The Number 35 Route

Thursday 2 May 2019

We got on this bus at 13.05, a late start which can be explained by a pretty unsatisfactory beginning to the previous ride, thanks to Thameslink and other factors, which left Linda with a long wait in Nunhead.  Still, off we went, from Shoreditch High Street, and left down an extremely congested Bishopsgate.  

The lunch hour pedestrian crowds were not helped by the relentless building works. The claim to be 'considerate constructors' does not protect the roads from being narrowed for the convenience of the builders.  And does the city truly need more office blocks? or residential blocks?  One of them, 'twentytwoLondon' has been under construction since 2008.

We could tell we were on the straight north-south route to London Bridge because many of the side streets were formerly inn yards:  Bells Inn Yard; Bull's Yard and so on.  When there was only one bridge across the Thames, and limited crossing hours, pubs could make money.

In some places, the name of the street is all that remains of one of the many churches of the city: St Benet's Gracechurch (rebuilt after the Great Fire of 1666) was demolished in 1868 for a road widening scheme.  Plus ca change....

We headed south to cross London Bridge and pass London Bridge Station, before proceeding, still south, along Borough High Street.  Here again, the side alleys recall the pubs that used to accommodate travellers waiting to cross into the City: Talbot Yard, Queen's Head Yard and Tabard Street among many others.

We liked the ghost sign for a clothing company with 'branch establishments' in Paris, Antwerp and Ghent.  As well as Borough Station and the Inner London Crown Court, we noted an Institute of Opthalmology and a University of Osteopathy (later we were to pass an Institute of Hepatology) so clearly medical specialising is all the rage in Lambeth.

Next is Elephant and Castle.  The Shopping Centre, dingy and smelly, is due to be demolished and redone soon.  This will presumably happen just as all the road works are a distant memory, thus ensuring further traffic hold ups for the forseeable future

We passed the blue plaque for Charlie Chaplin (not that he lived in a block like this) and headed on down the Walworth Road. The trees were very attractive in their spring foliage and we thought they might be acacias, but of course the Interweb resists my attempts to find out, offering me Garden Centres in Walworth, Wisconsin instead. Some beautiful horse chestnuts were, however, within our knowledge, and we were able to admire them when we had a driver change at Camberwell Green.

We turned sharp left along Orpheus Street, to pass the splendid Denmark Place Baptist Church, and travel past newly built apartments to reach Loughborough Junction Station.

Brixton, as always, had lots of interest:  the standard shaped borough photinias were in full flower, and the railway bridge was embellished with the words 'come in love'.  But we were also interested in a message from the borough about air pollution, with a couple of road signs reading 'BrixtNO2.  The one way system here meant that we passed Brixton Town Hall from three sides in the end, during which time we saw a Commonwealth War Graves Commission van, presumably doing maintenance work in the local graveyards.

Brixton also has a number of Churches , including the Universal Pentecostal Church, which feels the need to explain who said their strapline.

But most interesting were the borough's banners, reminding all who pass that almost 79% of Lambeth residents voted to stay in the EU.

Once we were through Brixton, we were pretty close to Clapham Common, all green and lovely.  we had plenty of time to enjoy the views as we were held up by road works, or rather by gas works along the road.  having got through those, we came to another lot, though these seemed to be actual road repairs.

Into Clapham itself, we came to one of the Temperance Billiard Halls which were supposed to keep the working man safe from the demon drink. There were about 50 in London at the height of the temperance movement, and there is a certain irony in the fact that many are now pubs.

And there we were, at the Falcon Pub, where this route ends, conveniently for getting home from the enormous Clapham Junction Station.  We had come from the busy City to the upper cut Clapham, via some really interesting areas of London.  We hope this is one bus route that will not get 'rationalised' by TfL.