Unit at Northolt.

Anyone who can assist is asked to contact the appeal line 020 8842 1817.

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.

Latest Comments