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.