The Number 490 Route

Heathrow Terminal 5 to Richmond (Pools on the Park)

Wednesday June 12^th 2012

Jo and I were on our own while Mary did some recuperation, and however tedious the day might have been (and it wasn’t) we were enjoying the first reasonable if slightly tentative sunshine of June – not that either sun or indeed light was very visible initially as this trip starts from the Terminal 5 Bus Station (beautifully clear in its lay-out but definitely under a runway or two and therefore in perpetual gloom). Unlike Jo I have a soft spot for airports and was one of those strange people who volunteered to try out T5 on a January Saturday about three months before its infamous opening.

This was a clean and newish single decker bus and even took on some passengers with long-haul luggage switching terminals. From this you will gather the route starts its life by scurrying along the Southern Perimeter Road, a dual carriageway which follows the River Crane, and takes in the Heathrow cargo centre (Royal Mail hangs out here), Gate Gourmet catering, the long stay car parks and then Terminal 4 where a few suitcases and their owners transferred. The bus shelter sported a poster supporting the 4^th runway (which I think is unlikely) and a large advert for Etihad who are following in the footsteps of Emirates by sponsoring a football stadium.

Soon we were swinging into Hatton Cross where most of the workers for Heathrow emerge – it is truly an airport which never sleeps.

We then passed Hatton cemetery, in Faggs Road, Feltham whose website subsequently told us that it is the newest of Hounslow’s cemeteries, opening in 1974, built as indeed all cemeteries need to be, with forward planning in mind.  Thus there is a large section designated for the borough’s growing Muslim population for whom burial is the only option, with graves orientated towards Mecca. There are of course also sections for other denominations. This is very much a newcomer amongst some of the burial grounds we have passed.
The route 490 detours to serve what feels like the back, but when it was built was undoubtedly the front, of Feltham station where there are some older homes. On the whole the bus avoids the newer High Street (plenty of other routes don’t) but takes a turn round what must have been the original Feltham village – so narrower roads and older quainter houses. As the original school dated from 1904 we guess most of the homes do also - however they have chosen a more modern font, Comic Sans for their school board and their website – sigh.

We crossed another trickle which I suppose was the Crane though there is also a river Longford hereabouts. Passing ‘The Airman’ pub reminded we had still not come far from Heathrow though believe or not we only spotted one plane today – not sure where they all were.

We took the Staines Road option to Twickenham, which means passing the substantial golf course and swathes of fairly samey residential homes, mainly of the Thirties semidetached variety often with front gardens given over to car parking. At one point there was a smell of burning rubber (were we alight?). I was rather puzzled by the large letters EABF on some metal gates but find they (the gates) belong to Entertainments Artistes Benevolent Fund, which has its HQ here and I rather think is a rest home for retired entertainers.

Fullers Brewery, who cherish their pubs, own the very charming ‘Prince Blucher’ along near Twickenham’s traditional village green though why the German hero of Waterloo is commemorated here I am not sure – at that point the Germans were on our side so perhaps we felt ‘credit was due’.
Obviously sunshine helps, so Twickenham Green was looking very attractive and clearly expecting to host some cricket with covers (? what do I know) visible. Twickenham is nearly synonymous with Rugby but today we were not passing those grounds, but there were others to come. Contrary to appearances the Green was once part of Hounslow Heath (famed for its footpads and highwaymen) so has been upscaled into a faux traditional village green, complete with village pump.

We hit our first significant traffic of the day along the High Street so had time to study the shops. Talking of upscaling, we passed  'Chez Chevallier' which sells that combination of chocolates, champagne and flowers which Jo suggested usually indicate presents for mistresses or presents for wives from guilty partners… A debate over the spelling kept us going until we left Twickenham behind and were passing both Orleans House gallery and more importantly the lovely little Marble Hill House (now the mistress here – Henrietta Howard, consort to George II as Prince of Wales – would have been in receipt of the 18^th equivalent of champagne chocolates and flowers.. and whole little villa perhaps?) The website has much better pictures than anything we managed from a speeding single decker bus.

From here traffic slowed us down on our approach to Richmond Bridge – this is very rich territory for Charity Shops, which line the pleasant approach to the bridge, and we did capture the Thames looking brown and murky after days of rain but no flooding as far as we could see. More slow traffic round Richmond station, then on beyond there for the home of London Scottish Rugby (they seem to come thick and fast in SW London) before we pulled into Pools on the Park where the 490 terminates. The pools are indoor and past the first flush of youth so we did not linger and pushed on down the Lower Mortlake Road to our next route, the 493.   

The Number 489 Route (not)

Wednesday 9 January 2013

As Andrew and I walked through Marylebone to get to the Wallace Collection to meet a Dutch friend, (when did you last go, by the way?) we were struck by the number of Blue Plaques all round there.  So I thought I might use this nearly-the-last non-route to comment on the decision of National Heritage to stop adding new ones.

A 34% cut in the budget is the explanation.  And I agree with everyone in the country that there are other priorities for a deficit reducing government.  But think how many Blue Plaques English Heritage could put up if it did not pay its Chief Executive £163,000 a year and guarantee his whopping pension. (sorry to sound like a Daily Mail Reader...)

It seems the National Trust may step in to cover the scheme, which would at least mean that the cost is coming out of the pockets of people who like this sort of thing, rather than applying to the National Lottery and using the money of people why buy lottery tickets.  



I would put a link to a newspaper story entirely about this, but the ones I have found are illustrated with non-English Heritage Plaques, like The Guardian with this LCC plaque, so I won't.


Linda, Mary and I hope that the NT will (if they take over) make searching for Plaques one has glimpsed -from a bus, say - but not been able to read, easier.  Actually, this is Augustus Siebe, in Denmark Street, where buses go because of the CrossRail works at Tottenham Court Road.

It will be sad if something which began in 1866 should end now.

The Number 488 Route

Bromley-by-Bow to Clapton Pond

Tuesday April 14^th   2009

Our previous journey (the efficient Number 8) left us outside Bow Church so we did a local walk, hoping to use a toilet as promised (on the map) at St. Andrew’s Hospital – however, on closer inspection this proved now to be a Barratt Homes building site. A kind official at the Underground station let us use the facilities usually reserved for staff.

The 488 is not as frequent as many.  It’s a single decker, used mainly by shoppers from the rather pleasant recently built Tower Hamlets estates getting from their homes to Tesco’s etc. It was however a very clean and comfortable bus, which wove its way under the A11 Blackwall Tunnel approach and thence back to Bow Church, covering a short stretch of the Number 8 route then alongside and over the Hertford Union Canal, under the A12 (rather bleak underused industrial estates) and into Hackney (now E9) and older more worn buildings.. It just passes a corner of (Victoria Park ) and detours in order to stop outside the surprisingly large Hackney and Homerton Mental Health resource. The narrow streets and traffic slowed us down, allowing closer scrutiny of individual landmarks such the older Cardinal Pole RC school and the very splendid and nearly complete City Academy Hackney. 

 The pupils had been asked for their specifications which were displayed as posters on the security fencing – ranging from Low CO2 emissions to basketball and swimming ambitions – another pupil who wanted his school to be ‘noticed’ had certainly achieved that. The architects are Studio E and the builders Willmott Dixon and the school’s website offers an extensive virtual tour – rather empty of children it has to be said – of premises due for occupation in September 2009. It had certainly overshadowed the National Trust Property at Sutton House along the same road ! 

We then speeded up alongside the quite pretty Clapton Pond, where we had only to cross the road for our next bus – back to the low numbers and a 38. This trip was much as scheduled at 35 minutes. 
--------------------------------------------------------------------
Like New York, so good we rode it twice…
As you can see from the double entry, we had actually ridden this route before but were then alerted (thanks Diamond Geezer) to the fact the route had changed since 2009. Also we had no photos, so here we were nearly four years on and near the end of our Project, not back in the single figure days of the Number 8 bus. 

The Number 488 Route

Bromley-by-Bow to Dalston Junction

Thursday January 3^rd 2013

This time we found the actual resting and starting place in Hancock Road – an unprepossessing slip road beside the Blackwall Tunnel Approach Road but backing onto a Tescos so there were several early shoppers waiting to board and all along it was nearly full.

There are several blocks of flats along side the main road (it starts by a sort of clover leaf to get itself back facing north) which were probably not yet complete in 2009, and certainly looked bright and fresh.

Bougyes are building a school here too and the start of route will need some enhancing no doubt.

After calling back at Bromley by Bow station, where they were dispensing the rather good maps produced for the Olympics, we passed Bow Church and Churchyard , which since we passed this way has had its  700th Anniversary. Quite an achievement for an area which has been re-arranged several times due to the advent of the motor car, and Mr Hitler’s bombs. Though a low level bus we had enough glimpses of the Orbit and the Stadium to remind us of the other changes since 2009..

The 488 also negotiated the fearsome, especially for cyclists, Bow Interchange sporting its large identifying letters.  (I don’t suppose they would have bothered if named the Shacklewell Lane interchange for example?)  This too must be Olympics linked enhancement. Once off the more main street and into Fairfield Road you are entering an area of very attractive housing, where even the Bus Garage is Grade 2 listed. No change of drivers and we carried on past the Bow Quarter.

Once into Wick Lane the public housing comes thick and fast – the route passes under the route (what is known in our house as the ‘new route to Cambridge’ having appeared between the need to transport two generations of students) and squeezes through a narrow band of population just fitted in between the Queeen Elizabeth II park (not yet open) and the older Victoria Park, then crossing the Hertford Union and just missing Fish Island. Hackney Wick station was planting up for the spring (there is more beautifying to be done round here). 

Before Homerton Station the bus passes the back of Cardinal Pole School – a cardinal with a colourful history – proclaiming your objections to Henry VIII’s proposed divorce will never make you popular and he seems to have sat out the rest of Henry’s reign abroad, while other family members died. He returned to serve Mary Tudor, hence his being revered by the Catholics, dying very shortly after she did.

The Banister House flats, still noticeable because of their proud arch entrance, were built in 1935 to replace poorer and more ‘jerry built’ dwellings, and the Jack Dunning (presumably a Hackney worthy?) estate was built still later, probably to replace World War 2 related damage. As we drew closer to Clapton we passed the City Academy, now complete and open for 3 years, and soon after the Clapton Girls'  Technical College, now Academy,  which also has a 100 year old history.

The traffic was flowing well so we passed the Clapton Ponds swiftly, turning off down Kenninghall Road but pausing long enough in front of the 60’s build RC Church of St Scholastica – apparently St Benedict’s twin sister, you live and learn – to see the congregation emerging from a service.

Not only was this bit of the route the addition made in June 2011 but it also has given a bus service to an area hitherto unknown to us, radiating out from Shacklewell Lane, where the light industrial areas are interspersed with more social housing.  At least this time I can say Morris Blitz (splendid name) was a former hackney mayor – do you suppose his childhood was blighted by people saying ‘ Now speed up there Morris and live up to your name,’ or ‘less noise there Morris’ ? Situated on Shacklewell Green is the Petchey Academy, named for a local entrepreneur and philanthropist.

We were soon to emerge into more familiar territory, namely Amherst Road and the Kingsland Road still boasting its Rio Cinema. Very few high street cinemas remain and the reasons for this are clear from the website: ‘The Rio has developed into a cinema that is responsive to the interests of sections of the community often ignored by mainstream commercial cinema. Examples of this are the annual Turkish and Kurdish film festivals, the Saturday morning Children’s Picture Club, midweek Classic Matinées, the recently introduced Parent and Baby Matinées and participation in Spanish and Gay and Lesbian film festivals. While all the other cinemas in Hackney have disappeared or become snooker halls and car auction rooms, the Rio continues to adapt and flourish’

This just about seemed to sum up the 488 which includes sundry churches, a few mosques and four secondary schools on its route – surely when the 5^th one opens they are, as you might say, going to need a bigger bus?  Much has changed in the four years since we rode this route but much is constant too. 

The Number 487 Route

South Harrow Station to Willesden Junction

Monday February 14^th 2011

Our last route finished at South Harrow station and as just as we drew into the rather badly designed bus station we spotted a 487 raring to go – another seamless trip starting at 1PM.

Once into the High Street we picked up large numbers of passengers and very soon it was standing room only on this single-decker route. As we had not had to wait there was no way of telling how much time passed between buses. It was clear that these folks, mainly the elderly and three young women with buggies (I leave you to imagine the problems in accommodating these), had all boarded with their shopping as the first quarter to third of this trip was through residential areas with rows of semi-detached off street parking homes with never a shop in sight.

The other feature of this trip was a series of roundabouts, many of them sponsored by local businesses, which certainly kept the moderate amounts of local traffic flowing. Rather surreally we passed the Ofsted roundabout, as the actual sponsoring nursery seemed to think being Ofsted-rated was a better advert than their name! So on past homes with well-maintained grass verges for dog walkers and for once front gardens that had not been bricked over for cars.

As we passed over Whitton avenues East and West there was a view over towards Horsenden Hill, which proves to be quite a high point hereabouts in more ways than one.

We passed both the smaller Alperton cemetery and later on the route the Acton one – it’s not that we’re obsessed with death or disposal, it’s just that on inner urban routes, especially ones such as these, they often provide a bit of greenery to break up otherwise solid housing or business areas. With up to 10 people standing it was interesting to see where they were heading: the route passes three Underground stations all on the Piccadilly Line – Alperton, Hanger Lane and Park Royal – but this did not seem to be the main attraction, and going round the Hanger Lane gyratory in a small bus can NEVER be an attraction, though clearly  this driver, possibly a bus driver, disagrees.

The 487 turns off the multi-lane Western Avenue at Gypsy Corner, a rather romantic name for an unromantic spot. The very extensive Park Royal trading estate essentially occupies a vast triangle of land bounded by major railway lines (in and out of Willesden Junction), the Grand Union canal and the major trunk roads of the North Circular and A40 roads.  This makes perfect theoretical sense, as goods historically and currently can be transported out to the airport, into town or just warehoused, but in a recession rather less immediate sense with many units unoccupied. The main draw for the passengers seemed to be a vast Asda not far from the Central Middlesex Hospital. There also seemed to be some brown site rubble areas (demolished old hospital bits?) waiting to be recycled into affordable if not altogether desirably located housing.  Mary swears she has seen giant ‘food’ blenders having bricks fed in at the top with fine rubble exiting at the bottom.

After a brief turn through the heart of old Harlesden, where cluster a couple of primary schools (complete with ‘Comic Sans’ lettering on their boards) and vast and ugly churches, and we pulled in alongside Willesden Junction station. This was my first exposure to a station seemingly on three levels hosting three different kinds of line and with an unending stream of goods trains shunting through. A bit like the pedestrian equivalent of the Hanger lane gyratory – one false step and you are heading in the wrong direction.  I noticed there was a station employee seated at the intersection helpfully directing lost passengers the right way through the maze of stairs and passages.

On such a crowded bus it was difficult to get a full view but this was a journey that fell into very defined and delineated sections – firstly purely residential, then purely trading and finally a little mixed area round Harlesden.  This trip through different worlds will take you about 50 minutes.

The Number 486 Route

Thursday 3 January 2013

Linda and I reached North Greenwich Station by a fairly devious route via, among other things, a bus which has changed its route since we first travelled it, and about which you will read in due course.  We were headed for Bexleyheath shopping centre, and so were glad not to have to wait too long.  We boarded our double decker at 11.20, having made use of the adequate if Spartan conveniences at this large transport hub, with air as well as river, bus and tube links. I pointed out to Linda the fine walkway that takes you over the Dome, a splendid experience, with amazing views. 

We set off past The Pilot Inn, a reminder that North Greenwich was not always about tennis and pop concerts, and passed through the Millennium Village, with most things logoed GMV as a reminder.  Those of us old enough to know what a chemical and nasty smell permeated the place before the Millennium and the Dome will never cease to be amazed at how pleasant it all is. (It was here, among all the car wreckers’ yards that, 30 years ago, Bill explained to us all, with a perfectly straight face, that the cubes of crushed car simply needed to be dropped into water to regain their former shape, like Japanese paper flowers.)  Now it even has an Imax as well as the Dome. 

The huge retail park revealed a couple of 21^st century themes:  the sustainable Sainsbury’s with the grass roof and the wind turbines;  the closed down Comet.  We were pleased that our driver waited for a couple of galloping and laden shoppers.  The retail park changed gently into a business park and back to retail and we were suddenly into Charlton.  The Antigallican Pub is apparently where away supporters gather for Charlton Athletic matches.  It seems its name may derive from the fact that a French émigré ran it in the early 19^th century, and wanted to demonstrate that he was anti-Bonaparte.  Certainly, the newspaper of that name and period was virulently anti French. 

After we had passed Charlton Station, we spotted a Blue Plaque for Italo Svevo. Dare I confess that I had never heard of him? I suppose reading Ulysses takes long enough without checking the notes at the back to see who was the model for Leopold Bloom.  But now we were into the villagey centre of Charlton, passing the war memorial and with views down the hill.

The Bugle Horn Pub is an interesting name, since it reminds one of the notorious Horn Fair, banned in the 1870s because of drunken and licentious behaviour. Presumably in the days before ASBOs the only option was to shut the whole thing down. The name possibly comes from the Parish’s Patron Saint, the evangelist St Luke, whose symbol is an ox or cow.

We headed on up the hill, alongside Charlton Park, before coming to Charlton Park Academy  and the outskirts of Woolwich.  Most or the houses along here have hardened front gardens, but our driver still had to negotiate a lot of parked cars.

The Woodman Pub gave Linda a chance to try out the zoom on my new camera  (I love Christmas!)  and then we turned right along Repository Road to note the road hazard signs which say ‘Soldiers Marching’ before coming to the, now bare, place where the Olympic Shooting tent used to be. I expect it is now in storage waiting for the 2014 Commonwealth Games iin  Glasgow.

The next feature was the Queen Elizabeth Hospital and we noted a number of police officers around the bus stops.  Perhaps they are dealing with outraged people from Lewisham who cannot believe that their successful, solvent, not to mention brand new A and E department is to be closed and the service moved from their efficient Trust to the loss making (not to mention distant and ill served by public transport) Trust here.  Can it be to do with the fact that selling the building in Lewisham will nearly cover the price of the recent refurb which has made it so desirable for a private purchaser?  Surely not. 

And of course, the Police may have been there for a completely different reason.

Past the huge blocks of Greenwich Heights flats, we carried on up Shooters Hill to cross Academy Road, where the many scribblings on the pavement led us to suppose that ‘works’ are due here.  We wondered whether they would reinstate the public lavatories that have been boarded up for so long.  

Then it was down Shooters Hill to reach Oxleas Wood, passing the Memorial Hospital, which houses the Child and Adolescent Mental Health Service for the area,  We saw a tiny pony as we passed Woodlands Farm  and then we were into the borough of Bexley as we entered Welling.  I had not realised that the ‘We Anchor in Hope’ takes its name from the need to slow horse drawn vehicles down slippery Shooters Hill by dragging an anchor. Or so they say… We also liked the new clock on Welling Library. 


The next area of Bexley is Nuxley, where there were several closed shops and many charity shops;  but also some shops with good names.   




This is also where you find the Guy Earl of Warwick Pub.  Earls of Warwick tend to be called Guy so I don’t know if this is the one who sold his castle to Madame Tussauds and then popped off abroad away from Britain’s taxes, or one of the medieval ones.  

The area around had some good views down the hill, as well as rather fine houses, set back from the busy main road along a service road.  We also passed Welling United’s Football ground  as we headed towards Danson Park, though we could not see the park because of the houses!

Finally we came to the area (and pub) called Crook Log, and knew we were almost into Bexleyheath:  a brief delay for gas works and then we passed the enormous town centre Asda.  We can remember the olden times when Asdas were always outside towns.

With views of the fairground rides in the pedestrianised centre, we swept round the corner and into the bus station at 12.10

The Number 485 Route

Friday 26 August 2011

We travelled four buses on this Friday (an unusual day of the week for us, but I was only just back from an excellent holiday in Orkney). The weather was, as we have come to expect for August, cloudy, grey and wet. An earlier bus had conveyed us from Willesden Junction to Wandsworth.  Now the single decker 485 was to take us to the splendid, two storey bus station at Hammersmith.

We picked up our bus close to the former Ram Brewery in Wandsworth, without too much of a wait considering that it is an ‘every thirty minutes’ bus.  

As so often, we were sharing our road with one of the laughably named cycling superhighways.  Why anyone, especially an elected and well paid Mayor, should imagine that painting  but of road blue will make them safer or more attractive in the battle to reduce pollution, is beyond meThe route turns right off Wandsworth High Street to head along Putney Bridge Road, but spurns the bridge to head on towards Barnes.  We did have time to notice the protests about the planned sewer (an issue which does not seem to have been settled almost 18 months later).

Barnes Common was looking pleasantly flowery, as far as we could see through the rain, and we liked the kind of planting that the borough had done as we made our way along Church  Road and along Castelnau.  

As so often before, we enjoyed the good looking houses. Being on a single decker, even Linda was unable to get a picture that will do them justice, so this one is from Wikipedia. We have been here so often that we barely needed to check the name which, of course, means New Castle in Occitan, and was settled by Huguenot refugees from the south of France in the 17th century.  of course, in the days before Bonaparte started to unify France in every way, Occitan was a separate language, soo the name sounds nothing like chateauneuf.

We were passing the London Wetlands Centre, remarkable for many reasons:  avocets breed there in fresh water, though they usually prefer East Anglian salt;  bitterns, so nearly extinct a few years ago, can now be seen there in winter.

 But we did not stop as we had to head on towards Hammersmith Bridge, with its  elegant lampstands, not to mention views of the grey river and the aptly named pub guarding its southern approach.

Once over the bridge there is little more than unpleasant traffic to look at before we reached the end of our journey and the bus station.

This was not a very exciting ride, but it took only a little more than the advertised 45 minutes, so we did not mind. And it left us conveniently placed for our next two South West buses.