The Number 225 Route

Thursday 22 September 2011

Happy Birthday to the Little Gooner and James!

Linda and I met at Canada Water, each via our branch of the Overground, and stepped onto our single decker at 09.45, headed for Hither Green.  There is a tremendous amount of new build around Canada Water and Surrey Quays, but still plenty of green space as well.  We passed the China Hat Pub, about which the internet is silent, and then the smart Yellow House. After seeing so many permanently shuttered pubs, we admired its daytime yellow, flowery shutters.

We passed the shopping centre, and then the reconstructed Dockers' shelter, with its handsome mural, clearly one of many in the area.  Transpontine has some great pictures here.  At the end of the nineteenth century, dock workers were employed on a casual basis, waiting here until ship owners or gang masters hired them:  risking accepting two hours of work and thus missing out on a whole day.  Their strike in 1889 won worldwide support, and they were assured of a minimum of four hours work once employed, and a minimum wage.

Our route took us through a mixture of neat cottages, some buildings with smart facades, and modern apartment blocks.

We came to where Lewisham Council is building 'a new future for Deptford Green School'; certainly the buildings look wonderful in the film on the website.  This route passes several other schools, including Addey and Stanhope, as well as Lewisham College.

We went through New Cross quite rapidly, noting the Iyengar Yoga Centre and admiring both a splendid looking playground and the attractive Sylva Cottages, and passing the Stephen Lawrence Centre.  We were especially interested in a row of former lock-ups, each of which had been turned into a religious venue, for instance, the Grace Christian Centre, claimed to be 'building lives and raising prevailers':  we think there were 5 churches here.

Thurston Road is where there used to be a site for Travellers.  There is now no site for Travellers in the borough, and if you dial the number suggested on the website, about relocation, you get a 'number unobtainable' noise.

For a change, we went round the 'other' side of Lewisham shopping centre, glimpsing the market stalls, before heading up Court Hill Road, where a damaged water main (we assume) was providing a water feature which we splashed through.  This brought us into Hither Green, where the Spotted Cow pub is about to be turned into accommodation, and where we saw a number of closed up shops.

The new Housing where Hither Green hospital used to be was clearly a matter of controversy a while back, but things appear to be settled, with the clock tower surviving as the area's logo.  We reached Hither Green Station, site of a terrible railway disaster in 1967, but now a peaceful spot, with a splendid community garden.

We climbed off the bus at 10.15, after a pleasant journey through typical south London views and homes.