The Number 69 Route

Tuesday 27 April 2010

Mary, Linda and I met at Walthamstow bus station, only to be told that the area was being closed for some works, so we moved to the stop outside the huge supermarket instead.  The 69 soon arrived and we set off around 10.35, destination Canning Town. We had been here before, on the 48, not to mention the 58, and again we noted the large number of religious venues, including the London Healing Centre, and the Waltham Forest Nur-ul-Islam Centre, a Mauritian organisation, with an interest in sports.

But we also enjoyed 'Sweet Choice' with its offer of 'endearing food', cheering because there were a lot of boarded up and empty shops.

Then as we came into Leyton, we passed the handsome ex-town hall, now on the verge of becoming studios and business premises.  We also had fine views of the Olympic site, before forking left down Crownfield Road, with very determined attempts to calm the traffic.  

A number of shops cater for the East European market, though few as comprehensively as this one.  A number of shops were also looking towards 2012 and calling themselves 'Olympic' this or that.  We swept past St John's Church and through Stratford, passing Plaistow Station, and then crossing the Northern Outfall Sewer, part of Bazalgette's great works, and a pleasant embankment to walk along, should you wish to get to Beckton on foot.  The East London Cemetery next door is large, but seemed well tended;  it has an area which is in the care of the Commonwealth War Graves Commission.

As we passed Rathbone market, we were intrigued to notice an ex-pub, now flats, called Dick Turpin House, since w had always associated him with the Great North Road. However, he turns out to have been a local lad.  We knew we were approaching Canning Town Bus Station as we could see the huge road junction under which it nestles. The Dome was so close that it was hard to believe it was actually across the river.  We arrived at the handsome bus station after only 50 minutes, which seemed to pretty good, as we had swept eastwards and then back towards the west, through varied scenery, with dense population but also a surprising number of open spaces, looking ravishing in the spring sunshine.

The Number 68 Route

Wednesday 11 March 2009


This route was travelled more than a year from the moment of its posting on the blog, as it was the return route from West Norwood, following the outward trip on the 2.

I was on my own, since both the other 'ladies who bus' were still in gainful employment.  A short walk from West Norwood bus garage brought me to Knight's Hill and a brief wait saw me on board the 68, which forked right almost immediately to take me up the Norwood Road and so to Herne Hill and Tulse Hill.

After both King's College Hospital and the Maudsley, we were into the Walworth Road and to Elephant and Castle,  I had thought that West Norwood was down Croydon way, rather than being north of Streatham, so was impressed by the speediness of the whole thing.  Of course going into London, even outside the rush hour, was slower than coming out had been, but not much.

After Elephant and Castle we were quickly to Waterloo Bridge, passing the Necropolis Railway Station  (do you think the story that the platform bar had a sign that said 'spirits served here' is a myth?) Waterloo Bridge may not have Wordworth, but it does have Wendy Cope.

We rounded Aldwych, with barely time to notice the pretty medallions decorating the Indian High Commission, and headed up Kingsway and through Boomsbury. There was the promising sight of Russell Square with many buses we have yet to take, and passing Tavistock Square always gives us the chance to think of the people who were on the Number 30 bus on 7 July 2005.
And so to Euston, well within the advertised 57 minutes for this time of day.

The Number 67 Route

Monday 19 April 2010

Mary, Linda and I did not have to wait long at Wood Green and boarded the 67 at 11.30. The bus was quite busy as we headed down past the shopping centre and the many shoe shops to Turnpike Lane Station, and then down West Green Road to Black Boy Road.  The housing is quite dense around here, as confirmed by the fact that we passed 3 primary schools in the first five minutes of our trip, including Chestnuts Primary school, by a small green area called Chestnut Park, although most of the trees seemed to be London Planes

We saw Papa Jonas Vie-Court's Congolese Restaurant, but sadly it does not seem to have a website although the Florentia Clothing Village does!  We also passed St Ann's hospital, still associated for many people with the tragedy of Baby P.  The Police Station is just across the road, but clearly proximity did not make communication any more effective.

Soon we were in Stamford Hill, passing Lubavich House as well as many shops serving the needs of the local community, perhaps the strangest being a Kosher kebab shop.  As we headed towards Stoke Newington, we spotted a political, or perhaps anti-political poster by Dr.d  impressively up to date as the Goldman Sachs story only broke on Friday.

Down into Dalston, and we were in among the works for the East London Line extension,  as well as admiring a beautifully tiled Mosque.

We were also taken with the clock outside a hardware shop. Mary was delighted that we passed Ridley Road Market, where she used to shop when she was a student, as well as the Metropolitan Hospital, where she did her first job, and the Fox pub where she and her co-workers used to unwind.  We were, though,  less happy to see a ghost bike outside the Fox.

The Geffrye Museum is clearly having major works done on its grounds, as there were diggers and large bags of soil lying around.  Its beautiful trees make it hard to take a decent photo, however.

Heading straight for the Gherkin, we passed a second impressive mosque, as well as the beautiful church of St Leonard's Shoreditch, built by George Dance: clearly the early 18th century was a good period for architects - we were about to pass Christ Church, Spitalfields, built by Nicholas Hawksmoor.

Then we came to Toynbee Hall, with its Blue Plaque to its founder Jimmy Mallon, and Canon Barnett Primary School, named for the husband of Henrietta Barnett, whose parish this was.  After a quick turn around Aldgate East Station, we were at Aldgate, arriving an exact hour after we had left Wood Green.

The Number 66 Route

Romford Station to Leytonstone Station
Monday April 12th 2010

In order to get thus far we had already been under the Thames and out from Stratford so were not impressed that we waited over the expected 12 minutes for our 66 to start us off from Romford Station. Once again we found ourselves a year on from our last visit back in Romford on a non-market day, but by lunch-time in the school holidays Romford was still pretty busy and this route, like many of the others makes sure you pass the key shopping centres at Liberty and the Romford Mall – smaller and quieter. The pedestrianised areas are all well sign-posted, and bus is probably the best approach to this part of London, situated as it is not far from two major roundabouts, signs to the M25 and a whole lot of dual carriageways.

We of course were heading (not for Chicago or LA) but back into town and Leytonstone and the most direct way – if you don’t opt for the Central Line – is arguably down the A12 dual carriageway on Route 66. We were 12 miles from central London (much less than 2,000 miles all the way), as the many motorway boards told us, and swept on through lingering only by a few early shops – office clearance showing the death of the filing cabinet as they piled up on the pavements. After that it was fast driving along the quaintly named Whalebone Lane North to get, most aptly to the Moby Dick crossroads. If you ‘Google’ Moby Dick at Crossroads you get an excellent heavy metal YouTube clip of a band called Black Dog, or possibly the other way round! However more prosaically there was and still is a pub of that name.

The only route along here takes it pretty fast as most of the stops seem to be requests – we agreed that with the Central Line so key to this area the bus ‘fills in the gaps’, sometimes considerable, between stations, but most commuters would go for the tube. Some stretches had rows of inter-war housing, with blossomy front gardens still well maintained, other bits had larger warehouses named randomly ‘Doors-R-Us’ or even ‘Lamps-R-Us’. Signs to Goodmayes Hospital reminded Mary of some early experience in mental health medical training.

Our speed was curtailed by the Gants Hill roadworks, which had been due to finish this year, but it seems not so we’ll update when we are next round here. This gave us time to contemplate the teeny weeny balconies on the new build by George Wimpey – handy for the tube though. Still the sole bus we passed Redbridge Station close to the M11 and a very large road intersection – apparently a speciality hereabouts.

Thames water seem to be housed in a pretty and older pumping station and there are some squeezed in allotments, possibly prone to flooding from the River Roding, just before you get to Wanstead Station – lacking the art deco charm of the Piccadilly Line the Central Line stations are utilitarian and in need of some TLC, which we noted Wanstead is about to get in the form of a face-lift and better access.

Somewhat to our surprise the bus turned off the A12 at this point and what we glimpsed of Wanstead Place impressed us with its villagy feel – a Green, older houses, and even some Almshouses, so obviously is worth stopping off. Then lo into yet another Roundabout – this time the Green Man, a very popular motif in East England – location of a Close named after locally-born writer John Drinkwater, whose most quotable lines appear to be the seasonally appropriate “And not a girl goes walking / Along the Cotswold lanes / But knows men's eyes in April / Are quicker than their brains.” From here we took a little 1-way access into Leytonstone Station, where clearly café society has arrived, and joined the passengers heading for the Underground.

Well you can tell by all my desperate references to stations passed and route numbers that the bus was short on drama, history or landscape, in short: I did not get many kicks on Route 66, which did its number in something over the promised 23 minutes.
Short route = short blog.

The Number 65 Route

Tuesday 6 April 2010

We - Linda and I - were on our second bus of the day when we boarded the 65, at 11.20, at its head stop at Ealing Broadway station, and were enjoying a beautiful sunny day for our trip. Ealing Broadway was busy with traffic and shoppers, but we were able to glimpse the Blue Plaque for Lady Byron, a remarkable woman who managed to walk out on the most romantic poet of the 19th century having failed to convert him to her virtuous way of life.

Soon after South Ealing Station we passed the Assyrian Society of the UK, a group which represents the Christians of Iraq, who speak Aramaic (like Jesus) and who have been persecuted by just about everyone. (Until now we had only known them as the people whose cohorts were gleaming with purple and gold.)

On a lighter note we found a hair dresser called 'Angels; which offered half head highlights for £50 and full head for £60: as Linda said, it made the full head look a bargain.

We admired Ealing's handsome hanging baskets, along with other signs of spring as we reached the river at Brentford, and saw signs for the Thames Path as well as the Musical Museum. We were under the Heathrow flight path, of course, but were insulated from the noise inside our bus.

The standpipe tower at Kew Bridge Steam Museum was the next landmark, and then we crossed Kew Bridge to follow the long wall of Kew Gardens. At this stage an inspector boarded, the first we have had for many weeks, though we have had inspectors on bendy buses.

We reached South Kew, and passed the grounds of London Welsh Rugby Club and then Falcons Preparatory School, apparently based in an old fire station, with its strapline 'Boys will be boys, ours lead the pack'.

Richmond is very smart, and we admired shops and houses as we went past Richmond Rail Station before popping round the Bus Station and heading on towards Ham. The Poppy Factory and the Star and Garter Home led us to the spot where the Capital Ring crosses the Thames Path and then on to Ham Polo ground and Richmond Golf Course, at which point we passed into the Royal borough of Kingston upon Thames.

On this visit we passed Tiffin Boys' School, well separated from the Girls, and with the motto 'faire sans dire' which looks to cynical ex school teachers like me to be a good working rule for school students. We passed the two bus stations to reach Brook Street at the end of our trip at 12.15. The sunshine and clear signs of spring made this a very pleasant tour of some of the smarter bits of West London.

The Number 64 Route

New Addington Tramlink to Thornton Heath Pond

Tuesday March 30th 2010

In order to get thus far we had (seamlessly and effortlessly) taken two other buses so were already as far towards the edge of London as our bus maps allow. An extensive tour of New Addington with its entirely 20th century feel spanning the garden village ideal of the Thirties to the ‘families need homes’ thrust of the Fifties and Sixties has been linked to the rest of the metropolis by the Tramlink, where we to boarded the 64 bus. The 64 has always served Addington and we left Parkway enjoying the extensive views over the fields and can well imagine how it was still farmland 80 years ago. Perhaps because the ten-year-old trams now serve this area pretty well our bus was fairly empty for the start of this trip – it was also amazingly quiet as to engine so we felt quite lulled and soothed on our trip. It is very much the only lower digit bus to serve this part of the world – all the other numbers are well into the 300s or 400s or even the Letters, which really do seem a long way away from 64.

Forestdale, which is the other large housing development hereabouts, occupies much of the hill down into Selsdon – it’s a wide road with the houses set well back. John Ruskin College is well established, having started life as a grammar school, but we have not yet found any evidence that the art critic who supported the Pre-Raphaelites actually lived round here.

There were signs to the London Loop and Section 4 passes this way – saying not surprisingly that the views from the Addington Hills are splendid and far-reaching.

The 64 bus has quite a steep climb to get up into Selsdon and is of course a sole route hereabouts – the trams not managing the hills quite so well. Selsdon is very much the older established but still firmly 20th century bit of Croydon – large detached houses, mature trees, private schools and golf clubs and thus it continues, fairly uninterrupted with still few passengers boarding, giving us opportunity to appreciate the colour coming back into the grey – yellow forsythia and the beginnings of pink blossom –down into Croydon Town Centre, serving all three stations – first South, then East, the real hub, and finally West Croydon.

And suddenly the bus turns not from a frog into a princess but from a country bus to a town bus as all the passengers pile on at the various stops through Croydon. The older building now housing the Halifax has a public clock, still keeping good time I note, and re-adjusted for summertime but perhaps the passing bus advertising a film called the Crazies could be applied equally to the ‘Ladies Who Bus’?

Though termed West Croydon – and it’s only a few weeks since we were here on the 60 – to be pedantic it’s really North Croydon and there we were heading out through the Indian restaurants and food shops now pretty familiar to us, past Mayday Hospital and some smaller hotels who keep up the larger houses along here. And then West or North Croydon merges into Thornton Heath and there we were at journey’s end. The head stop had given us a time estimate of 33 minutes, which seemed a bit optimistic, even for a short route but we did complete our ‘day out’ in just over 40 minutes, and the sun came out too! Just for a change thought we would celebrate this number with an audio link as this is just the sort of activity the writer was thinking of when he wrote his song. (Did you see that coming?)

The Number 63 Route

Forest Hill Tavern to King’s Cross

Wednesday March 24th 2010

[Oh, the honour, oh, the responsibility – the first guest blogger, the first male blogger to gatecrash the domain of the ladies who bus, and for such an important route… The 63 is a big deal for those involved in this project – it effectively links the North London participant with her two south-of-the-river colleagues, it is the bus that I, the husband of one of the latter and self-styled ‘63 regular’ on the list of followers, use for my daily commute, and it was the bus that our son used in his school days. This is not an entry to be undertaken lightly – can I possibly do it justice?]

The bus starts outside Camberwell Old Cemetery, near the small area looked after by the Commonwealth War Graves Commission which is the resting place of Albert McKenzie VC (whose story is well worth reading). Linda and I boarded at 9.33, finding the bus quite busy considering the time of day and the fact that there was a 363 just ahead. Forest Hill Road soon took us past the house with one of this part of London’s very few blue plaques, marking the birthplace of Henry Pratt, or Boris Karloff as he is better known, and on past the building site where the new Harris Boys' Academy (East Dulwich) is rapidly going up on the site formerly occupied by Waverley Girls’ School.

With spring at last underway, the daffodils on the Peckham Rye verges were coming into bloom with almost audible sighs of relief. One of the things about travelling a route that has been familiar for three decades is that you notice things that are no longer there as well as things that are – in this area, the ghosts of Austins the second-hand furniture store and the old Co-Op rattle their chains. Rye Lane, Peckham shows its fantastic diversity in the wide range of groceries, cosmetics and religious options available to locals; the last stretch towards Peckham Pulse is in the throes of extensive roadworks, the final purpose of which is not yet clear. The wriggle round Hanover Park and Clayton Road evoked two further ghosts: the site of the former Peckham Leisure Centre (known in the family as the Leis-re Centre from the long period when the ‘U’ went missing), now a block of key workers’ flats with Swordfish Masquerade, a striking piece of public art, by Nigerian-born artist Sokari Douglas Camp outside it, and the very blue ‘Gaumont House’ keeping no more than the name of a former cinema and bingo hall.

Turning right off Peckham High Street into Peckham Hill, we admired in rapid succession the Manze Eel and Pie House, Peckham Library, ‘Underexposed’ – a roadside photographic portrait gallery of black actors including Idris Elba, The Wire’s Stringer Bell – and the first glimpse of the Strata tower block at still-distant Elephant and Castle. This stretch of the route goes over an unmistakable canal bridge which seems well out of place until you find out you have just crossed the route of the Grand Surrey Canal, absorbed surprisingly recently into Burgess Park.

Joining the Old Kent Road, we were again just one of many bus routes. The ‘Thomas a’Becket’ pub has a Southwark blue plaque recalling that boxer Henry Cooper trained there, and we noted that the opening of the ‘Premier by Eurotraveller’ hotel would make life easier for fans of the Monopoly board (when Tim Moore explored London board in hand for ‘Do Not Pass Go’ it was one of his major challenges). The Old Kent Road has already lost many of the pubs for which it used to be famous – think of the book and the film of ‘Last Orders’ – and we were sad to see ‘For Sale’ signs on ‘The World Turned Upside Down’ whose pub sign we used to enjoy.

After the flyover, the 63 takes you to Elephant and Castle, past the Heygate Estate which this project has mentioned several times already. Top-deck passengers get a good view of the pile of rubble that is still all there is behind hoardings bearing Oakmayne’s promises of completion in 2006 or 2007. Round the E&C roundabout, the stop across the road from the South Bank University is where my commute usually stops, so from here on the view was marginally less familiar. The bus picked up a lot of travellers at this point, since there are no other routes that head up past Clerkenwell to King’s Cross. Blackfriars Road was empty and fast moving, but not even the ability to sail past it quite quickly reconciles us to the LDA building, which we find one of modern London’s least attractive additions.

As we crossed the Thames the sun came out and there was a lot of work going on for the new ‘on the bridge’ Blackfriars railway station. We duly noted the bus stop claimed as ‘mine’ 20 years ago by our school-commuting son, and worked out that our trip under Holborn Viaduct would be the last by the Bus Project, as 63 is the highest number that does that. Farringdon Road railway station is undergoing further redevelopment: it feels to us that it has only just finished the previous revamp, but perhaps it was longer ago than we realise.

Being on the top deck, we could see the massed post office vans behind the Mount Pleasant sorting office – a view you don’t get from a car or the lower deck. In King’s Cross Road we spotted and photographed a very eroded stone identifying Bagnigge House, which seems to have links both to Nell Gwynne and to an 18th century rural spa. Turning into Grays Inn Road meant the journey was nearly over: we passed the offices of the Terence Higgins Trust and the Royal National Throat Nose and Ear Hospital and – one last ghost – the shell of the long-departed Mole Jazz, now just another shop awaiting redevelopment. And there we were in York Way and ‘this bus terminates here’. The whole journey had taken 55 minutes – 10 minutes less than the time forecast by TFL – and provided an interesting opportunity to take a new look at a lot of familiar sights. We must also say, having now travelled this route in both directions at many different times of day and night, it is an impressively frequent, regular and reliable service.