The NUMBER 34 Route

Barnet Church to Walthamstow Bus Station

Wednesday April 17, 2019

We don’t usually travel on a Wednesday, nor in the afternoon and it was the time of day rather than the time of week which lengthened this already protracted journey. 63 Regular helped with the photography but seemed to have similar problems to Jo with the camera having a mind of its own.  Having got ourselves to one of the ends of the Northern Line we processed up the hill to find the 34 had been demoted to a lower stop which it had to share with many routes, but it came pretty promptly. We were pleased Barnet still cherished its Red Lion…

Never very busy the core of passengers were small groups of holidaying school children looking for fun, though I’m not sure the 34 is the way to go?

Barnet, and much of Barnet borough, is prosperous enough for there to be good sized, well maintained homes slightly set back from the main roads this route follows – in the way the suburbs expanded during the first half of the 20^th century the blocks of residential developments are interspersed with ‘Parades’, rows of local shops with the occasional community resource such as clinic or library or even cinema. The last time we came this way  the Everyman was an Odeon but has recently had a makeover of which the locals seem to approve.

The ‘Parades’ now boast a range of more international fare - Sushi/Sashimi or the Rice Terrace with the Chinese medical centre too.

I commend this well illustrated article by Historic England about the development of shopping parades from the mid-1850s to 1950s, and of course bus routes servicing these suburban destinations remain today, even if the shops have changed. We liked Cocorico for its sound as much as anything.

What had been a straight on route turns left down Oakleigh Avenue into what we learnt was Whetstone , and essentially more of the same – nice enough homes with mature gardens in bloom interspersed with shops – occasionally the ‘Parades’ as seen above morph into Circuses (no clowns or elephants today) such as at Betstyle . By now we were transitioning, or perhaps transiting, from The Barnets to Arnos Grove with its excellent Holden Station ( once the end station ) , and the Piccadilly Line where most passengers got off.

How right they were – from here on the route IS the North Circular Road in all its three lane /heavy traffic/ warehouse bordered persona…

There was a strange pedestrian footbridge crossing the road where there were already several street level crossings and we could not quite suss its purpose?

The road crosses a small stream, part of the Pymmes Brook whose course we seemed to be following but not closely enough to see! The bus stopped infrequently – back beyond the service roads there are terraces and homes and of course they need a bus service but little use was made of the 34 today. Because it is such a key artery the North Circular is stiff with destination boards and information signs – as we approached Edmonton they seemed to be largely for the new Tottenham Stadium. For much of this part of the trip we were the only or one of very few bus options.

Coming into Edmonton the bus diverts from the North Circular briefly and we could peer into Pymmes Park, named after its medieval landowner. It has been a public park since 1906 but suffers from the proximity of the North Circular; it also has the Pymmes Brook running through it. There is a Pymmes Brook Trail for people who like to explore London’s lesser waterways, though we fear it may not be the sort of walk where you could forget you were surrounded by town.

Silver Street is a nearby Overgound Station but looks rather insignificant after the handsome Arnos Grove. More North Circular and more roundabouts follow with our only light moment being a passing Kitkat Lorry . Cue to scrabble in our bag for same.

We did make fast progress east and crossed both the River Lea and its navigation – and we finally left to take the more modest A12 directly into Walthamstow.

So now we were certainly back in Inner London – three Romanian shops (did they take over premises from the Poles who returned home? we wondered) and round Walthamstow itself several examples of street murals reflecting local interests and places. This blogger has captured  many of them better than us and may be one of the reasons why Waltham Forest was awarded London Borough of Culture earlier this year.

We had plenty of time to appreciate a flavour of things as the bus slowed down totally for its last three stops – those in the know got off and walked but of course one of the rules of the Project is to stay aboard until the last stop which is unsurprisingly the bus station where a very modest road work was totally paralysing the buses going in and out and therefore most of Walthamstow!! A mother with a triplet buggy was making better progress. 

This was a good 75 minute trip of varying interest and speed.

The NUMBER 33 Route

Fulwell Station to Hammersmith Bus Station

Thursday March 21, 2019

This seemed to be the perfect route to combine with a fresh Spring day, even if the weather could have been sunnier, as we passed some of the leafier suburbs of SW London.

I had no recollection where Fulwell was, and certainly it is hardly a transport hub with only two trains an hour out of Waterloo; its station looked very rural, in a bit of a time warp and of course not staffed. (Though we have been here before before  So naturally we set off in the wrong direction finding the rather handsome Fulwell Bus Garage, which is impressively grand, having been built originally as a tram depot and now shared between two bus companies, also occasional host to historic displays.

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The 33 when we located it is unsurprisingly a single decker but as the first boarding passengers we secured window seats. I saw this as very much akin to a country village bus (even if the villages are called Fulwell, Teddington, Twickenham then Richmond) and it was at the villages that the passengers boarded , with fewer between these ‘hubs’. The passengers too were very homogenous being largely white women of a certain age…

Leaving Fulwell behind, we sort of followed the river for a while if you can imagine a sinuous blue snake with the 33 as a slightly straighter red one, and with very occasional glimpses of water. 

Teddington is famous for its lock but today we saw its more 19^th & 20^th century side, complete with blooming forsythias and blossom trees.

Teddington Memorial Hospital is now a walk-in centre but started life as a cottage hospital then rebuilt as a ‘memorial’ after World War 1, and it is good to see these local centres still offering community services .

Also offering to the community are Cavan Bakeries , clearly a very local and well established small chain.

Also local, though more normally associated with Chiswick, the Hogarth Pub reminded us of the artist who never missed an opportunity to comment socially. 

However the nearby Blue Plaque was for an Edward Whymper , whose life proved to be more colourful than some of this era.

Waldegrave Road, which the bus follows, is named for the aristocratic family whose main local connection was to inherit nearby Strawberry Hill from Walpole. This absurd Gothic vanity project merits a visit , which we did not manage as part of the Museum Project, but have been there  nevertheless.

Close by is the extensive campus of St Mary’s University, not to be confused with Queen Mary’s in East London. This one specialises in teacher training and sport and is fundamentally RC. Some of their students boarded, heavily into revision mode clutching their guides and notebooks.

Other signs referring toAlexander Pope indicated that we were closing in on the site of the satirical poet and Georgian celebrity’s villa, now part of Radnor private school , where lately they discovered a purpose built grotto.

A block of flats called Thames Eyot gives you a clue as to how close we were going to the river and the next landmark – Marble Hill House – can be seen quite clearly from the opposite bank along the Thames Path; once the home of George II’s mistress it is run by English Heritage but has rather restricted visiting times. The bus is rarely requested to stop here so we always have blurry photos…

On to Richmond , the busiest of the town centres we passed but of course there are plenty of other buses (and trains) on offer here. The High Street can be slow but commerce is currently slow too, so with fewer idling shoppers we passed through quite quickly and out in the direction of Sheen passing the Christian Science Centre which is decidedly less lovely than the adjacent gracious homes full of blooms and many signs of spring.

Sheen High Street, which is essentially a stretch of the South Circular Road, is quite elongated and somehow continues to support a variety of businesses, independent and other. This included an ice cream parlour – a venture I would usually view as a folly in London between the climate and the pollution – who would like sprinkles on their ‘gelato’?

Before the bus has a chance to get entangled with Putney’s traffic it turns left and across the very walkable Barnes Common, the route of the Beverley Brook comes through here. The daffodils were on the decline but were still rewarding as we sped along the bus lane of Castelnau passing endless stationary traffic . The bus was really busy from this point and we were pleased to have reasonable weather – it is not long since we had passed along here on the 270 in such bad weather we needed the on board announcement to tell us where we were….so this was far more pleasant.

Castelnau ends at Hammersmith Bridge, which is not really designed for heavy traffic, but is one of the delights of this route so there we were back in North London and an inner London borough which has packed in its social housing wherever it can. Talking of which, we passed a block with a stylish embellishment.

By the time we reached the flyover most passengers were preparing to get off for the station – though Richmond offered some connections Hammersmith Underground was clearly where most of the passengers were heading.

Unsurprisingly the modest 33 is offered a berth downstairs in this two storey bus station and that is where we got off all ready to catch our route of the day: the 27.

This had been a most enjoyable unhurried but steady trip which included two river crossings and two grand houses as well as clear evidence that Spring had arrived.

The Number 32 Route

Thursday 11 April 2019

Before you ask 'where is the 31?' let me explain that the post was written as a draft after we had ridden in it January.  But when it came to be posted, instead of appearing here, where it should be, it published itself between the 15 and the 16. Why? I don't know. Possibly technical support in MK could sort it at some stage, but for the moment, here is the 32. Wow, my tech support is amazing.  It's done.  If you live in South London, or North East London, you will never have seen this bus as it makes it way between Kilburn Park Station and Edgware Bus Station.




I was on my own, as Linda is (I hope) having a lovely time in Lausanne. The journey is meant to take 56 minutes, but in fact took only 45.  Coming out of Kilburn Park Station, I spent the short wait at the bus stop contrasting the late 19th century buildings on one side of the road with the newly built apartments on the left, and then got onto the bus at 9.40.

We passed the Animals' War Memorial Dispensary, opened in 1932 by the RSPCA to mark the sacrifice of animals who died during the First World War, and still operational today. The millions of animals that died (and still die) in conflict zones have no choice, after all, and so deserve a memorial, especially one that is still useful.

We turned left in Kilburn High Street, which is not looking too prosperous these days.  Two Poundlands, and a Primark, indicate the economic needs of this community, but we did also pass Kilburn Market behind its blue fencing, and an M&S Simply Food.

I was also interested to see that the Earl of Derby Pub has deer on its inn sign rather than a portrait of the man himself.  It appears that it was first opened in the 1860s, when the Earl was in government with Disraeli, so it is perhaps an odd name to find in what was then a very Irish area.  Nowadays the predominant community is Muslim, but several pubs can clearly survive.  We also passed the Arthur Murray Dance Studios, named for the American Ballroom dancer who taught the Duke of Windsor, Eleanor Roosevelt and others.
 

 We came to Brondesbury Station, and then rapidly to the two blue bridges which mark Kilburn Station.  There were road works here (the first of the day, which is quite unusual for London in 2019) so I had time to admire the fading mural under the railway bridge.

But I also had time to note the blue signage for the London Cycle Network route 5.  These signs are the only things that mark the route, other than some very very faded squashed-bicycle images on the tarmac.  I must say I was surprised, since Camden is usually better than this. But then the side of the road we were on was Brent and the other side is Camden. These signs persisted - and were the only evidence of the LCN5 - all the way along this scary main road and round the grim roundabout at Staples Corner.  Sadiq Khan has a long way to go to fulfil his election pledge to make London the best cycling city in the world. Though, to be fair, he did say before the election that narrower cycle lanes would ease congestion, so we should not be surprised.

The route then heads along Cricklewood Broadway, past the gigantic Crown Pub.  There were bookies all along the road, and then we came to Beacon Bingo, proudly announcing that it was 'Britain's biggest Bingo Club'.

There are also a lot of Shisha Lounges around here.  They seem to be exempt from the laws which ban smoking in pubic places, but I have found it difficult to follow what councils can and can't do about it all. Clearly, in Brent, they are allowed.


The handsome Pagoda-looking building we passed just in front of the big Wing Yip supermarket proves to be a travel agency.

Then we came to Staples Corner, with its myriad flyovers and roads, and crossed the Silk Stream to get into West Hendon.

There are still some signs of the Irish past of this area, though there are many other communities with their businesses around here.

A new Day Nursery, run by the Aplomb Group, is due to open any day now, though the documentation seems a bit incomplete on the website.  Other notable buildings along here include the portentous Magistrates Court, together with a number of new-build blocks

 

We then passed a lovely wall advertisement, which I concluded must be a ghost sign as the business is now a plumbing supply place and not a motor mechanic's. 

Another lot of road works slowed us all down as we came towards Burnt Oak, and then I was amused to see that  there were two ex-banks either side of the road.  One was apparently just empty, but the one which had been Barclays, and was still labelled as such, had become a Cashino gambling place.  Who needs irony these days?
 

Now we passed the Edgware Community Hospital, then some lovely blossom, and then turned right to note St Margaret of Antioch's fine Church and head into Edgware's Bus Station at 10.25, after an enjoyable tour of bits of North West London.