Just in from the UK..... was originally a 1950's track bike !!
The Owner wrote !
Here is his story...
Hi, all,
This really excites me! I'm grateful to one of your group members who emailed me with the link to this thread, as he recognised my former bike! I have joined the group so I can respond, but I'm unsure of your protocols, so won't mention any names.
I am 1.94m tall, never became a bishop, and I suppose I could be described as a gnome from Dulwich, but have never aspired to the wealth of those other gnomes in Zurich....!
From 1981-1988 I was Chaplain at Alleyn's School in Dulwich, S. London, and in that role was also honorary assistant curate at St. Barnabas' Church, Dulwich - hence the link with SE21 7BP - our postcode. And I did indeed live, with my family, at no. 53, Gilkes Crescent.
The group member who alerted me ran the cycle shop in S. London where my children bought their first adult bikes, and he also kept an eye on my bike. I think it was he who suggested I had twin lat tubes fitted after he observed the considerable flexing of the 28" frame when I was pedalling the heavily loaded bike up steep hills in Wales with the cycling club. We went to Wales for a 7-10 day cycle tour straight after the end of every summer term, and your member came with us on one, maybe two of these trips - as did the friend who gave me the bike: he had given it to me in 1976, delighted that I was about to train for the ordained ministry, and having seen the dilapidated condition of my previous bike, which must have been decades old and not well maintained, I'm ashamed to say.
He understood from the seller that it was built as a track bike in the 1950s, and that the tight rear geometry of the frame was an indicator of this. Incidentally, aside from the cycle club at the school, I also ran a 6th form activity once a week at the Herne Hill velodrome - as suggested by one of your correspondents - but we rode the 'official' fixed wheel bikes, not our own, obviously.
I think I'm right in saying that I had all the lugs except one pair of water bottle lugs on the saddle tube fitted. And your member is right - the finish was applied by me with a brush and Hammerite after it was professionally sandblasted. That was done while I was in Dulwich, so before 1988. It has never been so intensely ridden since those days, I'm sorry to say....
I'm afraid I can offer no help in actually identifying the builder, but will ask the friend who gave me the bike and let you know if he can shed any light.