The Number 80 Route

Friday 24 January 2020

If I am to be honest, which I am, this was not the most enjoyable trip we have ever done.  It started badly with our inability to find Reynolds Close, which was where the 80 departs, to make its way to the clutch of prisons at Belmont and High Down.  Indeed, had it not been for the friendly people mending motorcycles at Stoppies, we might still be wandering vainly around Hackbridge.  But we arrived eventually at the bus stop in the dank weather, to discover that our bus was a single decker.  Salt was later rubbed into our wounds as we saw double decker 80s heading in the opposite direction.  Still, we were on board by 11.00 am, and travelling straight through residential areas, mostly with hardened front gardens.

The houses were of varying sizes and periods, though mostly, we thought, 20th century rather than earlier or later. We did see one repossessed house (boarded up and 'for sale by auction') but otherwise it all looked fairly prosperous.  Though we did agree that the bus would be essential for even minimal shopping.  The first shops we came to were in Green Wryther, where we noted a barbers called 'a Clip round the Ear'.  Otherwise, there was little to look at till we reached the shops and station of Morden.  The borough of Merton has a lot of (formerly?) social housing, known as the St Helier Estate.

As we came into Morden we did note a lot of newly built flats and offices, around the station and town hall, before heading out towards Sutton.

We turned left at the huge Asda to travel along Sutton Common Road, where there were again a few shops.  I noticed that 'Kebaby' was about fast food rather than infants, and we also came past Glenthorne High School.

Sutton Library is in a neat little building with a cafe as well, and then we were held up by road works as we continued through still residential roads.

















Sutton Bus Garage was a reminder of the previous project, though this is our first visit here  this time. Then we came into Sutton itself, with amazing amounts of newly built blocks of flats.  And there are due to be more:  Helena House, a former office block, is due for demolition once the planning us sorted out.













We saw that the borough still has its Christmas decorations up, though not lit up.  Perhaps they will be left all year as an economy measure.

Now the route takes you through the bit of Sutton where the bus stops are all lay-bys, past the old Court House.  We also spotted the Cock and Bull Pub, and Eagle House School, a branch of the autism specialists we have noted near Clapham.

The road works were enough to puzzle anyone, with a sign announcing 'diversion ends' immediately before a sign announcing that the road ahead was closed.  How baffling life can be.

As we came out of town, we passed Sutton Hospital, which looked pretty unloved to us and not nearly as smart as St Helier Hospital, but is clearly at the heart of some quite controversial plans.











 

Then we passed briefly through Belmont, which clearly was once a separate village from Sutton, and reached the prisons, though an area of bedraggled woodland with cars parked along the road. We weren't clear why, as there appeared to be no charge and a large car park at the facility. Still, we arrived after an hour on the bus, at 12.00.  There had not been a great deal to grab the attention as we travelled through these mainly commuter areas.

We don't think this will be one of our favourite routes when we finally answer the question posed to us on the 75 route post, and about which we are still brooding. But of course the dingy weather did not help our enjoyment.

The Number 79 Route

Thursday 11 April 2019

Following my ride on the 32, I made use of the facilities in Edgware's shopping centre. These have been refurbished by the same people who have 'done' the loos in other similar venues we have patronised, and are very satisfactory.

I shared my wait for the 79 with a wheel chair user who was unable to board the bus he wanted because the space was taken up by an empty buggy.  The mother (?or person with the buggy) was on her phone and the driver preferred to pull up the ramp and head off rather than ask her to fold the pesky thing.  Still, it was less than 5 minutes to my bus, which was able to take him where he needed to go.

We were off at 10.45, and back past St Margaret of Antioch and the now closed Railway Hotel.  Clearly the place has had an interesting recent history....

We went straight over the Edgware Road to curl along Whitchurch Lane. We passed the large Edgware Police Station which is no longer open all the time, and were into a suburban area of semis, almost all of them with their front gardens converted into car spaces.  This did not stop the road being lined with parked cars, slowing traffic progress.

Passing St Laurence's Church, the parish church of Little Stanmore, we came to Canon's park, and then to Canon's Park Station and then turned left along Honeypot Lane, crossing the Edgware Brook, which flows into the Silk Stream I had seen earlier, if 'flow' is the right word for this little brook.

The actual Honey Pot pub is now an Indian restaurant with a Shisha lounge; again, as on my 32, I wondered about the laws governing tobacco and their application to these places.

We came to the Queensbury Circle, with many DIY and tile outlets, and did a circuit to get us near to Queensbury Station before heading on towards the Queensbury Morrisons, which proved to be the destination of my acquaintance in the wheel chair.  He told me that on one occasion a woman with a buggy had said 'well, disabled people bring it on themselves', I suppose implying (a) that he had amputated his left leg himself for fun and (b) that children in buggies were some sort of random event.

The houses along here again had mostly hardened front gardens, though there were some attractive exceptions.

We crossed straight over at Kingsbury Circle to go along The Mall and pass the Kenton Ambulance Service, with its Department of Education and Development next door.

Then we were back in residential roads, the only bus serving the inhabitants until we were joined by the 204.  





So we came to Preston Road Station and were clearly heading for Wembley as the Arch appeared ahead of us.  Road works and parked cars again slowed up down, but in due course we crawled past Wembley Central Station and turned left along Ealing Road.

I was tempted to get off the bus at the Masala Canteen, which was having a 'dosa fest' but as it was not yet lunch time, I resisted.  The street was lined with South Asian shops, selling jewellery, clothes and delicious sweets and treats. The reason soon became clear, as we passed the Alperton Mandir.  Being alone on this trip meant I couldn't get a good photo of it, but the website has some good images.

From here it was a short ride past Alperton Station, to Glacier Way, alongside the enormous Sainsbury's, where the route ended, at 11.30.  I had much enjoyed my solitary visit to various parts of North West London, on this shiny blue day.

The NUMBER 78 Route

Nunhead (St. Mary’s Road) to Shoreditch (Curtain Road)

Thursday May 2 2019

With Jo’s Thameslink cancelled and a tricky back street route from Nunhead station this Journey started a whole hour later than intended.  Fortunately the area around St Mary’s Church included a small garden with benches useful for anyone waiting to board the 78 bus. This route does not pass the excellent,now restored Pioneer Centre  but those and other flats are doubtless the reason a bus route penetrates to this very residential area, beautifully quiet at this time of day.  The church has obviously been rebuilt with a component for community outreach – I had hoped this would include some public loos but Thursday proved to be a day of closure!

We set off once Jo arrived and twirled round the back streets to emerge into Nunhead Lane – there are many attractive period houses and smaller scale blocks fill in.   At one end of the Green the almshouses remain and at the other the redevelopment  seems to have been dragging on for a while.

The 78 cuts across the bottom of Peckham Rye quite smartly and then runs into what is a 14 months massive road closure – not only is there deep digging and I hope both gas and water mains replacement but also some of the older buildings are taking the opportunity to have a face lift. There is no access so all the buses go round the back of the High Street – in some ways this is quicker as less risk of random shoppers toppling into the road with their overloaded trolleys, especially towards the weekend . Not that this diverted route is without its roadworks...

Soon we were round by the Library, next to which the Mountview Theatre is almost complete, having moved down from the lofty heights of Highgate.  So good that Peckham will have access to a purpose built theatre space, offering teaching alongside.

Just as you think the 78 might just be a 63 clone it heads right in order to serve the many differently aged blocks of social housing.  There have been improvements here since we last came round 

With a new adventure playground on the site where footballer Rio Ferdinand once played.

Remembering that this was once a single decker it often keeps to lesser roads so after a few metres along the Old Kent Road it turns right at the big Tesco’s and heads down Dunton Road where they seemed to be building a hotel.

The section from here through to Bermondsey was quite slow, possibly as the streets are narrow but still well used – we passed Bermondsey Spa Gardens which do indeed commemorate a once nearby Spa, developed to rival the more famous (and ultimately more accessible) Vauxhall Gardens. The current Spa Gardens prosaically date from bomb clearance in 1954 but have been revamped, along with much of Bermondsey, which we could see as we passed yet more Sales Suites .  (At one point before re-starting the Bus project we had thought we might try our hand at visiting the various show flats to view in London but sadly many require more serious punters than a couple of ‘day trippers’.)

These seemed to come thick and fast as we came past Bermondsey Square and approached the Tower Bridge Road, and past the Caledonian Market (and yes, Jo, it had originally been up at your Caledonian Road).  No-one much buys middle range antiques any more and younger generations are apt to reject their parents’ offerings …

As the road narrows towards the bridge we spotted the Pommelers’ Rest – as Jo said since it’s a Wetherspoons Pub they will explain the history of the name even if they make it up.  In this case the area was known for the leather trade and the guys who pommelled the leather ... presumably needed the odd rest and drink?

There was a splendid wisteria totally entwined in the fire escape of one of the older blocks, which probably invalidated its primary function.

As we crawled across Tower Bridge (just as well there are barriers to keep traffic and pedestrians apart) we remembered how scary it was walking across the glass platforms up on the Bridge Experience.

At Peckham we had been joined on the top deck by a young couple who got justifiably excited as we crossed the bridge and just as delighted as we went alongside the full length of the Tower of London, with a good view into the moat . The gutters were replaced in Victoria’s time said Jo, spotting her insignia.  Our ‘Museum’ visit had coincided with the Poppy Display and ever since the moat has looked strangely empty.

After Tower Bridge Gateway Station (the furthest west the DLR seems to reach) come the Minories – named for ‘second rank’ monks otherwise known as nuns.

After this the 78 does a kind of circuit with a short dash into Tower Hamlets and then along by St Botolph and the City’s only public secondary school – Sir John Cass

This blog is a labour of Love whose starting point was Sir John Cass, and his enormous legacy

The rather handsome building just by St Botolph’s has served various educational institutions in its time though I am not sure what it does today as the School bearing his name is now in Stepney.

It seems it’s a long time since Goodman’s Fields was ever anything but built up, as there have been three ‘theatres’ there in its time and its now lots of shiny flats…  After some lesser known corners of the City /Tower Hamlets borders we were back along Broadgate, bustling with folk this lunchtime, and then round some more wriggles to the left into Shoreditch and the final resting place in Curtain Road.

It was to be but a short walk to the Number 35 but somehow we landed up on Great Eastern Street rather than Shoreditch High street, a tale Jo as already told on the 35.

After our late start we really enjoyed this bus from its modest beginnings in Nunhead over Tower Bridge to the working heart of the City in 55 minutes, rather less time than you might expect.