Lily Cole has her £600 bicycle stolen from near university

By Paul Revoir

On foot: Model and actress Lily Cole has to resort to walking round Cambridge after her bike was stolen


It was her pride and joy. A £600 Pashley Princess Sovereign complete with charming wicker basket.

Perched elegantly upon the saddle, Lily Cole would regularly be seen gliding along the streets of Cambridge with her fellow students.

But now her excursions have been cruelly curtailed. For Miss Cole's cherished bicycle has been stolen.

And to add insult to injury, the culprits didn't even consider the basket worth taking.

The 21-year-old model, who is reading history of art at the city's university, said: 'They took the basket off and left it on the ground. I think that was the most hurtful part of the ordeal.

'I bought the bike because it had a nice basket and they just left it there.
'I had to take some photos of it.'

Cycle theft, often carried out by organised gangs, is a serious problem in Cambridge.


Cambridge mode: The model and actress said the bike was her pride and joy


Two-wheeled girl: Lily spotted around Cambridge before her £600 Princess Sovereign Pashley bike was stolen


The actress who appeared opposite the late Heath Ledger in the recently released The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus, is now in her second year at the university.

It is understood that the cycle was stolen somewhere around the university campus.

She has often been spotted pedalling along on her top-of-the-range Pashley Princess Sovereign bike, which is described as a 'quintessential English town and country bicycle.' Miss Cole claims she had always taken great care of her beloved bike.

Miss Cole said: 'I don't park it at the station. The station is like a cesspit of cycles. It's a bit ugly, so I don't take my bike there.

'I don't think it's nice to put it in so much danger.'

The model, who recently stripped off for the provocative Pirelli calendar, has admitted she has found it hard to adjust to life as a student in Cambridge.

She claimed she found last year, her first at the university, 'hard to settle in' and found the experience 'really weird'.

Miss Cole said: 'I was a bit shell-shocked, but I think everyone finds that. This year is much nicer, and the courses are a lot harder.'

She won a place a place at Cambridge University four years ago to study social and political sciences but took two gap years to concentrate on her modelling career.

She has always said she plans to enjoy university life but will continue modelling in the holidays.

She had said: 'I've always been interested in art, and I love doing art.'

Miss Cole has appeared in magazines such as Vogue and has modelled for Marks & Spencer.


Bad girl: Lily (front left) and her St Trinian's co-stars
Her appearance in The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus was her first lead acting role.
She is thought to have earned more than £11million from her work.


Over 300 bikes are stolen a month in the first few months of each academic year in Cambridge.

In the first ten months of 2009, more than 1,900 bikes were stolen in the city, a 13 per cent increase on 2008.


Lily Cole and the late Heath Ledger in Terry Gilliam's The Imaginarium Of Dr. Parnassus


source: dailymail