The NUMBER 24 Route

Hampstead Heath (South End Green) to Pimlico

Thursday February 28 2019

Well, I had been really looking forward to this route as our last outing had been disrupted, and lo what happens today but a demonstration by black cab drivers that we encountered both coming and going. The day had started quite early on the Old Kent Road on a 168 which left us at Waterloo as the cab drivers were disrupting the bridges, so by the time we had waited 14 minutes for a replacement going the distance it was 11.15 when we finally reached South End Green. No time for walks on the nearby Heath, just a visit to the Public Toilets.  We had remembered these as beautifully Victorian but today they were looking just old and neglected – this may be for financial reasons, as perhaps Camden has had to re-prioritise its expenditure on other services rather than upkeep. They could do with some TLC but we were pleased to use them nevertheless.

By the time we boarded a boo Boris bus it was raining and as Hatherwick had failed to include upstairs wipers in his retro design our view and photos were both blurry today' so the acacia appeared like a beacon

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After a tight turn we headed down the one way Agincourt Road (once more into the breach perhaps) and as this is essentially a straight north to south there were few turns on the way. Agincourt’s red brick houses give way for tightly packed groups of Camden’s social housing, of which there is much and most of it well maintained with occasional patches of green. In between there are small usually incomplete terraces of graceful Georgian homes (talking of which, the above mentioned toilets were  a source of embarrassment for the late fondly remembered George Michael .

According to the website, Queen’s Crescent Market should be open on Thursdays but certainly did not look very active from this end, as perhaps this article  might explain.

The stand-out building along here, and handsome it isn’t though Grade II listed, is St Dominic’s Priory & Our Lady of the Rosary, one of London’s larger churches catering for the RC population of NW London.

Jo hazarded that the clothes shop we passed – Annabel Giraud-Telme – might make you a bespoke wedding dress, and a chic French one at that, but the website indicates otherwise. Whatever it seems to add a note of gentrification to the area?

Going in this direction, the 24 takes a more back street, and therefore quicker, route through Camden Town passing the day-to-day shops rather than those for tourists seeking footwear and tattoos...  You do however get a good view of  Nicholas Grimshaw's Sainsbury's.

Where Camden morphs into Mornington Crescent (the mystery station my childhood Northern Line trains used to whizz through without stopping) the last landmark standing is the Carreras Building; unfortunately the windows were too misted for a good photo thereof.

This stretch onwards is like Demolition (?Desolation) Row as building after building is demolished to make way for HS 2 – another government vanity project designed to speed up (a bit) the connections between London and the Midlands – we expect it will just bring even more Midlands commuters into an already overfull London without reversing the trend ?

Of course the multiple lorries along here means the bus lane is suppressed. Continuing along the Hampstead Road southwards we did make reasonable progress until we hit the Euston Road where through the murk we could see the source of today’s various bus delays: a taxi drivers’ protest.  Jo thought against cycle lanes but who knows. Once they had passed north we could cross over and do the little swerve that meant the 24 heads up Gower Street in comparative peace, passing University College Hospital with its various outposts and a range of other academic buildings – there is also a rich crop of Blue Plaques .

 As we have few routes that take in Gower Street left to ride (I know we are only at 24 but we have others already ridden and ready to blog) now may be the time to list the following:

  Robinson who carried out the first anaesthetic

·         Robert Aickman – co-founder of the Inland Waterways Association (actually an IWA plaque not an EH one)

·         Ottoline Morrell – Society hostess or party girl

·         Millicent Fawcett – Suffragist

·         Lord Eldon – Tory Lord Chancellor

Doubtless there are others.

At the end of Gower Street there is a very painful part of the journey as multiple vehicles squeeze along past the vibrant Lego-like blocks and down poor old Denmark Street to get to the Charing Cross Road – we like to hope that when (?if) Crossrail ever completes the routes may revert to Tottenham Court road again?

After the afore-mentioned delays, driving round Trafalgar Square and down Whitehall came as positive relief passing the usual hordes of tourists hoping for a changing of the guard – we shall be denied the view of Big Ben for years to come.  Jo was under the impression that the Ministry of Defence had annexed some of the pavement so they could celebrate three military leaders from World War II by putting up statues to Viscount Slim, Alanbrooke and Monty (Field Marshall Montgomery) whose likeness was the only one we captured.

Passing Westminster Abbey saw the return of some blue skies though the windows remain clouded – there was a French Family on board whose child had become sufficiently bored to be drawing on the steamed up windows. We had expected them to get out at the British Museum but evidently they were heading for Victoria, as were we – down Great Smith Street and Victoria Street. By now the workers from this area were all out seeking sustenance at lunch time, stopping at all the usual chain outlets and a few pop up stalls with specialist snacks on offer.

Victoria is another part of London that has been greatly transformed since Project 1 (now 10 years ago) and has several tall and gleaming buildings, especially in the area round the station. The 24 skirts the side of the platforms along Wilton Road and comes out in old Pimlico, where suddenly the scale of everything is back to 2 storey houses and small local shops – it almost feels like an old fashioned village high street.

Without warning the announcement flashed up ‘This bus is on diversion’ and we seemed to go round in a large square and come back on ourselves. Talking of squares, the very handsome St. George’s Square built by Thomas Cubitt, who went in for big white stuccoed housing,  is part of this route – Jo thought the gardens would be shut as ‘this is Westminster’ but I think they look to be accesible .

When we took this route ten years ago I remember the start being closer to the large Churchill Gardens Estate of which we saw very little today.  However we had travelled from Hampstead down to the River close to where the (lost) Tyburn enters the Thames – the estimated time had been 71 minutes though it took closer to 80.