The H28 Route

Thursday 18 July 2013

Another beautiful sunny day, and another H bus route, not very easy at either end: we could sum this up as Tesco to Tesco.  We were starting at the Gillette corner one, in Osterley, and finishing at Bull’s Bridge.

 Linda and I met at Osterley Station, Linda having had business in Feltham, and walked along the A4 for some way to reach Gillette Corner and the head stop of the H28. The Gillette factory is still handsome, though no longer in the razor business.

We left at 12.20, and looped around to get back to the main road and cross it into Northumberland Avenue.  We passed Syon Lane Station, which seems to be on a loop line into Waterloo, and forked left down Syon Lane at the Coach and Horses Pub, looking splendid and known (apparently) as the Pride of Youngs.

The lane wiggled a little before bringing us to the West Middlesex Hospital, and then took us into residential streets, where we were the only bus.  We came to some signs for some new build apartments,  with a notice saying they were part funded by the Mayor of London.  How nice it would be, if it were only true.  I think it means that they are part funded by the Mayor of London’s OFFICE, or rather by Council Tax and Tax payers. 

Next we had to stop for a level crossing, always exciting, and then headed back over the A4, to pass the Osterley Park Hotel, which we had walked pass on our way to the bus.  This route was startling in its zig zags.   We passed the Pyrene Sports Ground.  This was originally the sports ground of the Pyrene Works, which made munitions during the second world war 

At this point, we were passed by a carriage pulled by two white horses and decked for a wedding. We agreed they had a lovely day for it.

Then we went under the Tube line, and through some fine residential areas to cross the A4, again, and go under a railway bridge.  Here the houses were somewhat smaller, and the road narrow.  As we came towards Hounslow, we spotted the White Bear Pub, clearly thriving, as well as an Ambala sweet shop.  The website is enough to make anybody drool.  So then we were into Hounslow, passing the bus garage, which has little to recommend it from a passenger’s point of view. More attractive was the promise of Fayyaz, ‘the magic of hairdressing is happening here’.

By now the bus was full, as we headed straight through more residential areas along the Hanworth Road and then right into Wellington Park Road  (had we not gone right, we should have been in Richmond!).  We saw a former-pub-Tescos, and a former-pub-Sainsbury’s on almost consecutive corners, and then passed a handsome mosque.  The banners saying ‘Ramadan Mubarak’ made us think how hard it most be not to drink in this weather, especially as we passed a pharmacy announcing that the outside temperature was 30 degrees.  Terrace houses were interspersed with more modern buildings as we came past the Hounslow Indoor Bowls Club (which regrettably does not have a website that I can find).

Crossing the A4, yet again, we wondered why The Master Robert Hotel had a restaurant called the Aintree.  The internet has no answer, so I shall just speculate that a horse won the Grand National at sufficient odds to enable a hotel to be built. Meanwhile we headed in into another residential area, with narrow roads, hardened front gardens, though one had a redeeming hydrangea, and many parked cars.  We thought Summer House Lane an attractive name, but as we took a further turn through the estate we noted that many streets had aviation links:  Brabazon and Bleriot,

to name a couple.  Some well behaved children, possibly from Northfields School, though we weren’t sure, got on to travel with us to Heston Business Centre, and then we passed two pubs:  the Queen’s Head, with Elizabeth I as their sign, and the Jolly Gardeners.  We were sorry to see a completely derelict house, though building works seemed to have started.

We crossed the M4 precisely at Heston Services, and turned left to pass both Navigator Park and the Heston Business Centre and reach the end at 13.40.  By the way, I assume that Navigator Park is named for the aeroplane navigators, so necessary in this area until modern technology took over, but I can’t find corroboration.

This was a route which had wiggled over most of the main westward routes out of London, only to leave us far from where we wanted to be, and force us to have recourse to a mode of transport never before used on the Project.  Linda will tell you about in a couple of weeks.