wtf is that

Looks like a small Nissen hut shelter for keeping parked bicycles dry. I'm surprised it hasn't got "Keep Right" arrows and reflectors around it so it is visible at night in the way that a parked car would need reflectors and would need to be parked so those reflectors were visible to approaching traffic.

cycle hangar. Installed by council so residents can lock their bikes under cover in streets of mostly terraced houses with no rear access .

Apparently they're called bikehangars ...

This link is a classic case where it would have been better to top post the reply.... Brian

Sorry, Brian, I forgot :-( The photo shows an end-on view of a half-cylindrical housing with metal panels on the curved surface and with wire-mesh ends. It is tall enough for bicycles to be parked underneath. Two legs are bolted to the kerb and the other two are bolted to the road. It extends about as far into the road as a parked car would do.

It has what looks like white reflectors so it probably has red ones on the other end and, judging by the way all the vehicles are pointing, it looks like a one way street.

It is a one-way street, I also wondered if it would have red reflectors on the other end, but it just has more white ones ...

Except that there are parking bays on the right side of the road and likely more on the left. If so, cars can be parked any way around and do not need to parked to show their reflectors.

Highway code rule 248:

"You MUST NOT park on a road at night facing against the direction of the traffic flow unless in a recognised parking space."

With your sidelights on too ?. Haven't seen people doing this for decades. There was a time when you could turn the indicator stalk to illuminate either nearside or offside sidelights when the ignition was off.

if there is a 30mph limit, you don't need lights on.

This rule assumes that there are street lights, but we have none in our village

Here's another in Fitzrovia,

It's outside a YHA hostel, the bay is marked for Cycles.

On 18/02/2022 18:20, charles wrote: ...

Perhaps the assumption is that a vehicle travelling at or below the speed limit should be able to see an unlit obstruction in time to avoid it, either by the light of street lights or in its own headlights.

Councils don't apply that thinking to skips on the road.

They are required to show lights after dark.

Exactly, so why aren't bike hangers required to have lights? Skips also need to buy a permit from the local authority.

Probably because a skip is a temporary thing and a bike hangar isn't.

They're both going to break your skull if you hit them.

Bill

I'll bet the hanger opens up on the pavement side to give the cyclists a head start on their quest of breaking as many of the highway code rules as possible whilst riding a child's toy.