Wednesday 18 May 2011
This was the third bus of the day for Mary and me, Linda being on holiday. We had arrived at the hub which is Beckton Bus Station (or Asda car park!) at 12.20 and so stepped without much of a pause onto our single decker. None of today's route was new to us, and it would be true to say that we were feeling little jaded, and not too inclined to enthuse at the passing scene,
We went east before heading north, to pass East Beckton and the Gallions Reach Shopping Centre before taking a loop to call at Sainsbury’s. As we have said before, this is an area where the huge industries of the past have been replaced by retail opportunities. The complex roundabouts that get you over the A13 brought us to Barking, and past the station, then on for brief views of Barking Park with its lake. The Park has benefited from a sizeable grant from the Public Parks Initiative of the Heritage Lottery Fund, but we didn't really pause to sample its many delights
Almost without a break, we were in Ilford. We know Ilford well, as it is traversed by many buses, but today we did not linger, pushing on up The Drive to Redbridge, where we passed the station. This route takes us past many stations, as if suggesting that there are faster ways to get around East London than by bus.
We had only a little way to go, to arrive just over an hour after we had set off, in Falmouth Gardens, with its mixture of semis and bungalows. From there it was a short walk back to Redbridge Station and the Central Line.
From the River at beckton to Redbridge, we had been through residential areas, varied only by areas of public green space. Some of the spread of this area was due to relocation after the bombing of the Second World War, and some, we supposed, to people choosing to move outwards from London for less traumatic reasons.
At Beckton Cars we know that getting to the airport and even from the airport can be a real hassle. Beckton Cars
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