The 68 Route

Thursday 27 September 2018

This is, I think, the only pair of routes which I travelled alone in 2009, so Linda and I did them the other way round this time: from Euston to West Norwood first, and then back to Marylebone as you may already have seen.

We came out of the inadequate bus area of Euston, past the scrap of green called Euston Gardens, at 10.05.  I can see no sign on the plans for HS2 of an improved facility for bus users, though of course by the time you read this it may all be perfect.  This is what it seems to say now, with the words 'bus station' applied to a tiny sliver of land.

Anyway, off we went down Woburn Place, past the 'new' St Pancras Church, and Tavistock Square, where the 30 bus exploded on 7/7, killing 13 people.  Of course the main memorial to the victims is in Hyde Park.

Our progress south was very slow, giving us ample time to admire the various building styles, including the 30s style former garage, now 'business storage', and the ornate hotels and mansion blocks

Rates of progress were also affected by slightly strange behaviour by other vehicles, and the congestion outside Holborn Station, spilling out people unable to change onto the Piccadilly line because of strike action.  This is part of an area logoed as 'MidTown', though it seemed to us that 'Kingstown' might be a better name, as King's College now owns a lot of it.  We were able to spot more of the pictures of alumni and others with links to the institution, before finally arriving at Aldwych 30 minutes after leaving Euston.  I suppose a comfort for public transport users is that all the people who had paid £11.50 to use the road were equally slow.

So, we turned onto the Strand, past the former Aldwych Station. By the way, you can visit it virtually here, or actually on a guided tour.

There are more King's people on the walls here, including Macadam (roads) and Florence Nightingale, neither of whom actually studied here. 

At 10.40 we turned onto Waterloo Bridge, and progress became a little less slow.  The Old Vic has a show called 17c which at first we thought might be the temperature, at least where the sun was shining.




All this area is pleasingly familiar to us as we trundled past the coal obelisk at St George's Circus, and reached Elephant and Castle, where building work continues, and strap lines and logos abound.  Linda says that some of the attractive planting started life as guerrilla gardening, but it seems that the local council has adopted much of it.

South along the Walworth Road, we passed a number of charity shops, including the Shaw Trust, which is about education, and the Geranium Fund, which helps people with visual impairments, to reach Camberwell Green, where even more new build flats are going up, then past the matching hospitals the Kings and the Maudesley.

As we came to Champion Hill, we waited for a while opposite Ruskin Park, 'to regulate the service'.  I can only assume that the timetable takes into account the amazingly slow traffic north of the river, as I would have guessed we were running slow rather than fast.  My granny trained as a teacher in Champion Hill (she qualified in 1902, I think) It is now part of King's College.....

We passed Cross Court Flats.  It  seems likely that these are still in the hands of the borough, as all the replacement windows are the same. 

This area of road has those signs that light up if you are breaking the speed laws, and they did seem to be slowing down some drivers. It also has a large sign saying 'welcome to Herne Hill' as we passed Herne Hill Station and Brockwell Park.  We also went past the South London Botanical Institute, which we visited a while ago and much enjoyed.

Once the bus reaches Tulse Hill, with the enormous Tulse Hill Hotel, we felt we were almost into West Norwood, as indeed we were.

St Luke's Church marked the beginning of the shopping area which led easily to the bus station, where we arrived at 10.25.  Perhaps not the fastest way to get here from Euston, but very enjoyable on this sunny day.

When we explained to the driver why we had been with him since the start, he said 'that's beautiful'. What a nice way to finish the first leg of this South London safari.

The NUMBER 67 Route

Dalston Junction Station to Wood Green Station

Friday November 21 2019

Fortunately we remembered in time we had ridden the 66 a year ago, along with the Number 5, so could contemplate meeting at Dalston Junction – very handy for both of us – and a staff member was kind enough to let us use their loo.  Actually the 67 starts from a quiet little space at the ‘other’ exit of the station, of whose existence I had not known until today.  The bus itself was a grubby Boris type and we set off at 9.42.

The busy road junction that separates one bit of the Overground from the other is bordered by food outlets so you could eat yourself silly just changing lines...  Signs POINT to Gillet Square which has a ten year long history of public consultation and building but this public space now seems well integrated into this increasingly populated part of Hackney, with the nearby Ridley Road market still operating , but as this article .explains gentrification comes at a price.

Most of the stalls, like many of the shops that are not part of chains, are what Jo and I call ‘Arrival City’ services – businesses set up to cater to their own recently arrived communities but gradually broadening their customer bases.

The Princess May primary school looms in its old Victorian buildings.  It too has an enterprise side-line with regular car boot sales at the weekends.

Heading steadily north on surprisingly traffic-free roads (we’re talking Inner London here) we made good progress.

More commerce is available at 'Beyond Retro' a several-storey emporium with outlets round the UK and Sweden.  Whatever happened to rootling around in charity shops and coming up with a ‘find’ – this, complete with mail order, surely removes the fun and challenge?  However I confess to sneaking a peek in case what I had still in my wardrobe might feature.

The Azizye Mosque was a cheering sight on a dull rainy day with its wealth of Iznik style tiles; apparently used mainly by the Turkish community which is long established in this part of London , its interior looks equally spectacular and saved a former cinema from demolition 

Just before we reached Stamford Hill, the home of another religious group, the Haredi Jews, we passed the old Police station now converted into flats and something blander and newer calling itself SAFER STREETS.  Stamford Hill expanded rapidly in Victorian times and there are several handsome blocks of flats.  Unlike the Peabody Trust, the Guinness Trust who have dwellings here, maintain their heritage and a very nice website.

After a long stretch going due north the 67 takes a sharp left at a huge church onto St Ann’s Road – is the church St Ann’s?  Well no actually it is St Ignatius. The buildings seem to spread down the road, and this is accounted for as it was originally a Jesuit Foundation so needed nearby accommodation too.  The church is still active and we noted a banner pointing to a knife box in memory of two presumably parishioners who were stabbed.

This whole stretch, where the 67 appears to be the only route, is known as St Ann’s and has a mixture of mainly post-war housing and a range of community facilities both council, religious and voluntary.  Like the rest of the route the exchange of passengers was steady.

As we passed Plevna Crescent, Jo thought this might commemorate a battle though siege might be more accurate – it was a decisive 1877 action in the Russian/Romanian allies’ fight against the Ottomans

According to British diplomatic historian A J P Taylor:

Most battles confirm the way that things are going already; Plevna is one of the few engagements which changed the course of history. It is difficult to see how the Ottoman Empire could have survived in Europe ... if the Russians had reached Constantinople in July; probably it would have collapsed in Asia as well. Plevna ... gave the Ottoman Empire another forty years of life.

So there you are.

The bus has to drive round a small park, the Chestnuts. where the autumn colours continued to be strong but probably for the last week.  By contrast Jo spotted a very robust Nespole tree in some-one’s front garden – this has become something of a family joke.  It is very (too?) easy to grow from the fruit stones and Linda distributed a number of little rooted plants to friends and family who are now complaining of overly excitable trees dominating their London patches – the one thing these ex-seedlings fail to produce is the lovely fruit of course.

The large building site next to a very run down St Ann’s Hospital indicated a ‘sell off ‘ but this link indicates that within two years there will be replacements and additions to the outdated facilities.

though I do not think we shall be passing this way again to see the completed hospital.

Very soon we have rejoined Route 41 down Blackboy Lane heading towards Ducketts Green and Turnpike Lane , with our latest load of passengers, replacing those who got off for the Piccadilly Line, boarding for the bus to deliver us up a short stretch of High Street and to the bus and train hub that is Wood Green.

We emerged into drizzle which fortunately did not last long and after trying to take the next route on the wrong side of the road located the head stop for the 243, which proved to be one of the longer (in time) routes overall.

The 67 however had stayed within its 40 minutes of NW trajectory mainly through the heart of Hackney and Harringay and their very diverse and both settled and more recently arrived communities.

The Number 66 Route

Thursday 18 October 2018

The rules of the project prevented us from catching the 5 from Canning Town (so convenient!) to Romford, so we needed the 66 to convey us towards the start of today's key bus. And that meant Leytonstone Bus Station

We had hardly any time to wait, and set off at 10.45, slightly puzzled by a building called Seascape House. It made me think that it might be possible if it wasn't for the houses in between, but it wouldn't....  Though we were to cross and recross the A12 and other big roads which might lead to the sea.

We did pass the Stone Space, which is, in fact, the Public Library, as well as our usual share of interesting shop names. The Birds having what I took to be a woodpecker for an 'i'.

 Some parts of Leytonstone were single track for cars, with wide pavements and cycle lanes, but this did not last, and we were soon along wider and scarier roads as we headed into Wanstead, already advertising its Pumpkin Fest.  

Indeed, after Wanstead Station, we were on the A 12 for a while, and headed under the M 25.  This is an area where the motor car is king

 

 As we came to Gants Hill, we saw as much 'new build' as we have in the other corners we have visited, and we also passed the Immaculate Health Care Services Offices, a name we thought with rather a religious tinge to it.

 

 But there were also rows of bow fronted homes, almost all with hardened front gardens, which we thought sad but inevitable, along this unforgiving road: there were two or three cars per house, so safe parking was more important than water retaining flower beds.

At Newbury Park Station we turned under the concrete curved roof of the bus station, before heading on, into Havering Borough and past more hardened front gardens

 

 We noted that the ash trees are beginning to turn yellow: until now it has mostly been horse chestnuts which have shown autumn colour, or rather the disease which turns their leaves russet ahead of time.

We came to the out of town shops: Dunelm, Argos, Currys, which signal the entry to Romford, but then we paused for a while to regulate our arrival time.

We came past the spot where the Number 5s lurk, and hoped that we should be able to find our way back painlessly, before passing the town hall and wriggling through Romford's back street, to reach the station, where this service terminates.  It had taken 50 minutes to complete this east London journey, enhanced by blue skies and a feeling that much had changed since last time.  

Will all the new homes that we have seen being built really be inhabited? How full the buses will be when they are.