The Number 266 Route

Brent Cross Shopping Centre to Hammersmith Bus Station (Lower Level)
Thursday June 9^th 2011

Well, a day that had started so well with barely a wait and faultless connections rather dissolved at this point and not anticipating such delays we had not brought any sandwiches so hunger did not help the situation.

Learning that this route, as well as running over 24 hours delivered a bus every 7 minutes, we thought it prudent to take a comfort break and sure enough soon after we returned to bus stop B at Brent Cross (more bus melée than a true station) along came the 266 and we boarded at 12.45PM . Not that clean – people have a nasty habit of leaving their half eaten chicken dinner under the front seat or on the front window sill…

Off we set at quite a pace across Tempelhof Avenue, which reminded us that Barnet is twinned with about 10 places including Berlin. Over the North Circular from Brent Cross there is quite an alternative shopping centre that has grown up with less glitzy stores including outlet centres for many of the bigger chains such as Mothercare or Next.  As it is the North Circular and a junction where traffic often slows there are very many hoardings and we noted how so many brands seemed to be celebrating their 100^th year – Nivea and Coca-Cola to name but two. Perhaps on reflection it is actually Capitalism which is 100 years old, and each brand is just another facet of it. Looking very like another outlet shop the Jesus House Centre seems to do what it says on the tin, and is a religious Christian outlet if you will.

Before we knew it – and this part of the journey for once was very smooth – we were heading south along the Edgware Road through Cricklewood past more outlets and some charity HQs (the MS Society) and the Al Hussaini Masjid, one of several mosques we passed on this trip – this one looks to be located in a former office block so is not particularly conspicuous. No idea what the pretty Arabic says: ‘New Mosque opens here’ perhaps?  We stopped by the Comfort Delgro Building – the word’s second largest Transport outfit from Singapore that owns thousands of vehicles including Metroline, so sure enough we stopped and switched off the engine while the drivers changed (hence the initial speed I think, to get off shift). Then off we went turning down Walm Lane towards Willesden Green, Willesden, Neasden and Harlesden . I have to say none of the ‘dens’ actually make my heart soar, and moving at snails’s pace while it was trying to rain the outlook generally was not great. Willesden High Street’s shops  have one or two more interesting places – the Architectural Salvage shop look s like somewhere that might have some hidden gems and we 'Modest'

which offers ‘Fashion with Conscience’. Just as we passed Willesden Bus Garage the roads (these are all former country lanes and really not very wide and certainly not wide enough for the current volume of traffic) there was a police car in the bus lane and no room for us to pass – they seemed to be questioning a young man in a doorway but just few metres further along was a deserted pub where they could have parked up more considerately. Eventually an onward coming van gave way and we progressed down Beaconsfield Road and Ilex Road. Religious outlets came thick and fast here – they often take over smaller office blocks and we had in quick successions Portuguese Brazilian Christians (not just ordinary Catholics then?) and Elim Pentecostals, 7^th day Adventists and the Well of Deeper Meaning above and beyond the two further Willesden mosques.

We were in the aptly named Church Road – again progress was so slow we could have leapt off at any point to buy some Jerk Chicken or even a scandal or two. One shop was using a (toy) tiger to attract attention – it had a label tied to its ears which made them flap in the breeze and look quite animated and lifelike. Having said that not sure to what they were attracting out attention!

We passed Willesden Junction where indeed a multitude of rail lines converge, sometimes on different levels – the station itself is very confusing and they post an operative at a key point to redirect the lost souls who are on their third circuit of not finding the right platform.

After more slowness through Harlesden due to some fairly substantial road works, the announcement came that the bus would be terminating at North Acton and a group of us were duly ejected to wait for nearly 20 minutes on a rather windswept bridge by one of the many Acton stations which break down as follows:

Acton Central and South Acton  = the Overground

North Acton and East Acton and West Acton =  the Central Line (Underground)

Acton Town = the Piccadilly and District Lines (Underground)

Acton Mainline = the Railway
Oh yes and there’s a canal as well, while the 266 crosses A40 Western Avenue at Gypsy Corner.
(Thanks to our readers for these corrections: your blogger had by now clearly had enough!) 

The net impact on the traffic is many bridges and much slowness.

Park Royal is essentially a large trading estate, and though we only skirted it today we spotted a couple of gems including the John Lewis Depository.  Boden at least make a virtue out of necessity and while I spotted the Perfume factory Jo saw the real  interest factor. I prefer to think of my perfume being hand gathered in the lavender fields of Provence rather than manufactured out of chemicals in Acton but there you go.

We are not very familiar with this Elvis’ output being more connoisseurs of the American one but  this offers great samples.

We then crossed the Uxbridge Road at Gypsy Corner – slow but not stationary – and into more of Acton. Most striking thing hereabouts were the three or so 22 floor Tower blocks built in the late Sixties otherwise known as the Steyne Estate.

Round one of the more focussed bits of Acton (sorry, I’ve lost my nerve after listing seven stations) was a large Morrisons, but more encouragingly a quite lively market on what looked like the remnants of a market square. Acton has some other delights – two quite good ghost signs and a Passmore Edwards Library, one of I think 22 or so such foundations he bequeathed to the less affluent bits of London.

By now the bus was announcing it was going to terminate at Seven Stars corner but rather than get stranded again we did that trick of eying up the bus ahead (to be fair our 2^nd driver did try to catch and overtake the 266 in front – obviously not the one that had rejected us at North Acton) so we managed, just (the doors shut in my face while Jo was holding up the next 266 but I squeaked and was released in time). Not good for the temper.

Along The Vale there were huge numbers of police on both sides of the road. As it happened we were by now behind a 207, one of the remaining bendy buses, and on previous trips on these multi-doored buses we had watched how when the inspectors boarded they would be accompanied by police to prevent potential fare-dodgers exiting (See the Route 18 about 2 years ago). However on this occasion they did not attempt to get on the 207 so it was far from clear what these numbers of police were doing round the edge of Hammersmith – waiting for another bus?

Along the Vale the substantial buildings housing …Newman prop hire stand proud.

Rather than heading straight along to Shepherds Bush the bus heads further south along Askew Road towards Starch Green . I have not as yet found any explanation for the history of the name but did find a delightful web-site for an art and craft studio of that name.

The run into Hammersmith Central is packed with interest – a beautifully kept Young’s pub, the Thatched House, Godolphin & Latymer School and – just opposite the Metropolitan Line station – the Swan Dining Rooms complete (or restored)  with pub sign, lantern portico and excellent architectural detail.

The bus’s final resting place was the Lower bus station at Hammersmith and we staggered out 1 hour and 40 minutes, and on our third vehicle after we had started. I suspect today was not exceptional and there is something about this route that does not quite work.  If the account appears disjoined it was written over several days but in a way reflects the experience also.

The number 265 Route

Thursday 15 December 2011

Today was predicted to be cold and wet and even snowy, but in fact Linda and I met in bright sunshine at Putney Bridge Station to head to Tolworth, even if it clouded over by the end of our return journey (on the 281, if you were unaware of which two buses have Tolworth as their terminating/starting point)  The rain didn't arrive till the evening.

Leaving at 10.15, we headed over the river, coming at once to signs of the politics of sewage, a dispute which has been going on for some time now.  We turned right to travel alongside the river, passing a block of flats with not one but three blue plaques:  the one for Fred Russell, Father of Modern Ventriloquism, which we have mentioned before, and two neighbours,  Gavin Ewart and Lord Hugh Jenkins.  It would be nice to know if one liked the other's poems, or indeed whether they shared political views:  the one an artillery officer and the other a pacifist Trade Unionist and member of the Tribune group.  We also passed another plaque, this one erected by the Putney Society, to J R Ackerley, the author and editor of The Listener, one of whose claims to fame was that he was openly gay in a period when such honesty was more than a little risky.

Having moved from Hammersmith and Fulham to Wandsworth, we noted lots of rather smart eateries, as well as the Porson's Nose butchers, with attendant cow, and Will's Art Warehouse , before moving out into the green spaces of Putney Common and the Lower Common cemetery.

Crossing the South Circular, our driver needed all his abundant calm and good sense to deal with some very silly behaviour by other vehicles.  The concerted indrawn breath of his passengers on this crowded little bus proved unnecessary as we continued smoothly past Rosslyn Park RFU Club.  We went past the extensive campus of Roehampton University.  My A-Z is old enough to refer to all the separate institutions, many connected with the training of teachers, which have combined to make the University and so explain its geographical expansiveness.  New flats are being constructed on part of the land of Queen Mary's Hospital, itself a shining new building.

Here our bus began diving through the estates where Linda worked for some years in her Wandsworth days, returning to the main road before heading off again.  We headed onto the A3, where we made rapid progress, looping into and out of the great Asda which Linda and I regard as 'ours' since we made use of its facilities when we travelled the 72.  We travelled so fast that we barely had time to notice the green on both sides. A couple of young men were on their phones trying to ascertain where to get off.  (The conversations were so inconclusive that they stayed with us all the way to a far corner of Tadworth:  clearly a mistake as they got straight back on the bus to return)

We came off and under the concrete of the A3 to travel parallel to it, and visit the enormous Tesco, as well as passing the Fountain Roundabout and pub in New Malden and moved into our fourth borough of the day, out of Kingston and into Merton,  but soon were back alongside the A3 to the Tolworth roundabout, with its unattractive (and available) office block.  Here we finally left the major road, to travel along Tolworth Broadway.


We passed a couple of 'ghost signs', in quite good condition, though dated by the phone number they displayed, and so came to the little green area in King Charles Street where our route ended.  It was just on 11.00 and we were aware that we had come a serious distance, but had travelled fast because the route follows the A3 when it is not serving the residential and retail areas.

The Number 264 Route

Croydon Town Centre to St. George’s Hospital  (Tooting)
Monday May 17^th 2010

This was the middle bus of a 3-bus outing and took us into unknown territory, the ‘we’ being Mary & I as Jo was off being clever somewhere else. The day went like clockwork as we had just descended from our key bus round the corner, broken into enough of a run to convince the driver to wait and off we went at 11.05. Croydon is of course amazingly well provisioned with buses and this one made every effort to leave its friends behind as soon as possible, disappearing behind the High Street and managing to thread its way behind (it being pedestrianized in front of course) no less than three Shopping Centres: the Whitgift, the Drummond and – the newest and sleekest – The Centrale, to emerge in what can only be described as a hinterland criss-crossed by both railway beneath us and trams alongside and above us.

(NB There has been recent press coverage of negotiations being afoot between Croydon & Westfield about the future of the Whitgift; not sure why? Surely a shopping centre is a shopping centre?)

The 264, bravely striking out alone, next seems to hit a kind of ‘No Man’s Land’ which is neither Croydon nor Mitcham, characterised by small pebble dashed houses put up between and after the wars, and where the most significant landmark is the chimneys of the nearby IKEA – one of the early and most enduring IKEA branches. The odd more modern building really stands out and we thought some local flats had individual wind turbines, which seemed very neat.

The roads are broad and though the volume of traffic is steady the bus was able to make good speed and before long we were at Mitcham Common, where it hardly stopped. Even on a nice late Spring day it had something of the look of a ‘blasted heath’ about it, and from a bus seemed lacking in features or walker friendly paths which might inspire. The (website  would clearly beg to differ.

To be fair it was a novelty to be on a bus driving through extensive greenery after the concrete canyons that are Croydon. Mitcham itself clearly has a history as a village that has gown up over the years – it still retains many village features in names such as Three Kings Pond, The Windmill and Fair Green, though unfortunately the names are now more evocative than the reality as much of Mitcham seems to be a vast one-way system. Clearly the bus proved quite popular from this point as several passengers boarded as we carefully edged our way round a dog-riding sidesaddle on a bike with its owner. (And no, the dog was not wearing a safety helmet.)

What this journey made me realise is that what I have previously assumed to have been Mitcham Common is in fact (Figge's Marsh a much smaller area once belonging to Mr Figge. The latter kind of forms a boundary between the boroughs of Merton and Wandsworth and the areas of Mitcham and Tooting – the roads narrow, the housing stock is not public and much older, and though not in any way more affluent than its neighbour Mitcham seems to be both livelier and more populous and popular. The replacement window and pebble dashing firms give way to ‘Life in the Spirit Fellowship’ at Amen Corner and the (Mixed Blessings) Bakery seem to sum up the vibes round here This perhaps a second branch of the master bakery in Camberwell that Mary had noted on her travels.

Tooting Broadway was heaving, not only with buses at the crossroads but with students from South London College out foraging for food (no shortage there). Tooting Library’s face-lift is now complete and its frontage and magnificent weather vane were glinting in the sun . Tooting Broadway station sports not only a statue of King Edward but also some curly street furniture – a seven branched candelabra, which some one has seen fit to preserve.

Very kindly this bus goes straight across and up Garratt Lane and round in a big square to arrive back at Blackshaw Road and the front entrance of this hospital – once of course sited close to Hyde Park Corner but firmly established in Tooting since 1973 and serving the local population – Edward Jenner, he of the smallpox vaccination, is a former St George’s man.  It is also the co-ordinating place for blood transfusions.

Being fortunate enough to need neither blood nor treatment but merely another bus we ambled from one stop to another to pick up our route north and home…  

The Number 263 Route

Holloway (The Nag’s Head) to Barnet Hospital
Thursday December 1^st 2011

This was the middle bus of a 3-bus outing and for the time of year was bright and not very cold; in any case we had done a certain amount of brisk walking in the wrong direction (sigh) and there was a barely a wait for this ubiquitous North London Double decker. 

Once it arrived at The Nag's Head (not surprisingly a long defunct pub now giving its name to the major road junction) crossroads the Route 263 takes its one and only left turn before heading straight North for most of the route.

The Holloway Road is an Inner London mixture of old and new with some of the newer looking a bit tired and some of the older having been spruced up.

The National Youth Theatre. have rehearsal rooms along here – this used to be the route for actors to learn their craft before ‘Spot a NOT X Talent ‘ came along.  

Further up the hill, and it’s a bus which climbs steadily,  we passed the very handsome façade of the Northern Health centre and indeed it is one of the 'lost hospitals' of London but partly preserved within its modern usage. Nearly opposite is Whittington Park which today had a rather handsome foliage (it was constructed rather than toped) Cat – as Jo said it took her a few visits to the Whittington Hospital to twig why there were cats everywhere – we think the cat is now more famous than his master and eventual Lord Mayor.

Just before Archway were warnings of road works to come but we sailed over the major crossing. The Archway tavern – a really large pub but just surviving – had a new Guinness Clock in retro style which cheered us up; not that we needed much cheering.

Talking of pubs we then passed the Charlotte Despard; a woman who managed to be a social reformer, pacifist and suffragette, though her links are not particularly with this area (apart from having been sent to Holloway Prison). I am not sure what she would have thought of the different shops along the Archway Road:
   

Pax Guns ( Certainly not)
Ripping Yarns
Edward Scissorhands – a hairdresser

At the summit of the hill you can just glimpse the tops of the trees, which form part of Highgate Woods with its eponymous station down there too.  Having walked down there in some peace it is difficult to believe one is so close to the A1 and other busy routes out of the city. This bit of the route, essentially East Finchley, continued uphill in an unremarkable fashion –  the Phoenix for all it is a cherished and heritage cinema does not have a very noticeable façade, but it does have 101 year old history! (PS We hope those film cans do not contain nitrate film.)

Other more independent shops include: Amazing Grates and All Aboard – the latter charity shops located in NW London who fund raise generally finding local different causes to support – and Black Gull Books, an independent book seller. The 263 seems to be the only bus along here but we suspect most commuters would use the Northern Line.We may have been the only bus but first outside Amazing Grates and then later today we encountered a plethora of white vans who variously:

-     Did U-turns in the bus lane

-         Parked at the bus stop

-         Cut into the bus lane

We passed some rather grand looking lodge gates with seemingly nothing much behind but looking at an A-Z indicates this would be one of the lesser entrances to St Pancras and Islington cemetery – apparently the largest and first publicly owned cemetery in London now in shared management between Islington and Camden, where the bus started if you remember.

By now the signs were all about the North Circular and to be sure we sailed straight over it – in my (too) many years of criss-crossing London I do not think I have ever traversed the North Circular so effortlessly. It is of course by flying over it rather than actually tangling with it that this easeful crossing is achieved.

If you head in a northerly direction from East Finchley you are likely to arrive in – yes that’s right – North Finchley.

After the batch of light industry the change to broader avenues and semi-detached homes is immediately evident, and again we were the only bus. After passing ‘Sea Rock’ – surely that was a Barclays Bank we thought – it was not far to the North Finchley Bus Station – a dark and forbidding place to be avoided and as luck (or more likely bus planning) would have it the 263 ‘avoids’ going in there, carrying on in a straight line North up the side. 

And lo – it was time for another white van to do something silly.  

More uphill, this time through Whetstone. It seemed difficult to capture the essence of Whetstone – brutalist council offices for Barnet, DIY and storage facilities, and then it is back to a low gear for the last uphill into High Barnet (with a bit of Chipping on the side).

The bus finally takes a gentle left in front of the church (see the Route 34) and along scenic Wood Street where the more historic bits of old Barnet are clustered, round the church naturally, including old school buildings and the Eleanor Parker Almshouses.

All that remained was the gentle twiddle into Wellhouse Lane to stop by Barnet Hospital; although this is not the only route passing by given that Barnet serves a large population over to Edgware it is sadly much more accessible by car.

The Number 262 Route

Gallions Reach (Sainsbury’s) to Stratford Bus Station
Monday September 6^th 2010

This was the middle bus of a 3-bus outing and took us into unknown territory, the ‘we’ being Sue G. & I as Jo was off at ‘jam camp’ and Mary still not fully recovered.

Our key route, the 101, had left us at a very similar looking bit of new Beckton and after chatting to some knowledgeable locals they advised to take a bus to the start of the 262, which delivers its passengers to the Sainsbury’s, has a little rest and then sets off again. During the rest period we heard how Beckton used to be an area full of gas works and even earlier than that farms. The couple had been living locally around Cyprus – an oddly-named stop on the DLR – for nearly 30 years and had seen many changes. They now had the choice of three supermarkets (there really isn’t anything approaching a High Street till you get back to Plaistow) and while the University of East London had brought life and custom to the area it also brought parking problems. But grandad was palpably proud that from his humble beginnings his own grandson had succeeded at University.

We were tickled by some of the local advertising taking rhyming slang as its motifs – if you are worried about parking Gallions Reach offers you ‘space for 2000 jam jars’, and there’s plenty to eat if you are Hank Marvin!

The first third of this journey seemed to consist of a series of rather tight roundabouts so we were feeling a little frazzled on the bouncy top deck but it did give good views – at one point right back to South London & Shooters Hill (you see we have real hills in South London, not just the Beckton Alps) and of the colourful buildings that have been built hereabouts. At one point the bus zooms quite fast along an elevated dual carriageway but I was disappointed not to be flying over bits of the docks or river, which after all are not far away, but over some desolate land now overgrown with greenery. Of the previous gasholders there is one remaining – in fact a very beautiful possibly late Victorian one, which has been popular as a film location?

The regeneration of the area continues with several retail and business parks and more recently the University of East London which the 262 passes at some distance and without benefit of the Riverside views.

New developments line the very straight Tollhouse Way until the route passes under the A13 and thus moves back into an altogether older and more diversely populated part of London.  The 262 takes itself pretty much through Plaistow (even the on board announcements did not seem that clear on how to pronounce this) and crosses over the Capital Ring where it is elevated as a Green walkway.

Some small corners of Plaistow have had a face-lift: there was a lovely children’s play area that had clearly got its bid in before the cuts arrived and looked very nice and safe (everything lands on sand) for it.  The closer the bus gets to Stratford the more dense the housing so smaller blocks and terraced streets and still smaller blocks give way to the odd tower block which still survives from the Sixties boom in that kind of housing.  We also admired the Plaistow Red Triangle YMCA  building, which after closing has been smartly renovated.

 

Talking of building explosions Stratford Town Centre is one big building site. Obviously the nearby Olympic Stadium is the main thrust behind most of the activity round Stratford – the transport links are nearly complete: rail, DLR and 2 Underground lines, plus a range of buses. Westfield are building their second large shopping centre which seems to sit between the station and the stadium – not quite sure where that leaves the already existing Stratford Shopping Centre.

This was quite a short route taking us from redeveloped Docklands into redeveloping Stratford in about 40 minutes.

PS You all know that Westfield is now open and most of the site ready if not open to the public.

The Number 261 Route

Thursday 8 December 2011

Our previous bus dropped us outside the Sainsbury's in Locksbottom, and we made use of the convenient - well - Conveniences,  opposite.  Fabulous new tiling but regrettably, previous users had been less scrupulous than one might have hoped.  Too much information, so on with the buses.

Round the corner and into the capacious car park of the Princess Royal Hospital, Linda and I had only a few minutes to wait for our 261 to arrive (a double decker, I'm glad to say) and we were off towards Lewisham at 11.30.

The traffic queues which had held us up a few minutes before had now been completed, and we steamed along, past the Bromley Bus Garage, and into green spaces, with allotments on our right and fields with horses in them on our left.  The autumn colours compensated for the serious chill in the air, though not on the bus.

There is a major house building project going on here, to be known as Trinity Village.  I commented on the splendid municipal planting of Bromley, with bright primulas:  Linda sniffed and said that it was a pity they did not devote similar love and care to the needs of their poorer residents, primulas being no substitute for decent social housing.

Linda having had her rant, it was as well that we came to some not-bad cycle lane, so I could have my turn.  Mostly it was OK, but the way it narrows for each lamp post must make it quite difficult for cyclists to stay within the lines and thus within the law. It does give me the opportunity to give readers a link with the fabulous Warrington 'Cycle Facility of the Month' site, so you can see that there are others worse off than the cyclists of Bromley.

We came past the Tiger's Head pub, which looked much more prosperous than it had on earlier trips to the area, and then noted the Richmal Crompton pub opposite Bromley South Station.  They seem to be doing 'works' around the station, but I can't discover what, unless it is an overflow from the track works in the area.  Meanwhile, Richmal Crompton had time to write her excellent stories while working at Bromley Girls' High School.

On through Bormley, we turned right to go through the shopping area, where many of our fellow passengers got off, and then left to go past the attractive murals outside the supermarket, and so to the area known as Plaistow.  It has always struck us as odd, since we associate the name with the East End of London.  But then we have been close to Hayes today, which also has a twin town elsewhere in Greater London.

The hill that takes you to Grove Park gave us fine views towards Canary Wharf, as we passed into the Borough of Lewisham.  We were not sure if the Baring Hall Pub, now saved from being turned into residential properties, has anything to do with Baring's Bank, though clearly the Lord Northbrook Pub, which we passed shortly afterwards is named for another member of the family.

We haven't done much haircutter spotting recently, but we liked the use of the scissors on this small shop, and we also passed the Allodi Accordion shop.  We admire the specialisation of these experts in one corner of the world of music.

Other pubs which caught our attention on this pub-filled trip were the Old Tiger's Head. thriving while the New Tiger's Head is derelict, and also the Duke of Edinburgh, with a sign depicting one of Queen Victoria's sons, rather than her great-great-grandson, the current one.

As we came towards Lewisham station, the Ravensbourne was visible because of building works, or more particularly the demolition that precedes them.  I made the mistake of commenting on Lewisham's rather limited planting on roundabouts and road dividers, and got told in no uncertain terms that the council concentrated on more important things, like social housing and proper care services.


 We were saddened to see a ghost bike on the approach to the station roundabout.  Recent figures show that we are still killing 10 people a day on our roads in the UK, almost all of them pedestrians and cyclists.

Our bus turned into the station at 12.20:  a much straighter route than the one which had taken us to Locksbottom earlier today.