This being the day of a 5 bus marathon, we should have appreciated a prompt start; but while we were early at Victoria, the 73 was a bit slow to appear, and so we did not leave until 10.30: and then, even before getting to the end of Park Lane, the destination was changed to King’s Cross: so we got off in the Tottenham Court Road and immediately hopped on to the following bus. We must have hit the only gap in the day-long stream of 73s that so annoys people waiting for the 390.
The bus was very full from the start, though thinned down a bit along Oxford Street.
We were able again to admire Grosvenor Gardens, with its two little shell encrusted huts (function not discoverable) and the Rifle Brigade Memorial about which there is a very interesting article in the War Memorials Trust Spring 2008 online magazine. 10 times as many riflemen died in the First World War as in the Second. We also glimpsed the blue plaque that indicates that Ian Fleming lived at 22 Ebury Street
As we went up Park Lane we caught sight of the very new memorial to the victims of the bombings of 7 July 2005 which looks to Jo as if the architect had had a good look at the New Zealand Memorial at Hyde Park Corner.
Oxford Street was very slow, but our driver evened things out a bit by going over many just-red lights. We passed many familiar objects, and as the Euston Road was also slow we had time to admire them all. We noted that the old Kings Cross Thames Link Station is still open for access: a long walk underground! Then we were into Islington, along Upper Street, noting the splendid hanging and kerbside flowers before moving away from the 4 and 19 route at Islington Green. We spotted a blue plaque saying that Collins’ Music Hall had once stood here.
Stoke Newington has many fine buildings and another blue Plaque (bear with us, we had been rather starved of them recently) for Daniel Defoe. There was also social housing of various periods, Hugh Gaitskell House dated fairly clearly by its name, and the Guiness Trust Estate, which seems to bear no relationship to the beer peer who so miraculously recovered from Alzheimers some years ago. Moving into Haringey, we came to Seacole Court, before arriving at Seven Sisters Station and heading down the Victoria Line to get to Walthamstow and the key bus of the day, the 20.
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