The Number 72 Route

Thursday 1 November 2018

We had an interesting walk from our previous bus (the 430, just be patient) along the length of Roehampton's Danebury Avenue.  We paused outside the Co-op, in our normal dither about which way to turn, and I asked a young man.  He charmingly suggested he wouid walk with us as he was heading that way to visit his mother.  As we headed towards Bessborough Avenue, the rain began to tip down, and we were concerned that he had neither coat nor umbrella, but he said he liked walking in the rain, and we hoped his mother would have towels and hot soup for him.


There was a 72 having a break, so we did not have to wait long before hopping on board, just before 11.50, heading for East Acton.

This is a single decker bus, and very busy indeed:  

standing room only within a few stops, and everyone breathing (!). This meant that visibility was almost nil, and even Linda's skills with a camera could not do much.  So apologies for the lack of illustrations.


We went back along Bessborough Avenue, to cross the route of our 430 and splash along Roehampton Lane.  A new block called Queen Mary's Place made us suspect that they had shrunk Queen Mary's Hospital (in order to afford improvements, we assume)
We were soon into Rosslyn Park, famous for Rugby, and almost immediately at Barnes Station.  I think we have said before that we like to discover (or rediscover) how all these nominally separate bits of our city slot together.  Some green spaces had their cricket wickets covered, though we thought it unlikely that there would be much play for a few months.  Actually, it's raining in Sri Lanka too so there has been some Duckworth-Lewis-ing going on there. (I've only put this in to tease Linda, who does not care for cricket)

The large houses along here as we came towards Hammersmith appear to be mixed:  some single ownership, some split up, and some undergoing redevelopment behind their substantial garden walls.

The we came across Hammersmith Bridge, remembering (me) how nice it was during the long period when it was closed to motorised vehicles, and turned into and out of Hammersmith Bus Station.  Here our bus emptied, for pretty well the first time, though the personnel had changed as we went along.
We could just make out The Fishmonger's Kitchen through the blur of the windows.  A glance at their website made us regret we live about as far away as it is possible to be and still be in London.

Brook Green has a lot of big houses and mansion blocks, which we glimpsed as we paused for a driver change, and then we reached Shepherds Bush Green and of course Westfield Shopping Centre.


 We were interested to note that there is a rack of hire bikes in the White City Bus Station.  Linda also explained to me that White City and Wood Lane Tube Stations are linked but separate, serving different lines.

 Now we turned west along the Uxbridge Road, where there were some serious road works, and came under the elevated road to pass Latymer Upper School's Playing Fields and Hammersmith Hospital, some new bits added to it. We also saw the outside of the Linford Christie Outdoor Sports Centre, home of the Thames Valley Harriers, and named after their famous star.


After that, we travelled through mostly residential areas and past East Acton Station, where the bus virtually emptied.  Not many people want to go to the very end, as we did, arriving about an hour after we had left Roehampton, to find our next bus all ready for us, and the rain almost stopped.

We have had such beautiful weather since the number 1 that we supposed this had to happen.