The Number 40 Route

Thursday 30 May 2019
We boarded the number 40 just opposite Dulwich Library, and outside the Plough, with its pretty baskets and window boxes. It was 11.20, our previous Project bus having brought us efficiently to the big Sainsbury's and a prompt gap-filling bus had got us here.

We passed a Southwark 'blue plaque' (voted by the people, it said, words to bring a shiver to remainer bones) for Enid Blyton, writer of more than 600 popular books.  We wondered whether English Heritage had declined to honour her.  We also went passed the last remaining prefab of the many which were once erected here, and admired its pretty garden.

There are not many other ways that people could afford a detached house with garden in this part of the world.

The borough has put up a number of banners with the strapline 'me and ED' and one shows East Dulwich's own (probably) Banksy: the queen riding a Segway with several corgis pulling her along.

We saw signs to the 'Church of God (Sabbath Keeping)' and then came to the Lord Palmerston.  Linda was not aware that the then Foreign Secretary had quoted Cicero about the rights of citizens, while blockading Greek harbours to protect the rights of a Gibraltar born British citizen called Don Pacifico.  Somehow there are B***** references everywhere today.
 

We headed up Grove Vale, past East Dulwich Station, and then down Champion Hill, where my Granny trained as a teacher at the end of the 19th century.

 There are major building works at King's College Hospital, the most exciting of which is the helipad on the roof.  There are hospitals both sides of the road here, as well as the Dental wing

 

 Almost immediately we were at Camberwell Green, passing the former shop of Smith's of Camberwell, now only a ghost sign above a pizza hut, but also a shuttered shop where Woolworth's had pnce been. We paused here for a change of driver, which was a relief, as our new driver turned off the very noisy and over-efficient air conditioning, before taking us on to pass Nollywood, a bar and cafe which celebrates the young a vibrant film industry of Nigeria.  I'm afraid we've all missed Nollywood Week, but you can get an impression of it here.

 

 We came past the edge of Burgess Park and then carried on towards Elephant and Castle, noting the unexpected plasterwork on one of the properties along here, as well as the enormous, and apparently still thriving, Red Lion Pub. We also passed the end of East Street Market, which was looking rather busy.

Then, of course, the route reaches Elephant and Castle, with its enormous numbers of new apartments (and many more to come) looming over the older buildings like Spurgeon's Tabernacle.

 The route goes up the Borough High Street, past the Church of St George the Martyr, dedicated to a Roman soldier who died for his faith having, disappointingly you may think, struggled against the metaphorical dragon of sin, rather than a real one. The church is 18th century, designed by John Price, and its spire attractively mirrors the more modern spire up the road in what appears to be called 'Shard Quarter'.

The war memorial is related to St Saviour's Church. And W.H. and H. Le May Hop Factors was once linked to the huge trade in hops for beer which led to the Hop Exchange being built in Southwark Street.

 Once we had passed London Bridge Station, we went over the River, noting that there is a cruise ship moored alongside HMS Belfast.  This is convenient for customs and border control and, I assume, provides some revenue for the huge warship, actually dwarfed by all that white luxury alongside.


The next landmark is The Monument. Linda did not know that the original inscriptions blamed the Catholics for the Great Fire of London;  and I did not know that those slanderous inscriptions had actually been removed in 1830.

The East India Arms continues to survive, though the merchants who frequent it are no longer ruling India;  then we came along Fenchurch Street, where the passage of public transport was , as happens so frequently, inhibited by building works for private profit. They are calling it Eightyfen, and I am sure that they have checked that London really needs a lot more offices.

And that was the last event before we reached the end of the route at Aldgate Station, after a pleasant journey which had taken almost exactly the 50 minutes scheduled, since we arrived at 12.10.