The Number 57 Route

Friday 19 September 2019
We picked up the 57 at the Fairfield bus station in Kingston, where our previous bus had left us, and we were on the way to Clapham Park by 11.20. The former Royal Exchange is being converted into apartments, but as far as I can see there are not yet any prices for you to marvel at.

We liked Kingston's hanging baskets, and also enjoyed the collapsing telephone boxes of the art work in the centre of Kingston, before we passed the Railway station, and the other bus station. How amazing to have two bus station when Kings Cross has none, and Euston has to make do with a few spaces and tight corners.

The road works that we passed seem to be part of Kingston's attempts to improve facilities of cycles.  They too received £30,000,000 as part of the mini-Holland scheme which I mentioned a couple of buses ago when we were in Waltham Forest.This may be the moment to mention that figures given to the House of Commons Transport Committee suggest that that amount would build one mile of motorway.

This brought us out of Kingston and up the hill towards the hospital, along attractive residential streets, where we were the only bus, and over the enormous A3.

Through more residential streets, we came past the flower-covered Swan Pub and into Wimbledon.  We noted the charming little water fountain at the top of the hill, and passed the little museum before reaching Wimbledon Station.  The wittily named Centre Court shopping mall was one we know well, and Linda suggested that the term 'Gin Palace' could well be applied to the enormous Prince of Wales pub across the road.

If you want eclectic, Wimbledon Theatre is the place for you:  both the musical of Calendar Girls, AND The Exorcist are on offer!  

Wimbledon has gone in for banners along the side of the road, saying how wonderful the place is;  some boroughs rent to space to commercial firms for advertising, which may be a good way to rais money, but not this borough.

We were heading along the Merton road, into the borough of Merton, a fact confirmed by the pub named for Lord Nelson, possibly the most authentic 'hero' in the whole of British history (though of course dying early does help with hero status) and soon we were bumbling along next to the river Wandle, which can hardly qualify as a 'lost river' but is very attractive for much of its length.

So then the bus is in Colliers Wood, where the so-called cycling superhighway 7 is little more than a car park. An amusingly named shisha lounge had clearly failed to make a living.  One can only hope that they have relocated somewhere like Green Lanes in Haringey where they will do better.

Out of Colliers Wood, we came through Tooting, where our trip today began. We could have picked up a bargain mattress, and also saw many more hardened front gardens. The next  area is West Streatham, where we saw a specialist Muslim Undertaker.  The rules require a much more rapid funeral that the traditional undertaker expects to arrange, so they have clearly found a niche

We were puzzled when we came up behind a National Express coach logoed with an Easybus sticker:  perhaps they have been taken over?  And then we were even more puzzled by a coffee shop called Big Bad Wolf' whose signage featured Red Riding Hood in improbably high heels.  It turns out that it is a reference the Little Red coffee beans.

St Leonard's Church is a landmark in Streatham, at least for bus travellers, and we noticed that Streatham, too, has gone in for banners.  Other forms of publicity were less clear:  someone had written 'power' in large letters, but whether this was about politics of electricity, we could not tell.

We came past the Edith Cavell Surgery, which does not seem to have any direct link with the heroine of the First World War, but aims to follow her inspirational ways.  we had barely passed Streatham Bus Garage when our trip ended, just after the Crown and Sceptre pub, just after 12.50.

As with last week, this route takes you through a number of former villages, now seamlessly joined together, which is why it's useful to have the banners to tell you which bit of South London you are in.  

We wondered if this would be our last day of startlingly blue sky, now that the solstice is upon us.