Tally Ho! Cycle Tours

a cool wind laced with the fatty, charred smell of tandoori and frying onions slapped at my cheeks as we whipped through an east end street. rows of identically bland housing estates with conspiratorially small slits for windows and matte yellow walls seemed to repeat themselves like a wraparound background in an old cartoon. at the turn of a corner we were passing a sun-polished canal squeezed between houses with front gardens full of pansies, blue in colour and candied in smell.after coiling through more hilly alleyways and wonky streets, we arrived at a chalky-brick railway arch converted into several warehouses. one unit had a blue sign reading: ?jensen's?; inside, shelves upon shelves glinting with bottles of gin.i was on a new gin-themed cycling tour in london's east end, launched by the five-star south place hotel in the city of london, in collaboration with quirky cycling tour company tally ho!. the experience is suitably high end for a package offered by one of london's hippest luxury hotels. think yellow vintage pashley bikes, and a tour guide called tom with a phd in sports history as well as an adoration of all things gin (obscure england rugby facts available on request).