The H 14 Route

Thursday 20 June 2013

The H14 starts at Hatch End.  I make this statement to explain why Linda and I began our trip today at 11.30 rather than earlier.  Hatch End is NOT EASY if you live in south London, and not brief, even if you live on one of the many branches of the Overground.

Still, having arrived at the station, and begun by walking in the wrong direction (my fault, of course, not Linda's), we were at St Thomas Drive and on the way by 11.50.

This was a single decker.  We headed back through Hatch End, passing the station, and noticing the varying types of housing in this leafy bit of north west London.  We came past the Harrow Arts Centre,  and headed along Headstone Lane for a while.  The Letchford Arms clearly had a shaky history before it was forced to close, in 2011, and now it is being sold, presumably to be converted into apartments. There were also properties which had once been publicly owned, but were now individualised.  As we came towards Pinner Park Avenue, we were into an area with flats, some of them with well planted communal areas.  We liked the masses of blossom on elder trees as well as ceanothuses and of course roses.

Once we were over the railway we came to the Kodak leisure centre, rather wittily named the Zoom Leisure Centre, but now clearly up for redevelopment with all the rest of the huge former works. I have not been able to find details later than 2011 about this part of the site.

By now we were coming into Harrow, and this was to be the last time, at least as far as the Project is concerned.  Many people got off at St George's for the shopping, including a young mother who had had to pay cash for her bus ride, and was delighted to find that her paper ticket offered £2 off in Macdonalds.  Everything conspires, doesn't it, to make unhealthy eating an attractive option.

I don't know whether we have missed the Bradstowe House signs before, or whether they have just gone up:  but that abandoned building, which we have passed ever since we rode the 114, is now clearly 'due for completion in 2014'.  We are pleased that it will be homes, as Harrow has plenty of spare office blocks as it is.  We went into and out of Harrow Bus Station, which we have got to know rather too well in the past weeks, and on through Harrow town centre.  We spotted the HQ of the Harrow Churches Housing Association, set up in  1967 to provide safe housing for vulnerable people :  then, young women, apparently;  now, elderly people and dementia sufferers.

We turned into Peterborough Road, and passed some strangely overgrown areas, almost like the countryside, before reaching Northwick Park Hospital at 12.10, after a journey of just 20 minutes.

Our bus pulled up outside the Maternity wing, so we spared a thought for the poor mothers and babies of Furness Hospital before heading off to the tube station to reach our other bus of the day.

Without wishing to insult the H14, I have found it quite hard to say anything interesting about the route so here, as they say with the lottery, is a bonus ball, in the shape of a picture of a bus shelter at Inveralligin in the North West Highlands.  It's there to remind us all how lucky we are to live in London:  this living willow construction is redundant because they have no buses in the village.

The H13 Route

St Vincent’s (Northwood Hills) to Ruislip Lido

Thursday  June 13^th  2013

Mid flaming June – not. While Jo basked (according to the BBC weather maps at least) in seasonal Scottish sunshine I juggled in the gloom with this rather eccentric route on my own. I have included a map: as you will see, rather like the serpent which eats its own tail, the beginning and end of this route are very and almost certainly walkably close to each other but rules are rules so round the loops I went. 

I eventually made it to Northwood Hills – a rather rural and isolated station on the further reaches of one of the bits of the Metropolitan Line – and walked up to St Vincent’s from there. TFL is a bit coy as to what St Vincent’s actually is, hesitating between Hospital and Park?

This nursing home, for such it is, now catering for an ageing population, started life in 1907 in Clapham Park (SW London) as a home for ‘crippled boys‘ from the streets of London – how very Dickensian that sounds. In 1912 they re-located to an older property here and served as an orthopaedic hospital until 2008, through two World Wars and the founding of the National Health.   

I knew it would be tempting fate to ride a Number 13 route on the 13^th June but there you are.  I was walking along Norwich Road having left Northwood Hills Station some 10-15 minutes earlier when I saw a clutch of people at the next bus stop and I’m afraid I got on – the prospect of waiting another 20 minutes (on my own on a not very nice day) did not fill me with joy so I went for a bus in the hand, rather than rounding the corner and actually seeing St Vincent’s – I had written the above paragraphs before leaving home, which is of course blatant fate tempting and I was to be punished for it further down the line.

There were quite a few passengers boarding with me and for most of the trip we had an assistance dog as I believe they are now called. The dog was fine though the owner seemed a bit erratic and kept changing places.   Also dogs and shopping trolleys do not mix in the narrow aisles that these buses have, but the driver was both considerate and careful and waited for the many elderly passengers to settle in their seats before setting off.

There are some quite interesting Art Deco type houses in Norwich Road, this one called ‘Le Phare’, and Art Deco was to be something of a running theme this trip. After we passed the Joel Street allotments we were soon back at Northwood Hills Station, next to which is the ‘William Jolle’ who (the pub being a Wetherspoons) the website is kind enough to tell me was a local landowner – Jolle being a corruption of Joel, or possibly the other way round. Doubtless a local jolly type.

After leaving the main 404 road the bus does a huge loop up and down hill round the spacious and gracious homes of the aptly named ‘Northwood Hills.’  On a fine day the views between the detached homes would be great. From my photos it is hard to believe that they were taken at mid-day in mid June so poor is the colour contrast!

Potter Street is the main thoroughfare: for the most part mainly between the wars building with some later bungalows, then more modest smaller homes clearly built on old farmland – Mill Farm Close. There are still some open spaces –  Hog's Back for one.

Before long we were back down closer to sea level and following the 404 this time in the company of the H11, so again passing those splendid Art Deco blocks that are the Elm Court gated (or arched)  development.

By now most of the front seats were taken (older passengers decline to sit at the back) but eventually a young couple (not yet actually a couple?) got on and flirted most of the rest of the trip – needless to say they had the back seat to themselves. The H13 pushes on through Pinner, which is well served by multiple bus routes that struggle a little through the narrower, more villagey bits. Better than the butcher’s rather clumsy name (see the H12) the 'New Leaf' bookshop is a much better stab at grabbing your attention and is of course an independent bookshop.

Just past the Pinner Library is the Milmans Centre, for which I have to give a plug; It’s a Harrow Council Older Persons Resource Centre and the staff have always been very attentive to my mother on the one day week she attends.   Interestingly it seems to be at the very border of the borough as soon there was sign telling us we had entered Hillingdon.

Eastcote Village has a fine sign (which I failed to capture) but I am also taken with the traditional white finger posts, which are still quite frequent round here.  I knew I would not be the only person to like these and sure enough here is a specialist website (it makes riding the buses seem positively pedestrian (huh) in comparison) but I see the web’s author has not ventured into Greater London.

A number of students boarded at Eastcote trying hard not to post-mortem the morning’s exams – never a good idea.   Most of them stayed on past Ruislip Manor and onto Ruislip itself, which as I discovered two weeks back is quite a bus hub, though for few weeks the buses have been ousted from the station approach while earthworks continue. I had rather assumed that everyone would get off at Ruislip and only the hearty few (that’s me) would remain till the end of the line, which is The Water’s Edge at Ruislip Lido. However the end destination is more popular than I thought and we pressed on slowly along the very agreeable High Street and somewhat faster past Ruislip’s more historic buildings – the rather charming Duckhouse pub, and the Barn which is the borough’s Heritage Centre, library, wedding venue, theatre group etc 

 If you were ever in doubt as to what a duck house actually looked like, when the rogue MP claimed for his on expenses, this pub dating from 1640 has a very good depiction on its pub sign.   

Leaving Ruislip behind the H13 continues (at some speed it must be said) over the River Pinn and along Bury Street until it takes a right turn up the hill along Reservoir Road to the headstop at the Water’s Edge watering hole with generous views of the Ruislip Lido.

The driver said it would be 20 minutes before he left which gave me time for a stroll round the grey water (no longer suitable for swimming) that was once a reservoir offering extra capacity for the Grand Union Canal.   I know the weather (grey gloom in June not good) was partly to blame but it all seemed rather drab and lacking in focus. I believe the original Art Deco buildings were burnt down some years ago and while the beach has been renovated the ubiquitous swans and Canada Geese did not tempt me to linger beyond my time. I expect some blue sky and bobbing boats with coloured sails might have been a better enticement.

However when I returned to the bus there had been a change of driver and clearly the new one was of the view there was something wrong with the exit door, so he called it ‘out of service’. As this is a 20 minute service anyway I did not relish another chilly wait so decided to walk back to Ruislip, allowing me closer looks at the afore mentioned pubs and barns, and was brisk enough to make it back before the next bus caught me up. The moral of that is clearly had I waited at the beginning of the trip and not cheated by 1 bus stop I would have been spared at this end.  Nor was I tempted to stride off away from the lido’s edge, cross back across Ruislip Common and arrive back at St Vincent’s rather more quickly than the bus journey had taken.   

PS Earlier this week I noted from our faithful Stat Counter that we had  105 hits, 21% of the total, from the USA!  London Buses seem like a rather esoteric taste, so I am puzzled as to why it is quite so popular with you guys - are you all homesick ex-pats? or are you those NSA eavesdroppers we've all been reading about recently? 

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The H12 Route

Thursday May 30th 2013
South Harrow Underground Station to Stanmore Station

This was half-term and Jo was walking in Italy while Mary was on grandparent duty so I decided to travel alone, having arrived at South Harrow via an Uxbridge route and the Piccadilly Line. This is a well-used and frequent service thus justifying a double decker and without hesitation we rolled out of the small bus station. While this may have been a pleasant enough route the bus itself was dirty – you stuck to the floor in various places and the handrails were not for the faint-hearted. The driver too seemed to think he was handling some kind of sports car on a race-track as he threw the vehicle round the numerous bends that characterize the route, so not altogether a comfortable trip capturing a corner of NW London. Thus the photos are pretty fuzzy too..

This route leaves the High Road very soon, just long enough to note the South Asian flavours of the area, including the Hyderbadi Nawab Indian Restaurant – a name I thought stood out from the usual slew of Taj Mahals, Agras and Koh-i-Noors. Whether the food matches the name I cannot comment.

The bus takes a ‘back route’ to Rayners Lane, passing initially more established housing but towards the Rayners end there were signs of newer commuter flats (2 beds) and promises of  'The Spectrum'.

 I thought these might be homes to buy or private rent but it seems they may be Harrow council revamping some of its social housing?  This route touches on the High Street area long enough to remember this is where the Zoroastrians have their UK HQ, seemingly housed in the old cinema, and that Mr Sydney Hurry is keen to help you move onto the next world, with his undertakers business.

Village Way takes the route towards Pinner (named for the River Pinn, which runs through the village),  another North London ‘village’ if you will, and another lane for the driver to swoop along – this time Cannonbury with 2 ‘ns’ to distinguish it from the Islington variety of Canons. By now the trees were so leafy (and heavy with rain) that we were being battered by branches as well as thrown about – it’s a wonder I can read my notes.

Amongst Pinner’s independent shops I spotted a sign saying ‘The Meat Like It Used To Be Company’ which seems neither a good name – hardly snappy, not strictly grammatical – nor that enticing a concept, as perhaps we remember fatty gristly meat that appeared at school dinners (to be replaced by the even unhealthier turkey twizzler?). I presume what they mean is a traditional butcher’s shop.  

I only caught a rather tantalizing glimpse of the very splendid Art Deco blocks, which make up Elm Park Court, still looking fresh with their eye-catching green and white finish. From there it was back onto the altogether busier Uxbridge Road; at the risk of sounding like an estate agent (it has to be said these letter routes are substantially residential in nature so we are reduced to commenting on the housing stock which gives each area its character) the homes here are of the ‘luxury block’ variety, small and often gated.

The next announcement said we were arriving at Hatch End telephone exchange…? I was not clear why it was such a landmark, but realised Hatch End had never been on my radar thinking it was somewhere in Hertfordshire or Essex; now it proved to be another ‘village,’ its High Street having excellent vertical and horizontal planters, and even a little station tucked away below street level. That this is now on the Overground must increase property values even further. It also boasts the sizeable Harrow Arts Centre – planned productions include ‘Teechers’ – and a swimming pool also. 

The Letchford Arms Pub had been shuttered up though its namesake Letchford House is a listed building along Headstone Lane*, which gave our driver his last opportunity to swing the bus sharply to the right and take the curve to serve what is ostensibly a large area of social housing also blessed with the Overground. This being half-term, a large group of girls got on the bus for quite a short distance.  This little detour off the Uxbridge Road allows the bus to call in at Harrow Weald Bus garage where the drivers changed; they obviously knew each other as they swapped holiday accounts. The stop was long enough to observe that any hungry driver would have the choice of Waitrose on the one hand or KFC on the other.   The driving became noticeably smoother thereafter and we were soon back on the Uxbridge Road heading steadily via a series of planted-up roundabouts to Stanmore.  Some recent German visitors had been very complimentary, and shown ‘roundabout-envy’ about the English love of vehicle management and how much traffic sense they made, so I suppose we should stop taking them for granted. More Uxbridge Road meant more spacious set back properties, and green verges with low hanging trees. Harrow Weald Cemetery adds to the general aura of open greenness.

Just as we approached Stanmore the traffic slowed to an almost standstill – time to admire St John’s Church which is picturesque if not distinguished, and to catch the H12 in front. The Broadway, though so called, is not very so traffic, by now consisting of several double decker routes, always slows through Stanmore but today there were even more delays due to road works further up outside Stanmore Station, the resting place for this NW London criss cross bus route. 

 * co-incidentally diamondgeezer has been visiting an ancient barn in Headstone  diamondgeezer.blogspot.co.uk - see here for his account of the Harrow rarity 

You may remember that we did some filming in late April for the  London Councils – you can now find the excellent results on their website or via Youtube   http://www.londoncouncils.gov.uk/services/freedompass/news/pressdetail.htm?pk=1622

 and on YouTube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nIYqBtqi9hY

There is also a Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/pages/Freedom-Pass-The-Movie/260496180755941

The H11 Route

Thursday 5 June 2013

A bright, sunny day saw Linda and me on two brief but enjoyable bus trips around Harrow and Wembley.  We began at Mount Vernon Hospital, a place of less than pleasant memories form me, though I suppose one has to say 'all's well that ends well'.

We were off at about 10.20, and turned right and then left to head back towards Northwood Station, where we had arrived.  This bit of Northwood is very leafy and pleasant though, as we have said before, it does house the HQ of the armed forces of this part of the world.  We came past some attractive greenery before reaching Northwood High Street, with a dry cleaner called 'Pressed for Time' as well as a number of other interesting shops.  


We were impressed by the fine alliums growing outside Waitrose.  

We also noted the Sapnay School of Dance, though this seems to be a branch of the main enterprise, which is based closer into Harrow.  Bhangra dancing would certainly be a way to keep anyone fit, if only we had not left it too late!

There was a certain amount of grandparental child care on the bus, which we were able to admire as we passed into predominantly residential areas.  The houses were neat, with lovely hedges, almost up to the standard of the Hampstead Garden Suburb, even if most front gardens had been hardened.  We did see some wonderful ceanothuses and japonicas, as well as wisterias passing their best.

This was all very familiar to me, as we used to drive into London this way when we lived in Croxley Green, and heading under the blue metal bridge on the outskirts of Pinner was a nostalgic moment.  More recently, we have walked the Celandine Way, which follows the course of the River Pinn, and takes you from Pinner Park for 12 miles to join the Grand Union Canal just short of the Thames.

On through Pinner, and back among its residential streets, we passed what had clearly once been a pub and is now Sync, a bar which has not updated its website yet in 2013.


Next we came to Elm Park Court, a collection of apartment blocks with a sort of chinese entry gate, which still looked as 'desirable' as it did in the 1970s.  Sure enough, it is Grade II listed for its remarkable Art Deco-ness.

Once we had passed Pinner Station and Pinner Park, we felt we were heading fairly straight towards Harrow;  we were the only bus along here, and so the bus was fairly full, with few people getting off.

We went past the huge brick Church of St Alban, and reached Imperial Drive to go over the railway.  A growing number of offices to let signs indicated that we were getting into the middle of Harrow, and having passed that large unfinished building (we cannot remember how often we have remarked on the lack of progress in the work since we first bussed this way in 2009) we reached the new shiny Morrisons, as well as a way into the St George's Shopping Centre, where a lot of our  fellow passengers got off.  

We stayed on for a few more minutes, to arrive at Harrow Bus Station at 11.55, having enjoyed this small slice of the North West suburbs on a beautiful spring - or early summer -day.

The H9 and H10 Route

Wednesday 22 May 2013 

There appear to be no routes numbered H4,5,6,7 or 8, so here we are jumping to H9 and 10.

These two circular routes  are numbered differently simply because they go in different directions.  So the rules committee agreed that we should do the pair only once.  Of course  one way systems may mean that we do not cover every inch, but that is the decision.  

Mary and I met at Harrow on the Hill Bus Station at 9.30.  Linda was, we hoped, having a lovely time exploring the east of England with German friends.  We headed out of the bus station, and over the railway, passing what had clearly once been a pub but was now a kebab place.  We caught a glimpse of Harrow High School, and also of a hair dressers to add to our collection.

But perhaps the most interesting name was the Estate Agents  since Lingam is the personification of the male aspect of the deity, and is how Shiva is often represented, while Gold is a pretty standard English/Jewish surname.   Our co-passengers similarly reflected the ethnicities of the area, and so did the various places of worship we passed.

Mostly, though, this route was through the semis and detached properties of Metroland.  Almost all had hardened front gardens, some with three cars on them; but this did not stop the residential  roads being lined with cars, making some of the route quite difficult.  There are no little parades of shops, except when the route touches on a main road, and the H9/10 is the only bus through here, so the heavy car ownership is explainable.

Effectively, we took a loop East and then North, round Harrow, before heading South to Rayners Lane, and then back to Harrow.

We visited Northwick Park station, with signs to the hospital, and then sped along the road towards Kenton.  We were, actually, literally speeding in a couple of places, as we activated those ‘slow down’ signs which some boroughs have, on our way through Headstone. 

On a trip that was to be heavy with religious buildings, we passed St Mary the Virgin, Kenton’s C of E Parish Church, Kenton Methodist Church, a large brick structure, and then a Wealdstone’s Evangelical Church.  After Harrow Leisure Centre (I am not going to say anything about fitness being a religion) we came to the Siddhashram Shakti Centre.

  

Passing North Harrow Station (it is on the Overground, so of interest since all three of us are Overground people) we found the bus filled with the perfumes of Araby and, sure enough, there on the right was the Dubai Mall, not to be confused with the huge place in Dubai, but with a remarkable range of interesting products.

Harrow’s enormous Crown Court brought us back down to earth, and then we passed the Kodak works.  This used to be the heart of Kodak’s operation in Britain when we all needed film, developing and printing for our photos, but digital put paid to that in an amazingly short period of time.  The site  is to become a new community,  with almost 1000 new homes.  The planning reports mention offices and shops but not other forms of work.   Sic transit gloria industriae .

After that brief flurry of commercial interest, we were back into semis, some with wonderful wisterias and ceanothus bushes. We also passed signs to Headstone Manor which houses Harrow’s Museum, and which we shall certainly visit some day.

Heading on south, past Rayners Mead open space, we came into Rayners Lane, the tube station’s design making it clear that we were on the Piccadilly Line and then passed the Zoroastrian Centre, once the Grosvenor Cinema. 

Continuing south and west, briefly, before turning east, we crossed the Roxbourne Brook - a stream so minor that all Wikipedia has to say is that it joins the Yeading Brook – we came to  Heathland School and then to Eastcote Lane’s attractive cemetery.  This brought us to South Harrow, where the shops again reflect the ethnicities of the locals.

We noted a women-only class for both Zumba and belly dancing, but were not tempted.  It was here that our bus had a fairly long pause, and we guessed that we had got ahead of ourselves with our nippy rate of travel.  Then, to maintain the religious buildings theme of this route, we came to the Welsh Church, one of several in London.  We also looked up the hill to the private school at the top, before passing a house which had clearly suffered a serious fire. Our last religious building of the trip was a synagogue, before we were back into the middle of Harrow, noting that ‘those’ flats, or were they offices? are still not built, but that St Anne’s is due to be regenerated.

We were back into the bus station at 11.20, after a 50 minute loop around the borough, and ready to look for our next pair of buses.