The Number 79 Route

Thursday 11 April 2019

Following my ride on the 32, I made use of the facilities in Edgware's shopping centre. These have been refurbished by the same people who have 'done' the loos in other similar venues we have patronised, and are very satisfactory.

I shared my wait for the 79 with a wheel chair user who was unable to board the bus he wanted because the space was taken up by an empty buggy.  The mother (?or person with the buggy) was on her phone and the driver preferred to pull up the ramp and head off rather than ask her to fold the pesky thing.  Still, it was less than 5 minutes to my bus, which was able to take him where he needed to go.

We were off at 10.45, and back past St Margaret of Antioch and the now closed Railway Hotel.  Clearly the place has had an interesting recent history....

We went straight over the Edgware Road to curl along Whitchurch Lane. We passed the large Edgware Police Station which is no longer open all the time, and were into a suburban area of semis, almost all of them with their front gardens converted into car spaces.  This did not stop the road being lined with parked cars, slowing traffic progress.

Passing St Laurence's Church, the parish church of Little Stanmore, we came to Canon's park, and then to Canon's Park Station and then turned left along Honeypot Lane, crossing the Edgware Brook, which flows into the Silk Stream I had seen earlier, if 'flow' is the right word for this little brook.

The actual Honey Pot pub is now an Indian restaurant with a Shisha lounge; again, as on my 32, I wondered about the laws governing tobacco and their application to these places.

We came to the Queensbury Circle, with many DIY and tile outlets, and did a circuit to get us near to Queensbury Station before heading on towards the Queensbury Morrisons, which proved to be the destination of my acquaintance in the wheel chair.  He told me that on one occasion a woman with a buggy had said 'well, disabled people bring it on themselves', I suppose implying (a) that he had amputated his left leg himself for fun and (b) that children in buggies were some sort of random event.

The houses along here again had mostly hardened front gardens, though there were some attractive exceptions.

We crossed straight over at Kingsbury Circle to go along The Mall and pass the Kenton Ambulance Service, with its Department of Education and Development next door.

Then we were back in residential roads, the only bus serving the inhabitants until we were joined by the 204.  





So we came to Preston Road Station and were clearly heading for Wembley as the Arch appeared ahead of us.  Road works and parked cars again slowed up down, but in due course we crawled past Wembley Central Station and turned left along Ealing Road.

I was tempted to get off the bus at the Masala Canteen, which was having a 'dosa fest' but as it was not yet lunch time, I resisted.  The street was lined with South Asian shops, selling jewellery, clothes and delicious sweets and treats. The reason soon became clear, as we passed the Alperton Mandir.  Being alone on this trip meant I couldn't get a good photo of it, but the website has some good images.

From here it was a short ride past Alperton Station, to Glacier Way, alongside the enormous Sainsbury's, where the route ended, at 11.30.  I had much enjoyed my solitary visit to various parts of North West London, on this shiny blue day.

The NUMBER 78 Route

Nunhead (St. Mary’s Road) to Shoreditch (Curtain Road)

Thursday May 2 2019

With Jo’s Thameslink cancelled and a tricky back street route from Nunhead station this Journey started a whole hour later than intended.  Fortunately the area around St Mary’s Church included a small garden with benches useful for anyone waiting to board the 78 bus. This route does not pass the excellent,now restored Pioneer Centre  but those and other flats are doubtless the reason a bus route penetrates to this very residential area, beautifully quiet at this time of day.  The church has obviously been rebuilt with a component for community outreach – I had hoped this would include some public loos but Thursday proved to be a day of closure!

We set off once Jo arrived and twirled round the back streets to emerge into Nunhead Lane – there are many attractive period houses and smaller scale blocks fill in.   At one end of the Green the almshouses remain and at the other the redevelopment  seems to have been dragging on for a while.

The 78 cuts across the bottom of Peckham Rye quite smartly and then runs into what is a 14 months massive road closure – not only is there deep digging and I hope both gas and water mains replacement but also some of the older buildings are taking the opportunity to have a face lift. There is no access so all the buses go round the back of the High Street – in some ways this is quicker as less risk of random shoppers toppling into the road with their overloaded trolleys, especially towards the weekend . Not that this diverted route is without its roadworks...

Soon we were round by the Library, next to which the Mountview Theatre is almost complete, having moved down from the lofty heights of Highgate.  So good that Peckham will have access to a purpose built theatre space, offering teaching alongside.

Just as you think the 78 might just be a 63 clone it heads right in order to serve the many differently aged blocks of social housing.  There have been improvements here since we last came round 

With a new adventure playground on the site where footballer Rio Ferdinand once played.

Remembering that this was once a single decker it often keeps to lesser roads so after a few metres along the Old Kent Road it turns right at the big Tesco’s and heads down Dunton Road where they seemed to be building a hotel.

The section from here through to Bermondsey was quite slow, possibly as the streets are narrow but still well used – we passed Bermondsey Spa Gardens which do indeed commemorate a once nearby Spa, developed to rival the more famous (and ultimately more accessible) Vauxhall Gardens. The current Spa Gardens prosaically date from bomb clearance in 1954 but have been revamped, along with much of Bermondsey, which we could see as we passed yet more Sales Suites .  (At one point before re-starting the Bus project we had thought we might try our hand at visiting the various show flats to view in London but sadly many require more serious punters than a couple of ‘day trippers’.)

These seemed to come thick and fast as we came past Bermondsey Square and approached the Tower Bridge Road, and past the Caledonian Market (and yes, Jo, it had originally been up at your Caledonian Road).  No-one much buys middle range antiques any more and younger generations are apt to reject their parents’ offerings …

As the road narrows towards the bridge we spotted the Pommelers’ Rest – as Jo said since it’s a Wetherspoons Pub they will explain the history of the name even if they make it up.  In this case the area was known for the leather trade and the guys who pommelled the leather ... presumably needed the odd rest and drink?

There was a splendid wisteria totally entwined in the fire escape of one of the older blocks, which probably invalidated its primary function.

As we crawled across Tower Bridge (just as well there are barriers to keep traffic and pedestrians apart) we remembered how scary it was walking across the glass platforms up on the Bridge Experience.

At Peckham we had been joined on the top deck by a young couple who got justifiably excited as we crossed the bridge and just as delighted as we went alongside the full length of the Tower of London, with a good view into the moat . The gutters were replaced in Victoria’s time said Jo, spotting her insignia.  Our ‘Museum’ visit had coincided with the Poppy Display and ever since the moat has looked strangely empty.

After Tower Bridge Gateway Station (the furthest west the DLR seems to reach) come the Minories – named for ‘second rank’ monks otherwise known as nuns.

After this the 78 does a kind of circuit with a short dash into Tower Hamlets and then along by St Botolph and the City’s only public secondary school – Sir John Cass

This blog is a labour of Love whose starting point was Sir John Cass, and his enormous legacy

The rather handsome building just by St Botolph’s has served various educational institutions in its time though I am not sure what it does today as the School bearing his name is now in Stepney.

It seems it’s a long time since Goodman’s Fields was ever anything but built up, as there have been three ‘theatres’ there in its time and its now lots of shiny flats…  After some lesser known corners of the City /Tower Hamlets borders we were back along Broadgate, bustling with folk this lunchtime, and then round some more wriggles to the left into Shoreditch and the final resting place in Curtain Road.

It was to be but a short walk to the Number 35 but somehow we landed up on Great Eastern Street rather than Shoreditch High street, a tale Jo as already told on the 35.

After our late start we really enjoyed this bus from its modest beginnings in Nunhead over Tower Bridge to the working heart of the City in 55 minutes, rather less time than you might expect.

The Number 77 Route

Waterloo Station to Tooting Station

Friday January 10 2020

Our 76 had left us round one side of Waterloo so we cut through the station, using the free facilities on the way, and located the T Bus stop (which I would have called slip road to South Bank rather than Waterloo Station.  There was a very muddy dusty bus waiting and when a much cleaner looking one drew up behind the first one and opened his doors, we got on as the only passengers.

It takes a series of roundabouts to get clear Waterloo, passing the Imax with the creepers gaining ever more of a hold on the circular cinema.  More venerable buildings look over the circulating traffic: the once Royal Waterloo Hospital for Children & Women, and St John’s Church .  More building on central plots is evident when you pass the Park Plaza hotel after scooting along York Road, where the Belvedere Gardens development may offer stunning views to the front (balconies overlooking the Thames and the Eye) but from the back have a rather oppressive impact on the road.

Some of this development was previously the UK headquarters of Shell, while the hotel next door was once County Hall – as the bus stop is still known.  Opposite is another former hospital whose history is well documented here and which is now also a hotel.

It’s good to know therefore that St Thomas’s and its Children’s Department at the Evelina are still functioning as hospitals and have not been turned into hospitality centres.  St Thomas’s has a long history in London and the Florence Nightingale Museum is worth visiting. 

Across the road some works on a church building slowed the traffic somewhat so we coasted slowly round Lambeth Palace and the adjacent Garden Museum, Garden Museum which I believe has had a makeover since we visited.  We believe the pineapples atop the supports for Vauxhall Bridge are there to remember MR Tradescant who imported many new species.

The Albert Embankment runs along a fairly straight stretch of the River looking very grey today... There are plans afoot for the listed building which was the former HQ of the London Fire Brigade but it all looked deserted today?

Jo was pleased to locate the small theatre ‘Above the Stag’ for which she had been filing programmes but before we could take any photos the bus had started its tour of Vauxhall – in order to enter and exit the bus station in the correct direction the 77 does a complete circuit of the unlovely (and difficult to navigate) Vauxhall one-way system.  Even there we gained few additional passengers.

The ‘new’ Covent Garden, which has been here for about 43 years is part of a huge regeneration project.  The rehousing of Flower Market, down the road from the vegetables, the relocation of the American Embassy (hence housing called Embassy Gardens) and finally the transformation of Battersea Power Station have all made Nine Elms an extensive building site but today’s excitement was to spot Nine Elms (tube) station, now nearly complete. 'What line is that one?' said Jo –' the extended Northern', I answered, which looks to be a deal more ready to go than the Elizabeth Line, although of course only it consists of two stops – this and Battersea Power Station, though there could be plans to link into Clapham Junction.

By now we were on the long straight stretch of the Wandsworth Road, along which there are two impressively large areas of social housing: Lansdowne Green and the even larger Springfield Estate, both wonderful 

examples of the grand scale and aspirational ideals of the then London County Council building homes for families. There are a few shops at this point but the numbers increase as we approach Clapham Junction; the Battersea Arts centre continues in the pretty former Town Hall and was showing ‘Goldilocks and the Three Musketeers’ a novel mash-up?  Clustered around are  more community facilities from chapels to police, and a generous sprinkling of pubs up to including the Falcon.

If you wanted to catch a train you needed to get off before the 77 turns left down St John’s Road briefly – we wondered how long this branch of Debenhams on the corner was going to survive.  Wandsworth workers were up on their mini cherry pickers removing the Christmas decorations so we squeezed past and right up Battersea Rise, always a slow ride as a narrow stretch of road that is both the A3 and the South Circular – ouch.

Still the 77 turns off in a SW direction, essentially the only route parallel to the railway, which is at first visible but then less so, for a long stretch past the more open area of Wandsworth Common . A stop named for Windmill Road led me to find out whether a mill remains – it was built as a pump for the railway which runs in quite a deep cutting and presumably was prone to flooding, which must still be a risk for this busy line.

(At this point we were driving directly into the sun thus rendering photography difficult)  

At the end of the common the bus turns down Earlsfield Road which is bordered by sizeable Edwardian homes with never a handy shop for the residents.  A couple of ‘ghost sings’ provided evidence of previous small newsagents but the locals will now have to head to Earlsfield or further away for their milk etc.  The 77 joins long Garratt Lane about halfway down and in time for other passengers to catch a train at Earlsfield Station, which forms the hub of local shops and pubs of all kinds.  We noted that the Sailor Prince pub had been reborn as the Wandle, after the river which runs nearby.  There is a theatre too, the home of Tara Arts which for more than forty years has been promoting the  varied culture of South Asia and now has a permanent home here.  The nearby and strangely named Hallowed Belly proves to be a pub with food, and then the shopping and eating opportunities peter out somewhat as Garratt Lane continues to wind its way down to Tooting passing through Summerstown struggling to maintain a separate identity between Earlsfield and Tooting.

I always think the cemetery and the nearby almshouses are near the end of Garratt Lane but in fact there a couple of stops to go and for once I was able to observe the street numbers which go up to 1085 – pretty high for an English road.

We had been somewhere between amused and irritated by a back seat passenger who was planning his weekend with a friend on the phone (though the friend did not get much of a look in) starting with going to bed later today, waking up at 10PM, going out then getting in at 3-4 AM, and starting again Saturday after a modest lie-in...  The 77 will be tucked up in its garage so he will have to take a N44 or the tube to keep those hours, but definitely not our problem.  Like most of the other passengers, he got off at the Broadway (where there is also a college) while we carried on down Tooting past Amen Corner to the altogether shabbier and less used Tooting Station.  We had been hopeful about a promised regular Thameslink service but hit a 19 minute wait on one of London’s more derelict seeming stations – not withstanding the mural.  Our journey had taken 10 minutes over the hour to solid SW London after all the novelties of Thameside buildings.