The Number 27 Route

Thursday 21 March 2019
The 27 used to go as far as Chiswick, so Linda had made one of her cunning plans before discovering that it now ends at Hammersmith Bus Station. This was part of last year's planning to cut services in aid of the Elizabeth Line (about which more later) and went with the 440's changes. Undaunted, we made our way to Hammersmith by a bus that you will learn about soon, made use of the costly but clean facilities of the bus station, and were onto the 27 soon after 12.10.

We have been here several times in the past few weeks, so were unsurprised by the new-builds and road works, and swept past Nazareth House, as well as the very strange St Paul's Hotel.

Andrew, the gardener in my marriage, has always said that he prefers other people to grow his forsythias for him, and this route, on this equinox day, was luminous with 'other people's' forsythias.

Very speedily, we were at Kensington Olympia, where it is the Ideal Home Exhibition. It has been going since 1908, though with a six year gap in the 1940s.

 As we went over the railway, we admired the pretty terrace, with palm trees and a sort of column with an urn on top of it.  This area was speculatively built up in the 1870s, so I suppose the monument might be for him, though even the splendid hidden-London website does not mention it.

 Along High Street Kensington, we saw a number of outdoor type shops, with names like Katmandu and Snow and Rock, but we thought Trotters, with its charming flying pig was a more enticing offer.

Linda is very fond of magnolias, and the front gardens of this route was pretty well lined with them, looking their best on this warm spring day

We saw what appeared to be a picket line as we proceeded through Kensington, but it turns out that it's all about Coventry City Football Club and the hedge fund that owns the club. I'm not going to say anything about them as they like litigation, but you can read all about it here, thanks to The Guardian.

We, on the other hand, turned left into Kensington Church Street, to a more peaceful area, with antique and art shops. It also has an LCC blue plaque for the composer Muzio Clementi, who lived here in the early 19th century. And a timber merchant, as well, which is remarkable in such a poshed-up area.  We also noted the Gotham Gallery where, I suggested, Batman might buy his artworks.

Linda also likes ghost signs, and we were pleased to see the remains of an advertisement for Dundee Marmalade, though whether it will survive the renovations to its building seems unclear.

 Now we were at Notting Hill, passing a couple of cinemas and the book shop, before heading along Westbourne Grove towards Paddington

We liked the mixture of shops and restaurants along here, and admired some of Westminster's public housing, pleasantly set back from the road.

And then we turned down Eastbourne Terrace, once a good place to catch a bus, but now entirely occupied by Elizabeth Line works. If this is going to be finished in 9 months, we shall be very impressed as it looks mostly like a large hole in the ground at the moment.  Perhaps we should offer to eat our bus maps if it hits its massively revised deadline.

And of course the many lorries servicing the works show all the consideration for public transport vehicles that you might expect. 

Turning left to pass Paddington Station, we noted the flowery facade of the Pride of Paddington pub, and were pleased to find the traffic relatively smooth-flowing.  we were also pleased that we were not going to travel along the Edgware Road at all, though we did slide past the tube station, as well as that building adorned with bathroom/kitchen tiles which we have seen on other journeys.

Thus we came into the Marylebone Road, crossing Gloucester Place and Baker Street, now back to being two way streets, rather than 3 lane motorways respectively north and south.  We passed the southern edge of Regents Park and the handsomely renovated Park Crescent East (they have just started work on the West side).

 

We were pleased to be in a bus lane as we came towards University College Hospital. Of course the Euston Road is not in the Congestion Zone, so people do not have to pay extra to be stuck in traffic here.
Turning up Hampstead Road, we felt we were nearly there. Linda spotted a buddleia growing out of the Lord Palmerston pub and theatre.  Although the bus lane was close (yes!  HS2, the other much loved infrastructure project so essential to Londoners) we made good progress, past the Carreras building and Mornington Crescent Tube Station. Just in case there are any mathematicians reading this, here's a website explaining the intricacies of the game.

 As we went up Camden High Street we were amused by the art work on the side of a Green Flag lorry, and of course we enjoyed the shop fronts of Chalk Farm Road, as well as a glimpse of the Lock for which the market is named, before turning into Morrisons' rather bleak forecourt, just under an hour from leaving Hammersmith.

 

 A route that takes you past both Crossrail and HS2 might be expected to be slow, but we had made good progress on this varied and interesting trip.