Back in PoznaÅ„, western Poland, Tomek Siedlecki never planned on becoming London’s fastest rickshaw rider. Nor could he have fathomed he would earn a whacking £400 for a night’s work. Fast-forward two years, add a splash of European integration and an appetite for big city life and you’ve got it: Polish rickshaw rider extraordinaire hits the streets of London’s West End.
As he contemplates the Saturday night competition, swarming busily around Covent Garden, Tomek muses that London’s rickshaw trade is becoming just a tad too popular. “Before there were only half as many bikes and it was much better”, he says, in near perfect English, ignoring the mid-winter chill which comes with the job. And he’s right. Transport for London (TfL) now estimates more than 1000 riders work the city’s streets.