Wednesday 17 October 2012

The Number 404 Route

Wednesday 17 October 2012

For this Surrey jaunt, Linda and I (Mary being on a brief holiday) were joined by Zara, from the London Councils Press Office.  Some of you may remember that we had met her a few months ago, when we stopped by their offices for a brief media frenzy.  The Freedom Pass office is a bit concerned that people will be confused by the Mayor's new, and very different, 60+ pass, and wanted to talk to us about explaining the differences.  So we invited her to join us, and she did!

Just before we climb on the bus, I will explain, briefly, that it seems the Mayor's Pass will only apply to TfL travel, ie not Birmingham, Barnstaple or Bradford buses, nor non-TfL trains running within the London area, nor buses in the London area  which are not TfL controlled (like the 402, I suppose).  Plenty of scope for confusion, and the risk is that people will phone the Freedom Pass office, not the Mayor's Office, with their queries.  And if some councils cut the Freedom Pass for old people as part of their budget plans (see Lewisham's ideas here)  I suppose it's possible that a 60 year old with a Mayor's Pass might get free travel to and from work, while an 80 year old does not get free travel at all.

I may have all that wrong, but only time will tell.

 Anyway, after a brief walk from Coulsdon South Station, we boarded the once-an-hour single decker at 10.20, bound for Caterham on the Hill.  We passed the Library, with its fine clock provided by the Rotary Club, and HydroHounds, which offers canine hydrotherapy for a multiplicity of conditions.

We headed along the high street, now available for shoppers, since there is a by pass, and along to the Coulsdon Area Farm, which has a range of activities on its land, past the station and some planned new build homes, and out towards Farthingdown and New Hill which is an area controlled by the Corporation of the City of London.

Turning left off Marlpit Lane, we headed steeply up through residential streets, where several houses had been improved by fancy plastering, and we had fine views down into the valley between the properties. We came to Bradmore Green, with its pond loooking rather larger than normal after last night's rain, and so into Old Coulsdon.  There had been no shops among all the streets we had wiggled through, so clearly this bus is useful for taking people to buy what they need.  Narrow, steep roads like Homefield Road seemed to reflect the agricultural past of this area, where sheep could graze on the chalk uplands, while people lived in the valleys and grew their crops on the clay.  Most of the front gardens were hardened, unsurprisingly, given the narrowness and heavy use of these little roads.

Another sign of the country roots of this area was a pub called the Fox, closely followed by another called the Tally Ho.  we noted that Coulsdon Common was also controlled by the Corporation of the City of London.

This brought us to Caterham on the Hill, and its varied shops;  Ross Cycles had diversified into fireworks, presumably only between now an 5 November.

Some parts of Caterham had a really villagey feel, with terrace houses among the shops, but some were less attractive, with flats (or maybe offices) hidden behind concrete screening.

On through, we came to Westway Common, where our bus terminates, only a handful of passengers having stayed beyond the village centre.

The trip had taken just over 20 minutes, and the charming driver expressed interest in our project before pointing us the way to head down the hill to Caterham station where our next bus waited.

We had had lovely sunny weather for this brief excursion through some of the commuter lands of Surrey.







8 comments:

  1. Wow Bradford buses in London are always punctual and maintain correct time usually we use online bus reservation to to reserve tickets for a peaceful journey

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  2. No - Lewishan council are not planning to cut standard Freedom passes only Discretionary Freedon passes that are given to under 60s with some health problems.

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  3. Really enjoy reading these, Good to see the 404 being covered. :)
    Though a little confused by the order of the pictures - the last few are of Coulsdon (where you started), not Caterham.

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  4. plasterer surrey
    Hi There, I just spent a little time reading through your posts, which I found entirely by mistake whilst researching one of my projects.

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  5. plasterer surrey
    I can`t make that rally (Jean)....I don`t need any information on the HST, perhaps I can attend a future rally, I did partake in last night`s phone town hall meeting with Adrian..



    Cam...Don`t underestimate the public anger....

    I`m not worried about it, it came too me last night, the people, families, seniors, students, they are silently terrified of the BC Liberals...

    They know the Christy Gordon Campbell Clark Liberals must be removed from power, the HST referendum will be won easy...If we lose it will be through fraud..

    The biggest risk for the BC Liberals is they win the referendum.

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  6. This comment has been removed by the author.

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  7. plasterer surrey
    RPS Plastering Service base in Sutton with works carried out with in the M25 and surrounding areas.
    Since discovering that I lived in the middle of the site of an historic artistic community, I have been on a fascinating journey following the trail of the Haslemere peasant arts. A story that needs to be told

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