The Number 13 Route

Golders Green Bus garage to Aldwych Monday May 11th 2009

Glorious spring day with temperatures in the teens, again!

Our bus enthusiasm was slightly dulled by the slow ride at the end of the 12, but after a snack at John Lewis and a very fast Northern Line tube to Golders Green we did feel restored. We had a choice of three Number 13s. For Linda in particular this was something of a nostalgia trip, the 13 having been, since she was a little girl, the bus to the West End to do ‘shopping’ and then later her school bus.

The bus garage abuts the Golders Green Hippodrome, in its day a marvellous venue for pantos, theatre shows and even the ballet, later becoming BBC studios. Even from the top deck we could see the passengers came from a different demographic with many of East Asian origin. The bus kept a nifty speed along the Finchley Road through NW11, NW2, NW3 and NW8. ‘The Castle’ pub (could be nicer) sports a plaque saying it used to be a Tollgate – presumably for the roads in and out of London to the North, and indeed we passed the access to the M1 via the Hendon Way. There follows a stretch where there are several upmarket furniture and kitchen showrooms (Natuzzi and Poggenpohl); however, sign of the times – the Mercedes Benz showroom was empty…

South Hampstead High School was just about visible from the Finchley Road before we hit the wide stretch along past Swiss Cottage – Linda remembers the bombed out buildings that in the Sixties were finally replaced by rather bland blocks and what were two adjacent schools Quinton (Boys’ Grammar) and Kynaston (Boys Secondary Modern) They are both still ‘in situ’ and a long time ago were combined into a comprehensive, now trendily 'QK' on its website. Mary remembers the school as the venue for a conference where Tony Blair praised it as the future shape of education.

Past St John’s Wood are the two sites of the Wellington private Hospitals where Linda’s father had several admissions, a plaque to Oskar Kokoschka on the fine mansion blocks and onto Lords’, now boasting the rather strange pod.

The very handsome St John’s Church looked lovely in the sunshine, as did the glorious gardens of some huge mansions (surely no-one can own that much real estate in London?) astride the Regents canal, and then past the showpiece Regents Park Mosque. On to Baker Street where there is now a plaque at 22b (no such address) to placate tourists trying to locate the flat of Sherlock Holmes. Also looking somewhat spurious is the unofficial plaque to John Lennon – did he live there for 5 minutes?

The Lost Property Office still has a shop front on Baker Street – who knows we may need it yet by the time we get into higher numbers and poorer memories?? This stretch also has the headquarters of both the HG Wells and the Arnold Bennet societies. The bus sneaks up the side of Selfridges, which this year celebrates its centenary with fabulous colour coded windows displaying goods at the 1909, 1929 and 1931 prices…well worth a linger. Oxford Street will always be slow but we swept along Regent Street round Trafalgar Square and the Strand ( as we have already done on routes 10). The route said 35 minutes but probably 1.40 to 2.55 would be a better estimate.

The Number 12 Route

Dulwich Library to Oxford Circus Monday May 11th 2009

Glorious spring day with temperatures in the teens, again!

Jo being in Australia,Mary and I decided we would continue the project and accordingly met at Dulwich Library. We went (as directed by the 40 Inspectors) to the Head Stop in Friern Road only to be told – in spite of trying very hard to chat up the driver – that we could not board there. However, he relented and picked us up on the way back to first stop in Barry Road.

The 12 is a single Decker ‘bendy’ bus known locally as the ‘free bus’. For Mary it is her local ‘get into town’ route, so very familiar and she has travelled it at rather more edgy times than today’s mid-morning. For Linda, it is the irritating vehicle that needs two goes at the lights to turn the corner at either end of Barry Road, and behind which we often sit fuming when travelling by car.

The 12 used to start at ‘The Plough’ pub, but when a few years back the pub transmogrified into something like ‘the Pie and Pattipan’ TFL played safe by using the very beautiful Passmore Edwards library as the end stop. As we swooped down Barry Road, Mary reminded me that it was on Peckam Rye that William Blake had had one of his earliest visions – “a tree filled with angels, bright angelic wings bespangling every bough like stars” – but today little more than the odd dog-walker can be seen. ‘The Clock House’ pub on the corner of Barry Road and Peckham Rye always has the most splendid hanging baskets and today boasted a fine wisteria along it pergola and up its wall. Very handsome big houses line this side of the common until you get to the remnants of what was Peckham’s outdoor lido, where Catherine learnt to swim – sadly no more, just a few steps remaining. Also now only a memory is good old Austin’s, the second-hand furniture emporium from which we had all bought tables, now only commemorated in the name of the very bland town houses that have replaced it.

Rye Lane (effectively Peckham’s High Street) sometimes seems on another continent between the Beneficial and Veracious Chapel and the God Bless Restaurant , not to mention the (Brazilian?) Igreja Batista de Povo – also the many street shops selling bowls of chillies/peppers and mangoes to evoke warmer lands. Not surprisingly the passengers reflect the diverse and for the most part black community. Out beyond Peckham town centre we passed again the Peckham Pulse and award-winning Will Alsop Library and more soberly the Oliver Goldsmith Primary School, where Damilola Taylor went. The senior school is now rebuilt as the Harris City Academy.The Walworth Road has some fine municipal buildings including the very pretty town house kept for the Registry Office and the impressive Camberwell College of Art (now London Uni) in its Passmore Edwards Building. Mary had worked at the new and colourful Sunshine building, which houses the Child Development and auxiliary services for Southwark’s children.

On through Camberwell and passing the old Camberwell Baths – like our own in Forest Hill due for a refit. Camberwell Green apart from the juvenile courts also has some fine pre-war public housing and shortly afterwards the drivers changed at Camberwell Bus Garage. At the end of Walworth Road is the complex of old municipal buildings including the Cuming Museum, Newington Library and the former Southwark Health Centre which still sports over the door the bracing slogan “The people’s health is the highest law.”Built below some student flats the capacious ‘Dragon Inn’ restaurant comes highly recommended, even if it is close to Elephant & Castle, now suffering from ‘development blight’. We zoomed past the London College of Communication (formerly LC of Printing) and the Imperial War Museum. The less said the better of St George’s RC cathedral – drab and vast – but we noted our only Blue Plaque of the trip to "George Myers - Master Builder". Morley College needs a special mention for its creative courses for South Londoners. Then on to what was County Hall – the former traffic island opposite now sporting a very tall hotel development. St Thomas’s Hospital is the last south London landmark before you sail over Westminster Bridge – and indeed ‘earth hath not anything to show more fair’. After Waterloo the very busy bus emptied to being largely tourists – sitting near the back door we reckoned 1 in 3 people getting on there actually paid…

Unfortunately our bus came to a grinding halt as we were diverted away from Parliament Square (shades of the 11 two weeks ago), this time for legitimate demonstrations by Tamil supporters. Boadicea still impresses, but though we saw a wealth of statuary along the Embankment this is of course not the designated route. We got back on track at Trafalgar Square: thence up to a very slow Piccadilly and along Regent Street to Oxford Circus taking something over 1½ hours – we agreed that if we had not been on the project we would have got off and walked!

The Number 11 Route

Tuesday 28 April 2009 Aah, Liverpool Street Station, clean and calm, with no sign of massed, dancing mobile phone users. I paused to admire the Kindertransport Memorial. The team, enhanced today by Renee, assembled in very good time, and we awaited the 11, which arrived at 10.20. The driver said he was only going to Chelsea as there were long hold-ups in Westminster, but we knew we could always move onto another one. As we went through the city, there was much to see, and we particularly noticed the statue of George Peabody. Another passenger pointed James Henry Greathead out to us in front of St Pauls. She also ensured that we noticed the Mithraic Temple. We agreed that this was an excellent route, full of interest and we hadn’t even left the City! but then on through Fleet Street, where we noted the Express Building, and the HQs of several provincial newspapers, as well as the Protestant Truth Society, a strangely NON-ecumenical concept in the 21st century. Next came St Clement Danes Church, with statues of Dowding and Harris outside it and we were into the Strand: the Courts of Justice, King’s College (from where some of us had watched the 1977 Silver Jubilee Procession) Somerset House and then into Trafalgar Square and down Whitehall. This is where we realised what the bus driver had meant, as it was very slow, with plenty of time to see the various protesters in Parliament Square and the heavy police presence. The Queen was in Westminster Abbey, at a ceremony for the Yeomen of the Guard, on this the 500th anniversary of the death of their founder, Henry VII. On to Victoria Station, eventually, and then to Sloane Square, where our bus terminated, having taken over an hour to get that far. But another soon came, and we made our way along the King’s Road, admiring the posh shops, as well as the Pheasantry with its plaque to the ballet dancer Astafieva. One more enjoyable sight was the Worlds End Nursery before we reached Fulham Town Hall at 11.50 and decided enough was enough, returning to our real lives by tube rather than taking any more buses.

The Number 10 Route

Monday 20 April 2009
Mary and I barely had time to survey the wonders of Hammersmith Upper Bus Station before hopping onto a 10, admiring the driver's very cool hat on the way. It was about 11.25. Hammersmith was very slow, presumably because of whatever had shut the flyover, so we had time to observe not just Marco Pierre White's Belvedere Restaurant but also a blue plaque to Alma Cogan (don't miss the juke box if you click the link!) We also passed Capita's Offices. They were bidding to run the SATs, since obviously controlling the Congestion Charge is just the qualification needed for organising school exams.
The route was the same as the 9 until we got to Hyde Park Corner, and then it was up Park Lane (lovely tulips), and along Oxford Street for the umpteenth time. We again noticed the slow progress on that huge building site opposite Selfridges, so this time I have found out why: it's all been in the hands of the lawyers. Past the 100 Club and up Tottenham Court Road and so through Euston Station and to King's Cross, and home to lunch in the sunny garden.

The Number 9 Route

Monday 20 April 2009
This outing was unique: we think it is the only time when two consecutive numbers make an easy journey. Linda had family duties, so Mary and I met at Aldwych on yet another sunny day. At 10.24, we boarded a genuine antique routemaster although we knew we should have to get another 9 at the Royal Albert Hall. I hope none of our readers is foolishly nostalgic for these things. Let us just say that you could smell old tobacco on the upstairs, twenty years on, and when a child fell forward, the rail on the seat in front was not at all padded. The Strand was quite slow because of water works (where isn't?) but we reached Waterloo Place and then Piccadilly, passing St James's Church, and then a blue plaque to show that Lord Palmerston lived along the road. Hyde Park Corner yet again meant that Mary had to endure the lecture on the various memorials there (see the Number 8) and then we were into Knightsbridge, passing the Paxton's Head Pub, apparently renamed in 1851 when the Crystal Palace builders used to drink there (what was it called before? Duke of Grafton). At the Albert Memorial we got onto a modern 9, and pressed on, past Kensington Palace and then noticing the dozens of bike racks in the middle of Kensington High Street. The former Commonwealth Institute is up for sale, and looked very depressing, but we saw a blue plaque for the cartoonist Low to cheer us up. Hammersmith was very bunged up by whatever accident had closed the flyover, but we reached the bus station within an hour and got straight onto a number 10.

The Number 8 Route

14 April 2009

Following the grey weekend some of us had had, bright sunshine greeted Linda and me at Victoria and we climbed onto the Number 8 at about 10.25. We swept along Grosvenor Place and round Hyde Park Corner, passing the Australian War Memorial and the New Zealand War Memorial
Turning into Mayfair was a bit of a surprise, as we had thought that only chauffeur driven mercs - not buses - patrolled those streets, but Berkeley Square was looking lovely, we soon reached Oxford Street and travelled the rest of its length, once again impressed that the Photographers’ Gallery actually gets its name announced on the buses: other museums on the whole don’t. We travelled eastward for some time, seeing a cyclist on a recumbent as well as passing the statue to Rowland Hill. On past Liverpool Street Station, and a huge construction project along the Bethnal Green Road (could it be Crossrail? Or a new road?) We were impressed by Peach the Estate Agent with painted spiders and bugs on its strange office and by some smart retirement homes along the – very straight - Roman Road. By now into the part of London that is intersected by a number of waterways, including the Hertford Union Canal, we were on the A12 for a brief while before arriving at Bow Church at 11.40.


Our return trip is for another time, but we must mention the charming man at Bromley by Bow tube station who let us use their staff loo.

The Number 7 Route

On 6 April 2009, Linda and I met in sunny Russell Square and got on the Number 7 just after 10.20. I asked the driver to change the destination so I could take a photo. Past the British Museum, with its smart new pedestrian crossing, and a blue plaque for George du Maurier. We went all the way down Oxford Street, noting the entertaining Bombardier Beer ads on almost every bus shelter, and round Marble Arch, with the less amusing sight of a ghost bike. Then up the Edgware Road and round to Paddington, passing another Fleming plaque, (see the 6) this time ‘Penicillin’ Alexander Fleming who made his discovery at St Mary’s Hospital. We noticed that Kensington and Chelsea was still looking pretty affluent, and then passed into Hammersmith, and another couple of hospitals (buses are always passing hospitals!) and HMP Wormwood Scrubs before reaching East Acton where our bus terminated and we were able to step straight onto our next.