The NUMBER 63 Route

King’s Cross to Honor Oak

Monday October 28 2019

After two bus routes taking us in and out of exceedingly slow Edmonton by the time we reached King’s Cross Jo was keen to head home (nearby) while I was happy to do likewise but on the familiar 63.  However sitting upstairs at the front refreshed my perspective and the trip went well…

Leaving the two major stations behind us but taking on several passengers with baggage (the proper sort not the psychological burdens of the past) we headed down to Farringdon and Clerkenwell.  The buildings that line the bus route are mainly modern and only when you peer down the smaller side streets are you reminded that this was one of Dicken’s stamping grounds.

There have been changes since we last passed  this way I was interested to see that the Courtauld Institute of Art (following SOAS’s departure) has moved into Vernon Square which towers over the route as the bus dips south.  The art historians must have experienced quite a shock on moving from their classical riverside splendour to this more utilitarian building – the galleries of course remain.

Another major change is to be seen at Mount Pleasant, once the largest postal sorting office in London.  Some working areas remain and the newish  Postal Museum with its own underground railway is a total delight to visit, but the rest of the site is poised for development , already dubbed POSTMARK.

Talking of Dickens this pub sign takes up the theme..

The 63 is the only route that threads its way, when permitted, down Farringdon.  For most of the last ten years (or so it feels at times) this section has been off limits due to various building projects , Crossrail primarily, but then with the expected office and some residential blocks that have been squeezed in – I say squeezed as the road was too narrow to tolerate builders and buses and it was generally the buses that lost out.  There is still something going up and just along Charterhouse Street, and Smithfield too is awaiting a makeover.

If you are on the top deck at this point you can look straight ahead across the river to the towers at Elephant & Castle. Not all is unfinished as one large block that also closed the route on the right is now complete 

with some slightly mean planted areas – it looked a bit anonymous with only a sturdy guard to indicate where the entrance might be and no ground floor windows.

If you want to explore Clerkenwell and a historic and vibrant part of London the 63 will take you close, and even tourist-mainstream St Paul’s cathedral is just up the hill.

Not all is still a work in progress – Blackfriars station with its platforms on the bridge is quite a joy to use.

Our river crossing today was Blackfriars and the tapered No 1 Blackfriars Development is also now complete – rather out of place and very tall (guess who gave consent against many objections?  Yes, it was London’s last mayor now messing up on an even bigger scale).  There were lots of chaps in hi viz jerkins planting or possibly tidying round its base.

St George’s Circus (another tall office and residential block) on the roundabout and much of the next stretch of the London Road is given over to the South Bank University thriving and still expanding, putting up new buildings and renovating existing ones.

In spite of the number of bus routes congregating here we made a swift exit with many school students now heading home. This route of course has to crawl round the full curves of the Bricklayers Arms road junctions as you watch the 363s sail past overhead on the flyover.

Passing the DOVER flats , in case you needed reminding about which direction we were heading, and then both the old and the new Fire stations, the next stop favoured by many passengers is the huge Tesco store.  They should make the most of it while they can: the proposed route of the Bakerloo Line extension (as of course the last STATION you currently pass on this route is at the Elephant) takes it along the Old Kent Road with a new stop destroying this huge shop !

We all know from the arrival of the Overground 10 years ago the impact new lines and stations can have on an area so even the 63 bus route could become redundant in time??

The right turn which takes this (and the 363) down past a densely populated area abutting Burgess Park sort of follows the route of the old Croydon, or  Grand Surrey Canal joined at Rotherhithe to access the Thames 

But it was never very financially viable.  The 63 is always well used down this stretch with most passengers preferring to get off as we enter Peckham as walking is generally quicker!

Peckham’s prizewinning library has been joined by a more pedestrian-looking building that is the  Mountview Theatre , a major addition since our last 63 trip. The backdrop to Peckham Library stop was at one time a series of black and white poster-size photo portraits of black actors and I rather missed them when they came down and building works commenced so I was really pleased to see that a few had made it back into the window niches, which had been looking a little untidy storing as they did props and scenery ‘flats’.

Snaking through Peckham on a bus has always been something of an ‘edgy’ experience with pedestrians spilling off the pavements at busy times and several routes competing with delivery vans.  The range of fruit and vegetables remains impressive, and there are now several shops offering to make up clothes with strong West African prints.  More unsettling are the huge snails I once spotted all ready to escape.  Not so much on this bus route but elsewhere in Peckham there are new bits of residential development and with an increasingly younger population indications of gentrification can be seen on the High Street too.

We managed to get through Peckham reasonably quickly – it’s always the slowest part of this route – and the road then opens out onto the delights of Peckham Rye: mostly an open space where in the summer or winter you can do your own thing, kick a ball, throw a stick for a dog, mooch or just cross to the other side; there is the occasional visiting circus but on the whole people appreciate its unstructured appeal.  In one corner lies Peckham Park , which offers a more formal park experience.

The side the 63 follows is bordered by very gracious and spacious homes which look out over the welcome greenery. The north end of the Rye is marked by a cluster of useful shops surrounding the doctor/dentist/pharmacy services, and it terminates opposite the ‘Watson’s Telegraph’ Pub so named as the hill the route stops short of used to have a transmitter to send/receive telegrams from coastal shipping. The pub customers will disturb few as their neighbour is the Camberwell Old Cemetery.  I had completed a most enjoyable, even if very familiar, trip from King’s Cross to here within the 62 minutes suggested.

The NUMBER 62 Route

Mark’s Gate to Barking (Gascoigne Estate)

Thursday October 18 2019

We were certainly, as the ?Bible puts it, ‘unto the East’ today having started at Whitechapel for the District Line to Hornchurch which took us to Collier Row (a bus route in the 200s so we may never live that long) and from there a mere 5 stops to somewhere called The City Pavilion – a rather odd name for somewhere virtually in a field but it seemed to be a sort of civic community centre hosting events as diverse as the Panto and a Psychic Evening.  From there it was a short walk past the Whale Roundabout to Mark’s Gate and the start of the 62, a low number bus for a fairly, if you pardon the expression, remote route.

We had noticed the ploughed fields and the bus stop called Furze Farm so thanks to Hidden London for this entry explaining the origins of the area. Whalebone Road to which we were alerted by the well …whale bones … at the roundabout is such an evocative name with  somewhat  fuzzy origins  - the consensus seems to be that a whale was stranded in the Thames and the bones from its carcass formed an arch which has variously been along the road in front of a house now demolished and most recently at the Borough (this route lies entirely within the London Borough of Barking and Dagenham – LBBD) Museum . So whales have been going astray up the Thames for nearly 400 years as another victim died off Greenhithe recently – perhaps they come to London to die?

The whale theme continued when we crossed the A12 at the Moby Dick Junction and passed the huge golf complex where the crazy course featured a whale and a pirate ship...  There is also a proper course and it all seems very reasonably priced and lacking in pretension, and of course you are promised ‘ a whale of a time’…

This road crossing signals the route arriving in Chadwell Heath, where the 62 is joined by the 362; most of this route was residential – houses rather than blocks of flats – and Chadwell Heath offered some local shops: Scruffy’s Dog Grooming anyone?  We were not quite clear what Vatra Romanescu might be – clearly more than just a shop, and some research indicates a nationalist /right wing organisation.  This was not our only Romanian encounter of the day as three lads (should have been in school?) briefly joined us on the top deck where we had been alone – and asked us whether we could drive , and seemed amazed when Jo disclosed her age , and the length of time she had held a licence.

The Blesma organisation on the other hand is NOT Romanian but a charity helping limbless ex-servicemen, which has in fact moved from here in the past few weeks, though their logo is still atop a building.  The other key sight of Chadwell Heath is the Eva Hart Pub, still looking very nice, which commemorates her – a young survivor of the Titanic, and also Mary Wollstonecraft , born locally.  We have Wetherspoons to thank for this local history. This was in contrast  to the deserted’White Lion’ at Chadwell Heath. 

After a couple of bends we got onto another straight stretch of road through what is essentially the Becontree Estate – as this website has it,  the size and vision of building so many homes was revolutionary and this route only passes through part of it. Post Thatcher’s ‘right to buy’  you can see where homes have been ‘improved’ or at least customised.

At this point I asked had we not been to the Valence Museum (there was a sign to the park of that name) and Jo said she had no recollection which is a shame as she wrote the entry!

The museum also celebrates the social housing.  Though shops had been included in the original specifications for the Estate leisure facilities less so, so LBBD had more recently added a Youth Zone near to Parsloes Park, itself a LBBD resource that was created at the same time as the Estate but has had its facilities updated since.

For much of this this stretch the 62 is the only route; there is of course Becontree Station, another stop on the District Line: one way or another we passed several of these outlying stations today all similar in design, many on a bridge above the platforms , but all sadly in need of some repointing and spruced up paintwork.  This was in contrast to the earlier Chadwelll Heath a TFL Rail station which had seen some TLC.

Though we passed under the overhang of the elevated A13 the 62 route stays north doing a detour to Upney – another residential stretch with many overhanging trees scraping the bus roof enthusiastically. There was barking Bus garage too, where the drivers changed. 

Once past Upney’s station the focus of the traffic, shops and institutions became firmly Barking and its regenerating (it’s not quite there) town centre with tired looking shops and shopping centres and many new office/shopping and above all residential facilities springing up. With a school named after it I wondered how much of Barking Abbey remained …

The Barking Abbey Ruins are part of the larger area of parkland that is now called Abbey Green. The location is that of the original buildings of Barking Abbey, founded in 666 AD, until it was demolished shortly after 1541 AD. The only surviving building of this period is the Curfew Tower, which is now the gateway to the adjacent St Margaret's Church, but was originally a gatehouse to the Abbey. Most of the remaining ruins are now buried and hidden

So not that much then.. Most of the few remaining passengers got off as we passed the station and shopping hub of Barking after which the bus, along with several other routes, has to contend with a contra flow while a large residential development is ‘finished off’ (this usually means a couple of trees, some gravel and pots) and then pushes on for four stops to terminate on the Gascoigne estate , which clearly pre-dates most of the current building boom.  There have been several noticeable changes in Barking since project 1 so it will be interesting to see how far the transformation is planned to continue.

Our trip had taken an hour – it was not the most thrilling of journeys but went from a whale to fishes  a reminder of former industry from the  green belt farmland through well-established communities into Barking which is clearly trying to be a major residential and commercial area.

The Number 61 Route

Thursday 10 October 2019

The 61 was another gentle route through the south eastern villages and towns of London.  It begins at the recently renovated Gordon Arms, and wombles through the aptly named Loop Road to set off up the hill and out of Chislehurst.  We had noted the substantial houses, with modest attempts at topiary, and had plenty of time as the traffic going up the hill was heavy.  School students were boarding the bus in large numbers:  it was only 13.50, but perhaps hours have changed since our day.

We came past the war memorial, and a brown sign to the Caves. Linda and I had visited these a few years ago, and can recommend them.  They're not actually 'caves' but the remains of chalk mining, and still have clear remains of their use for shelter during air raids on London.

As we came through the village, we saw the village sign, which depicts Elizabeth I knighting Thomas Walsingham, a local who had helped raise money to defend against a possible Spanish invasion.  So honours and big political donations have clearly been going hand in hand for some centuries.

We continued towards Petts Wood  and Orpington, with green on both sides and really very large houses as well.  Many of them had turned their front gardens into parking spaces, from which we deduce that some must be divided into several homes.

A line of bungalows, and then a row if terrace houses told us we were coming into Orpington, passing the pond where, Linda thought, the River Ravensbourne might begin.  I'm not sure if we were in Keston, though as all these former villages merge together somewhat.

Through Orpington centre, we noted that the Bon Marche had closed, though it seemed to be quite a thriving town centre otherwise;  but we were rapidly through, past the war memorial on its traffic roundabout and up the hill towards the station.  Presumably railway engineers preferred to avoid the steep valley of the Ravensbourne, however inconvenient the climb out of the town might be for rail passengers. Houses here were built on embankments steeply above the road, and many steps to reach the front doors

New properties were promised, luxury apartments with two bedrooms and two bathrooms.

We came through Locksbottom, which is basically a line of shops with two pubs, both of which seemed to be thriving.  Called the Black Horse and the Whyte Lyon, these seemed traditional names for pubs.  The British Queen, which came next, was more puzzling, since its sign was a strawberry.  I do know (well, now that I've checked in the internet) that there is such a make of strawberry, but I don't know why they should have avoided pictures of royals, and gone for soft fruit instead.

On towards Bromley itself, we passed several more pubs, as well as the Stagecoach bus garage and the gigantic police station with its roof covered with solar panels, we were glad to see.












We passed Bromley South Station, but this route, like so many, finished at the picturesque but effectively useless Bromley North Station, so we turned right past the huge Glades shopping centre, and went round the relief road which enables the High Street to be pedestrianised, before wriggling through the streets of North Bromley to reach the station.  We liked the print and copy shop with a window which said ' good quote: to be or not to be;  better quote, 10,000 A5 leaflets for £185'.

A former pub had become a sourdough pizza place, and there were several more coffee shops than the last time we were in this bit of Bromley.

We finished our trip at 2.45, less than an hour after setting out, having enjoyed the reasonably sunny day.