The Number 413 Route

 Tuesday 3 May 2011

This was the 4^th bus of our day, but at least it left just around the corner from the previous one, at Sutton Bus Garage 

The bus garage is in the middle of a residential area, and we had a few moments to wait before our single decker rolled up at 15.10.  Back along Sutton High Street, we were joined by a couple of people eating burgers, not our favourite travelling companions.  We also watched a lady with her shopping in her wheel chair, wait for the ramp, which failed to deploy, before managing to get on without it.  At each one of the lay-by bus stops that take you off the right hand side of the one way street, shoppers got on, until the bus was almost full.  The Court House is now a doctors’ surgery  and the police station is called Patrick Dunne House,  after a police officer who was killed in the line of duty in 1993. 

We came to the Cock and Bull Pub, about whose name we have written before.  But there may be people (like Linda but unlike Mary and me) who were not brought up on a steady diet of Gilbert and Sullivan so here (courtesy of You Tube and the Southampton Operatic Society) is the song of that title from Yeomen of the Guard.

We also passed the Secombe Theatre (not for the first time) as we headed out along Cheam Road and then to Gander Green Lane, in a prolonged ‘Hail and Ride’ Section.  

The large and white cars parked outside one house gave us a clue as to their business, and we also spotted the HQ of the local Lib Dem MP Paul Burstow who has been elected 4 times , starting with 1997 when many people who were not-Tories were elected. (He beat Olga Maitland, and did it again the next time, indicating  the approval of his constituents in what had previously been mainly a conservative seat)

Narrow residential roads, with not enough room for parking, slowed us a little, and we noted the Gleeson building, sporting ‘Offices to let’ signage before reaching St Anthony’s Private Hospital, where the St Raphael Hospice is 

After we had crossed the Beverley Brook, large numbers of school students climbed on:  it is some weeks since we have been this late, and in term time, so we were able to enjoy the experience.  We admired the mauve recycling bins favoured by Sutton, as well some very beautiful gardens.  This is a great year for ceanothus, and laburnum, and wisteria, but we also liked the powder puff of salix, which seemed a preferred plant of this area.

We came along Cannon Hill Lane, skirting the Common with its long, narrow lake, before turning right to reach South Merton Station, and head towards our destination.

We have, heaven knows, been to Morden several times before, but we had never approached from this angle, so we were surprised to see the back of the enormous and not very beautiful civic centre, and to round a couple of corners to finish outside Morden station at 15.50.