Jack

how did you come across Brompton Bikes? 

My Dad’s always been into folding bikes, he had a Bickerton which he used to carry around in a big blue carrier bag, so I’ve always known what a folder was. 

It wasn’t until I started commuting to London from Essex that I saw the Brompton bikes and got to know the brand. 

Then I got a job photographing on that TV show W1A, where the Brompton was a bit of a gag in some of the scenes with Hugh Bonneville struggling to fold the bike. After the show, they offered that bike to the staff to buy, and I didn’t go for it, and always regretted it! 

how did you end up getting your Brompton in the end? 

My Dad. He’d had one for ages, but was getting a bit older and it was just gathering dust as he’d stopped riding. So, I offered to buy it off him. He wanted to give it to me for free, but I couldn’t do that, so we settled on a reasonable price for all. 

But then he got jealous, so he bought a brand new one. 

have you done much to the bike since you got it? 

I’ve changed up various bits, but the main thing is that I’ve replaced the Brompton logo on the frame of the bike. A family member of mine works for a brewery called Match Day, and he had some stickers which fitted perfectly in the logo’s place..! 

do you take it if with you whilst your working? 

I do. I work as a photographer so I travel round quite a bit. I often keep in in the boot of my car and I drive to places so I can park up and use the Brompton for half the journey. 

I’ve even rode it around Albert Square (Jack works often on the Eastenders set)!

during the pandemic you started WalthamStayHome, taking photos of people on their doorsteps to raise money for Eat or Heat. Where did the idea come from? 

It was an idea between me and my wife. It was really a way to get me out of the house, as work had totally stopped at that point.  

I’d seen people doing similar things, but they were all charging for it, so we thought why not do it to raise a bit of cash for a local charity. My wife wrote up an Instagram and shared it across some of the local Facebook community groups, and it just blew up straight away! 

It was weird and amazing at the same time looking back. I mean, once I was the first person to meet a families new baby, how mad is that. 

And I did the whole thing on a bike, quite a lot on the Brompton actually.