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Institute, a sports club designed to keep young men off the
streets. New Street has been renamed Braganza Street, and is
about 100 yards from where I live, on Doddington Grove. De Laune

Street, Sharsted Street and Faunce Street are all ne ago.arby,
though the Faunce Arms was converted into housing about 15
years

The ‘De Laune Institute Cycling Club’ got going in the spring of

1889, and quickly became a victim of its own success. The problem
was that, with then new cycling ‘craze’ being so popular, lots of
young men were cycling with the club, without being members of
the Institute, so there was a falling out and the ‘De Laune Cycling
Club’ set up on its own. Looking for a meeting place, the cyclists
relocated to a tuck shop at Kennington Cross, where they were

able to buy ginger beer.

I wanted to find out a bit about the Institute, but so far I’ve
almost completely drawn a blank. I can’t find out anything of when
it was originally founded, or how long it lasted after the split

happened at the end of 1892.

After that the only evidence I’ve found is a single photo of the DL
Institute athletics team in 1893. By the time of De Laune CC’s
‘coming of age’ in 1909, 22 New Street had been knocked down and
another in its place. If anyone can help with any sources about

the Institute, please let me know.

Our Club has had its ups and downs over the years: even in 1901
it was having problems. While there were 82 riders on the books,

only 18 had paid their subs. Some of the competitions being run

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