The Number 85 Route

Friday 28 February 2020

The 84 used to go from Barnet to St Albans, and still does, but it is no longer a London bus and so falls outside the parameters of this project. So here we were, on a very nasty wet day, boarding the 85 at 11.40 It leaves from the little warren of streets around Putney Bridge station, and had to wiggle round a huge tow truck before reaching the dripping customers outside the station.

Crossing the bridge was faster than it had been on our previous bus, because going south there is a bus lane. The bus was rather cold, but at least it wasn't one of the useless new(ish) Routemasters: from March 6 as I am sure you know, it will only be permissible to board at the front by the driver, though it is not clear how the poor drivers are meant to enforce this.  So just to sum up Mr Johnson's vanity project:  open back for boarding? no; air cooled so no need to open windows? absolutely not, for those of us who remember to summer of the roastmasters; three entrances for speedy boarding? not a chance, since these buses proved to be as 'free' to ride as the bendies they replaced.

Still, enough of this wingeing, and on with our soggy trip, through Putney and therefore in Wandsworth, and passing Putney Railway Station.  There can't be many areas with their names on stations both sides side of the river

 

We travelled down through Roehampton, alongside residential areas, and Putney Common.  I can only hope that you regard Linda's valiant attempts at photography as 'Turneresque'.

We noted that several of the bus shelters had solar panels on their roofs, not that these would  have done much good on a day like today, and we also came past the extensive Happy Valley Cemetery. We had been reading about the possibility of composting our bodies, but it's a long way to Seattle, so we have to hope that things have changed before we need the facility.

 
 

The next event was the little circuit that buses do to serve the enormous A3 Asda, and then we trundled on to cross the Beverley Brook and several of the campuses of Kingston University.

 There were some lovely spring trees, just about visible through the rain, including hazels all adorned with catkins, and cherries, and then a mimosa just behind a northbound bus stop. Along here there are some very substantial houses, as well as a number of apartment blocks.

Then we reached Kingston Hospital, and for the first time since Putney High Street were slowed by traffic. This gave us time to notice that we were passing the UK HQ of VSO, before we swept past the Fairfield Bus Station to wiggle round the High Street, and over the Hogsmill River. Whatever else might have been wrong with today's trip, one can't deny the pleasure of going over two of London's small rivers, as well as the big one.

 

So this brought us to Kingston Hall Road, where this route finishes, and we were off the chilly bus at 12.30 

 

The weather reduces the enjoyment of any trip, I think, but this south London outing had had its points of interest. 

The Number 83 Route

14 February 2020

Today was a pleasant two bus trip from Alperton to Golders Green and then on to Edgware, so it took in 3 tube stations. But, as you know, we prefer to be on the road rather than under ground. By the way, there is no 82 route, which is why we were on an 83 at about 9.55. Last time we were in Alperton, it was mainly warehouses and workshops.  Now it's mainly apartments.

We immediately came to the beautiful Shri Swaminarayan Mandir and swept past it, through the very Asian shops and roadside banners of this part of London, towards Wembley.  So many new blocks of flats are being built here that I have concerns for the utilities that underpin them.  I assume 'luxury' in a description of a dwelling means one bathroom per person, which must put quite a strain on water and waste services.


We noted the Brent Indian Association's handsome mural, but were travelling too fast to take a picture, and then we passed the Wembley Central Mosque, before arriving in the middle of Wembley, where the tower blocks seem to get taller every time we visit.

The Al Pasha Supermarket was adorned with a picture of a man in a Fez, and I wondered if this was a portrait of Attaturk, the Father of Modern Turkey, but a fez and a moustache are not really sufficient clues for an identification.  We glimpsed the Wembley Arch in the distance, but were more surprised by the name 'Fatburger' for an eatery. We were also interested in the banners that advertised Yeh Hai Chahatein, which proves to be a soap series on Star Plus of which you can watch a sample here.

On we went, past still more recent flats, to cross the Wealdstone Brook and reach Wembley Park Station. Here's what Diamond Geezer said about the Brook in 2015.  If he revisited now he would find much more residential development, but still not much of a river.

The Ark Academy, in its smart new buildings, leads to some substantial detached houses, mostly with hardened front gardens; we did like the young plane tree with its last-year's fruits on its bare branches.

The George Pub seemed enormous, and brought us into Kingsbury, where we admired the Kingsbury Mandir, just across the road from the Holy Innocents Parish Church, before turning onto the Edgware Road.

Again, there were those yellow signs, which point to new-build estates, on every lamp post. When we passed a closed business labelled Japarts, I thought that the market for Japanese art had collapsed in t his area:  but it proves to have been J A Parts which sold bits for motor cars.

We turned left and uphill to pass the Welsh Harp Boat centre though we did not glimpse the water.  The trees had been fiercely pollarded;  it always amazes us that they don't seem to mind such draconian haircuts.

Once we were over the North Circular, we came to Hendon Central Station.  The former cinema which had become a Virgin Active Gym has now morphed into a Nuffield Health gym.

We were also interested to see a shop front for that remarkable organisation, Jews for Jesus.  Remarkable because, as Swami Vivekananda said, 'See Christ and you are a Christian'; but I suppose the social and community ties of the Jewish faith still holds people.

We came over the fast flowing River Brent and into Golders Green, marked by a large number of Jewish Care Homes, as well as Grodzinski's Bakery, announcing that it had been hereabouts since 1888.  We thought it likely that the terrible persecution of the pogroms in Russia in the 1880s triggered sufficient migration to make a Jewish Bakery a viable proposition.

The curving 1920s shopping parade brought us to the Clock war memorial roundabout, and to the end of this trip in Golders Green Station yard, after just about an hour.

The Number 81 Route

Hounslow Bus Station to Slough Bus station

Friday 31 January 2020

With a historic departure from the EU lurking later today we tried not to be too depressed on this 3-bus winter’s day…  We had started in White City and been through Uxbridge to arrive in Hounslow to find the departure bus stop (no passengers allowed in the horrid Hounslow Bus station ) in the same place by the lovely fruit and vegetable stall,  remembered  from years ago, which of course at this time of year is mostly full of exotic imports.

But I digress.  Our route out of Hounslow mirrored our route in so we had our camera poised to snap not just the rather forbidding Treaty Centre but the patch of soggy grass hosting a series of fairground attractions including nicely painted roundabouts – perhaps they are waiting for a sunny day to offer rides as they looked too well preserved to be abandoned.  Also hereabouts was Carpatica Cuisine, which offers ‘meat-centric traditional Romanian cuisine in a family setting’.

Hounslow House looked very new and shiny and is indeed a bringing together of civic services, leaving the old council offices for redevelopment and housing , so hopefully Hounslow’s plans will benefit the community.

The 81, like many other routes, follows the Bath Road up to West Hounslow station – pausing long enough to take on many passengers and give time to admire the station façade: a Charles Holden collaboration in Portland Stone.

The next stretch of the Bath Road is dual carriageway and bordered first by some shops but then a series of hotels and accommodation suites – for travellers with early/late or complex flights we imagine.  The bright neon of Moxy (though we read it as Maxy) proves to be low budget Marriott so yet more Heathrow friendly accommodation.  Needless to say the planes were coming low at a very steady rate.

At one of the major crossroads we noted that three of the four corners retained the original cupola rooves that the designer of the shopping parades had added in a stylistic flourish.

After the bustle of planes and hotels suddenly there was a field of cows, then one of a cereal crop – such contrasts within 2 bus stops!

We crossed over into Hillingdon Borough and then left the busy trunk roads behind to become the only TFL bus route through a series of villages starting with Cranford, then Longford with its village pump and older cottages.  I have included a more detailed map to show how close to Heathrow (and the M4/M25 interchange) they are, and where presumably any proposed third runway would go?

There were few passengers boarding but speed was restricted due to the narrow winding village streets, so the driver could slow for running passengers, which he did more than once.  The route crosses both motorways and small streams; not far off are the reservoirs which must be more than full after what seems like non-stop rain since October.  Although this is as noted the only TFL route in these parts, we noticed from a bus stop that Slough has ‘borrowed’ the Number 10 (discontinued by TFL, though in a very different part of London).

After Colnbrook, now irrevocably linked with the infamous Detention Centre, the 81 rejoins what looks like smaller version of the Bath Road .

By now we were clearly on the outskirts of Slough with a couple of schools and their pupils spilling onto the pavements and some on board – perhaps Upton Park Grammar and St Bernard’s finish a t Friday lunchtime?

This approach to Slough was very residential so I am not sure where the large and famous Slough Industrial estate might be.  Slough of course is famous, partly as the location of ‘The Office’ and before that for the Betjman poem invoking – well – bombs to fall.  It seems to me on re-reading the poem that Betjman was an arch snob: nowadays MANY people would be grateful for a home for £97 down payment and 2/6 (12½p) a week thereafter, as the prices were in 1937.

Mercifully fairly few bombs fell on Slough but the developers haven’t half made their presence felt and there are major town centre changes afoot to include both residential and retail    (though who would want to build retail with failing shops and closing department stores?).  The bus did a kind of circuit round a futuristic metal tube and then sidled into a demarcated spot in the bus station, slightly in quarantine away from Berkshire buses.

After an hour’s journey overall  we got off to find that the metallic tube was a bus shelter with cosy looking waiting areas and a café, so Slough must value its bus users.

We then went into the pretty red brick station and while Jo was wrangling her passes and I realising I had left my purse at home the railway official opined we could travel free into London provided we didn’t take the ‘green train’ (GWR) but the mauve one aka the Elizabeth line which now seems to run every 15 minutes through to Paddington.

At this point I will say that I was given a pair of London Transport Museum gift shop Elizabeth line socks for Christmas which I vowed I would not wear until I could ride the eponymous line so there were mutterings of ‘you can get your socks out now’.   However we were in something of a hurry and hungry (never a good combination) and so boarded the GWR train prepared to pay the difference to West Drayton.  At Hayes & Harlington our train drew alongside an actual moving, with passengers, Elizabeth Line train and very pretty it was too, but for now the socks stay in storage…

We had had an interesting day circling round Heathrow, where I suspect we shall soon be returning…