The Number 30 Route

Thursday 4 April 2019

Well, it's April, so we had a mix of heavy and very chilly showers, with sunny spells, though not much warmer.  Our route began in Portman Street, where I had time to notice that they have abolished the C2 route, replacing it with a massively extended 88.  The 88 will now go from Clapham Common to Parliament Hill Fields, instead of collapsing from exhaustion in Camden Town.  I'm only mentioning this now, as we might not survive to the 'letter' buses this time.  But on with the 30.

We set off north, past the gated and green Portman Square, and up Gloucester Place, now two way and pretty well sorted, unlike Baker Street, where the works are still in progress.  Being Westminster, the splendid wider pavements are not accompanied by improved cycling facilities, but every little helps.  There is an LCC blue plaque along here for the novelist Wilkie Collins, famous for The Moonstone and The Woman in White.






We turned right at Baker Street Station, passing the soggy queue for Madame Tussauds 

and headed straight East, passing The Royal Academy of Music (which has a very enjoyable Museum, by the way) University College Hospital and the Wellcome Trust before turning into the cramped and dingy bus space at Euston.  The huge and lavish taxi area which is part of the HS2 works merely rubs salt into the wounds of bus travellers.

Having wriggled through here, the bus comes back out into the Euston Road, past the HQ of Unison, and on towards the British Library. Their new exhibition, Writing, will open this month, though it is hard to imagine anything equalling the splendour of The Anglo-Saxons.

Still going straight, we passed St Pancras and Kings Cross hading along the Pentonville Road in the kind of rain that meant photos were very hard to come by, before we finally turned north, just before Angel, into Baron Street. Here, we had a change of driver.  Our first driver had been anxious to press on, crossing a number of lights as they changed to red, but this second one was more relaxed.

Along Upper Street, we passed the Town Hall, as well as the Dead Dolls House, a 'venue' which makes no attempt to explain its odd name. We also saw a Blue Plaque to Gracie Fields (click here for a taste), and the charming Screen on the Green Cinema.Then, of course, we came to the works at Highbury Corner, which have been going on since time immemorial but is scheduled to finish really soon.

As we travelled out of Islington and towards Hackney, we came to the Hen and Chickens

Theatre Bar, as well as the Alwyne Castle Pub, before coming to the Balls Pond Road, apparently named for the man with the pond in his tavern grounds during the later Stuart period (in case you've ever wondered).  We also passed a Taproom and Deli where you could bring your own wine bottles to be filled.

All this brings the bus to Dalston Junction and along Dalston Lane, where there is a pub called the Three Compasses.  Before you ask why ay traveller could possibly need three, let me reassure you that the sign showed geometry-set things, not the kind that point north.

We passed Navarino mansions, and then Hackney Downs Station.  There is of course a lot of new build around here,  with street-side banners announcing that 'Living' around here has been fashionable since 1850.

We came past Hackney Central Station and along Mare Street, thinking we were nearly at our destination, but it is a long way along Wick Road before you reach Hackney Wick.  We like the fact that some of the older housing survives the arrival of all those luxury apartments

We also came past Cardinal Pole RC School. It's an interesting name for a school, since he was Legate at the time of Queen Mary I, whose treatment of Protestants ensured that Catholic had rather a bad time after her death, not achieving full emancipation until the 19th century.  but you don't need my views on 'faith schools'.

Finally we reached St Mary of Eton Church, with its huge church hall.  The brickwork is multi coloured and there is some rather fine graffiti which we took to be official.  And this is where we finished our trip.  The sun was out, the sky was blue, though it was still cold.

What with foreign trips and Easter holidays, there will be a brief hiatus in this travelogue, though there will be 'one we prepared earlier' to fill the gap.