The P 13 Route

Wednesday 8 May 2013

This, Mary’s and my second bus of the day, departed from the Bus Station which nestles under the wing of the pending Streatham Leisure Centre.  Unlike our first bus, the G1, this one rolled from its resting place right on time and we were off by 11.55.  It was again a single decker with only one door, and was going to take us to the big Sainsbury’s at New Cross Gate.

We headed up through Streatham, passing a range of shops, varying from the plebeian to the smart, but all interesting, and past the Odeon Cinema, as well as the Leigham Practice, whose promise is ‘restoring balance’. 

Then we turned right along Downton Avenue, and were into Tulse Hill, with lovely small semis, mostly boasting attractive porches.  Hillside Road took us to Hillside Gardens, and the end of Alice’s road, and then we came to Pizza Godfather, with the logo showing the godfather’s hand operating puppet strings of the letters.

 Tulse Hill turns seamlessly into West Dulwich, and we passed the Trevor Bailey Sports Ground, which proves to belong to Dulwich College, the large private school which owns a lot of property round here.  We also passed Dulwich Stables, whence comes the manure for Mary’s allotment.  Then we turned left up Underhill Road, with excellent views of Crystal Palace to the right, and reached the graveyard at the top of the hill, before heading down again.  We were the only bus along here, until we reached the shopping streets, to admire the fine butcher’s shop of William Rose.  We also passed the Lord Palmerston pub and a couple of shops raising money for St Christopher’s Hospice.  The Bishop Pub had a chess piece for its sign, thus avoiding any accusations of disrespectfulness, we thought.

Next, we took a turn into the massive Sainsbury’s of East Dulwich, and  then passed through the large blocks of public housing along Lordship Lane before once again moving into streets of terrace houses.  I was amazed by the topiary of Bellenden School and then Mary pointed out her favourite book shop.    This is very much Mary’s neck of the woods. 

 I had not quite grasped that both Dulwich and Peckham lie between Streatham and New Cross, so it was all extra interesting to me.  We passed the mammoth Harris Peckham Academy, and were interested to see that it includes a Free School:  yet another tax-payer funded establishment which is exempt from Gove’s National Curriculum.

Past Persepolis, emporium of wonderful Persian foods, and Peckham Pulse and the Library, we went into and out of the bus station with barely a pause.  And then we passed Queens Road Station, and were into New Cross, noticing the out of date politics of the fire station’s signage, before turning into yet another huge Sainsbury’s, to finish this South London journey at  12.55:  not exactly the 42 minutes suggested on the bus stop, but that may have been because we experienced a bit of a diversion around Bellenden Road.