The Number 280 Route

St. George’s Tooting to Belmont Railway Station
Monday June 14^th  2010

This was a route we took as the middle one in a series to get us to our key route; by now it was a lovely sunny morning and quite hot up on the top deck of a double decker – we on this occasion were Mary and Linda with Jo doing grandmotherly things in the Midlands.

The turnaround in front of the rather smart St George’s Hospital is usually very slick and today we had practically no wait for our 280, which headed straight off south and pretty much kept going – being an outer London route it can cover rather greater distances as the volume of traffic is less intense. The hospital sent with us an escort in the shape of a speeding ambulance, which was just heading round the corner to tend to a casualty on the Route 280 coming into Tooting.

Down past Tooting station and its ‘ghost sign’ for Gorringe Park (here is a link to a site with more leisure to explore Tooting’s ghost signs though nobody seems to know exactly what business this was for) and then at Amen Corner we took the turning for Mitcham. I had always been under the illusion that a rather mediocre Sixties band were named after this Amen Corner but it seems they came from rather more upmarket Bracknell – I can quite see how they were taken with the name, which seemed to go with the nearby Mixed Blessings Bakery.  

It’s a short, jolly and very repetitive  lyric…

After this we went along Figges Marsh – no fair today but signs to the ‘Lavender Fields’ which must have been here at one time and past the various greens that are Mitcham – the Fair Green and the Cricket Green plus the pub which was renamed in 1975 after a Surrey and Mitcham cricketer called Burn Bullock. Though nicely situated, most of the reviews and related articles indicate it’s quite a rough pub, which has been closed down in its time.

Soon after this and still heading south we crossed the River Wandle, which would be with us for most of the day. According to the various websites it takes about and hour and a bit to cycle the length, over 4 hours to walk it and about ½ hour in a bus or train. The National Trust also has some land round here but less publicly accessible – Watermeads.

By now we were driving through the very large  St.Helier Estate, built in the Thirties to house ‘overspill’ families from Inner London, aspiring to the garden city model complete with schools and the huge St Helier Hospital. It is still one of the largest estates in London. The Rose Hill roundabout remains very impressive even if the cinema, which used to dominate this interchange has gone. As has the Bingo Hall. Not dimmed clearly was the enthusiastic support for the England football team that was very evident from all the flags hanging from the front windows.

The bus descends rapidly downhill into Sutton – in fact the road dips while the pavement and service roads continue at an upper level leading to some pedestrian bridges proclaiming ‘Welcome to Sutton.’ Actually the routes through the town are fairly uninspiring – the one-way south goes behind all the big stores and between the car parks. There is little of the old town left: the courthouse is now a GP surgery and the old solid police station next to its newer extension – not quite overshadowed by the massive B&Q.

Still in broadly the same straight line, the bus heads south past the station and along the Brighton Road. The flats hereabouts were all probably built at different times   over the last thirty years or so – pleasant, inoffensive landscaped small scale with quite mature trees indicating perhaps that they have replaced original older single dwellings.

Before we knew it we were drawing up at Belmont Station which is just about on the southernmost boundary of the TfL domain and the point at which we all turn into pumpkins….  Having started the day at Elephant & Castle the air was definitely cleaner and we took several lungfuls as we made our way through the Banstead Downs  to find our final bus of the morning, the Number 80.  

 A mere 45 minutes to get from Northern line territory in Tooting to a green welly walk. This site is now very active with both audio and video clips to tempt you off your bus and to start walking. 

PS Apologies - pictures a bit reflective.

The Number 279 Route

Monday 15 November 2010

We found ourselves waiting, though not for long, in front of the Woodberry Down estate which we have passed so often. In fact my parents had friends here and I can remember watching the coronation of Elizabeth II with them as they had a TV, and we didn’t – they later moved out and into their own property, and I am sure this estate has seem many similar stories.

Off up the Seven Sisters Road, by now very familiar to us, busy with passengers and the traffic flowing quite well as we headed due north in more or less a straight line for much of the route. The buses line up thick and fast round here with something like seven routes passing through. We noticed that since we were last this way the 149 has turned not into a pumpkin but from a bendy to a double decker, and we just glimpsed the Banksy tucked away (more visible going south) 

By Bruce Grove, which has its colourful outdoor clothes marker close by the station, the bus was full, even on top. The old gates of the Whitbread brewery are very fine and some-one else’s photo is much better than ours.

Hard on the heels of this comes White Hart Lane, a significant local landmark – sorry Gooners, we cannot pretend it is not there as it gives identity to much of this part of Haringey.

Most of the shops are not part of chains, which is nice, or if so still modest local chains such as the Turkish Food Centre founded in 1980 and now with 14 branches. Hairdressers are rarely part of large chains and today we had Hairwaves and for men Klass Ventures with the strap line, ‘Fancy a bit of smooth with your rough?’

We had not heard of Kith and Kids  but clearly from their website have been around for some time helping local families and we passed two of their charity shops today.

With a branch here (Silver Street) and just one other in Billingsgate Lobo Fisheries seems well established and of course reminds me that fish hits the spot for most diet and religious exclusions, so almost certainly will do well in this very diverse part of North London. For example the Rumi religious centre is next to the Salvation Army.

Interspersed amongst this wealth of shopping were many pubs – they didn’t all look that inviting but most of them were still just about open, which makes a change from some of our trips. There are still some road works as you approach Edmonton but in any case our driver was so slow overall we barely noticed when he had to slow down for the sewage repairs. Along the way and in no particular order we had the Prince of Wales, of course the Bell at Edmonton, the Boundary House, the Picture Palace and the Sun and Woolpack, the Plough at Ponders Green, which also was going under the name of the Sporting Green.

As yesterday had been Remembrance Day it was not surprising that the War Memorial by Edmonton Bus station had fresh (as in fresh plastic) wreaths. The bus of course went in and out of the bus station and lost some/won some on the passenger stakes. 

No deviation from the straight and narrow and we headed on north. The buildings are quite a mixture: some mid-century estates, some more modern bits and the odd very lovely if somewhat neglected early 19^th century terrace of 25 houses along the way.

However slow we were going we managed to catch the 121 ahead. Edmonton, all part of the very extensive Enfield borough, began to blend into neighbouring areas. Having said that, Enfield was very assiduous about making sure you know where you were within the borough. Passing what is left of the North Metropolitan Electric Power Company was a reminder that while Enfield was not big on heavy industry (little coal or iron down south) it was busy through the 19^th and 20^th century manufacturing light-bulbs, Belling stoves (the famous Baby Belling was a big feature of bed-sits and student flats) and last but not least the small arms manufacturing associated with Lee (the designer) and Enfield – the place that produced the Lee Enfield standard issue British Army rifle that saw soldiers through 2 world wars. I am also reliably informed that the Bren gun gets its name from Br (no) in Czechoslovakia and En (field) so there you go.

By now I was struggling with some of the place names: Turkey Street named for the Turkey Brook, small but not so small that it does not have its web-site, and Freezy Water, named for a farm that once stood here together with its pond that looked like …..freezy water.

Once we had passed these two places the bus was nearly empty – our last gesture still running in a straight line was to cross the M25 and then bear just a tiny bit off in order to access Waltham Cross itself.  Rather as we had guessed, the Cross is one of the Eleanor crosses – most of you will be familiar with the one outside Charing Cross well, Waltham is Number 10 counting south from Lincoln.

The journey took a full 75 minutes though I suspect could have been completed more quickly – a mark of how far we had come was that not only had we crossed beyond the north Circular but also beyond the M 25, and had encountered not only the instruments of war but also the reminders of war through the heart of Outer North London.

Since travelling this route there has been sustained recession and a few riots  and a recent trip on the 349, which duplicates much of this, had evidence of a less robust local economy.     

The Number 278 Route

Well, here we are at our third non-existent route (the last one was the 239)  The 278 had a very busy and varied life until its end in 1993.  It was mainly an East End bus, though it did get as far as Aldgate for a few months in 1988-9. All the details are here: http://www.eplates.info/277s.html

I thought I might take the chance offered by the hiatus to write a few words about the chanciness of Blue Plaques.  Linda and I have, before now, complained that if we just glimpse a blue plaque, it is very difficult to track it down. The English Heritage site lets you search by post code, which is fair enough if you know where you are, but not by street name. We noted these two, walking through Chiswick, on the trip which included the 265.  I don't know the post code for Chiswick, having never had relatives or friends in that neck of the woods.  But, you may reasonably say, if you are on foot, you have plenty of time to examine and photograph the plaques, which is of course true.

On the other hand, if you do know even the first part of the postcode, English Heritage gives you a list.  If, for instance, you type in ‘NW1’, it offers you 323 to sift through, which is a little cumbersome.  Perhaps they might find the money to extend their search engine to street names, since their data base does include them. Here, for example, is something interesting from my neck of the woods, Lyme Street, Camden

There is, of course, another element of randomness.  If you travel on a bus in one direction and one way streets are involved in the route, you might never know of some blue plaques.  For instance, we travelled the 274 from East to West, and so never saw the blue plaque in St Pancras Way to William Daniell,  artist and engraver of Indian Scenes, (though the link takes you to some of his British aquatints) which we would have seen had we been heading towards and not away from Angel.  But we did see the plaque for Dylan Thomas in Delancey Street, which we should not have seen had we been going East and thus up Parkway.

And if one always travels north on the 10, 24, 29, 134 etc, the many blue plaques of Gower Street, Pre-Raphaelites, society hostesses and medical discoveries, remain unknown.

 Finally, I just wanted to mention the many plaques put up by boroughs, or fan clubs:  I think we referred to the H G Wells Society's plaque a few weeks ago.  The only way you can identify these is by reading them in situ, and then of coure you can look up the person concerned,  But if they flash by, they are pretty untraceable.

We thought you might like Bromley's mention of Mr Hawkins, since the dinosaurs in Crystal Palace Park are such a delight.

Normal bus coverage will now be resumed until the 301.

  

The Number 277 Route

Highbury and Islington Station to Leamouth (Saffron Av)

Thursday January 19^th 2012

It was a day of deep dark puddles; the sort that children love and adults hate and all over London the transport was getting really dirty. Today I was doing a solo trip as Jo was on a mercy dash to grandchildren and Mary had rare-as-hen’s-teeth Leonardo tickets, so I waited alone for the 277 at the first stop, which it shares with other key Islington routes – the 4 and 30.  A young man was telling another chap, not a friend I think, how he has pleaded with drivers about being ‘short on cash’ and sure enough as soon as we boarded I could hear him wheedling with the driver, ‘I didn’t know I didn’t have enough money, please let me on, I have an important meeting,’ until the driver finally relented. I wondered if he travelled round London with a permanently under-resourced Oyster card? St Paul’s Road, which is where the 277 stars its journey south and east is the slightly less glitzy end of Islington, but nevertheless we passed several terraces of fine early 19^th century homes. The side roads offered glimpses of even more gracious frontages. 

Steadfastly we pushed on down the Balls Pond road as we approached Dalston Junction – the Turkish barber indicating just one of the diverse communities that populate this area. Barbers’ shops are a good example of ‘arrival city’ businesses – you bring your skills and expertise from your country of origin and set up shop to cater for your community – barbers shops in particular being a good community and social resource. By now this route was doubling back on the journey I had made via the Overground to catch the bus in the first place but if it was logic I wanted I would not be on this project. At Dalston Junction we crossed with one of about nine 277s I counted heading the other way; there is something very comforting about a run of red buses on a grey and rainy day. 

Coming from Graham Road we avoided the worst traffic of Hackney and breezed past the Empire, the old façade a wonderful Frank Matcham flourish and the side extension suitably modern. The clock on the Town Hall was correct as well and today I spotted the Mare Street studios, but they prove to be spaces to rent rather than something more specific.  More incongruously, Freed of London, famed for their dance wear, especially shoes, has a factory here and the contrast between the stock and the rather run down building is interesting. 

Though this route does not go close to London Fields it very much criss-crosses Victoria Park and today it was easy to see how planned this area was when first built – the roundabouts at each end of Lauriston Road and Grove Road offer fine views down expansive terraces. The pubs now look more gastro than working men’s  (it’s often known as the People’s Park) and the whole area offers a range of delights both as a living environment  and  park proper.

 

Planned by James Pennethorne and opened in 1845, and now  largely within Tower Hamlets borough it will also play a role in the Olympics. There have certainly been some new additions as could be seen even from the bus.

Not content with one green space the 277 then runs the length of the much more linear and rather less grandiose Mile End Park  This has a very different history, having been created on the site of 1940s war bomb damage (including the site, marked by a Blue Plaque, where London’s first  Flying Bomb fell) and now consisting of a range of different  sections – the Go-karting track looked excellent and there is an Ecology stretch leading to the Green bridge – we whizzed by too fast for me to capture it but I did get a clutch of buses lurking by Mile End Station.

This excellent website gives a brief overview of what is to be seen round here and makes a good case for why it should be Two Mile End?!?

Apart from some D buses the 277 is the only route along here and for the first time since Hackney there was more than just me plus a another on the top deck.

Despite my obsession with crossing water (as Jo might say) I had missed the Hertford Union Canal earlier so was pleased to see the Limehouse Cut.

By now the 277 was ready to cross East India Dock Road and gain entrance – I say this advisedly as all transport has to pass through a security light and police controlled barrier – to the Canada Water development . The towers were all clearly visible from Westferry onwards and then we did a loop cutting along the concrete canyon – the nearest London comes to Manhattan. More glimpses of water, and even the odd boat break up the buildings along Cabot Square and we exited the money making metropolis via another gate by Churchill Place and Billingsgate Market

Compared to most fish markets this one looks both unromantic and unscenic  especially on a wet Thursday morning . By now I had realised that my left boot had let in water and I had a wet sock and that there was no heating on the bus. I looked enviously at the other front seat passenger who was wearing leopard skin pattern wellies, but she agreed it was cold and banged the window shut. By now the bus had given up on passengers and was speeding along the very fast Aspen Way from which it turned off to its final resting place.  I had not done much prior research on this route except for the start and finish and was quite looking forward to admiring what I imagined to be a little estate built like a spice rack – Nutmeg Lane, Saffron Avenue, Oregano Drive, you get the picture.

When I and the leopard wellies got off as the last passengers we found ourselves in a further grey canyon of nearly windowless slab blocks, most of which were heavily barricaded with the bus stopping behind another security barrier.   Clutching my map and directions for Canning Town I was hailed by a security guard who pointed me in the right direction. “What are all these big grey blocks?” I asked ‘Telehouse – security data’ was all he said. Well I had to Google that didn’t I? Having got a couple of error messages on my first attempts I was about to get all conspiracy theory on you, dear reader, but Google finally served up the following link, so perhaps it is just ugly rather than actually sinister.

What an amazing route – upmarket Islington down through colourful Hackney with green spaces galore in Victoria and Mile End Parks THEN through the monied not to say muddied waters of Canada Quays finishing in a rather baleful industrial estate near the Lee River mouth, and all in under 50 minutes. 

The Number 276 Route

Thursday 12 January 2012

A bit of a walk through Stamford Hill from our previous bus brought us to Stoke Newington Green and the bus stop for the 276, onto which Linda and I stepped at 12.20, bound for Newham General Hospital.  After the slightly dingy houses of back street Stamford Hill, we admired the terraces around the Green.  Soon we had moved into newer building, much of it postwar public housing.  The Woodberry Down Estate was looking well cared for and occupied, unlike a number of properties in Tottenham which we had passed earlier.  Just past Hackney Downs Station, we passed an enormous building site where Bellway is building homes of every size and status.


We had not previously heard of Prideaux House as a charity, but it proves to offer a range of services for the elderly, including reconciliation and fellowship as well as catering to more mundane needs.  We noted a Registered Yellow Fever Center just opposite, and assumed from the spelling that it was an American agency.

The traffic along past Hackney Central Station was, as usual, very slow indeed;  at this point the charming young woman in the seat in front proffered my bus pass, which I had managed to drop on her seat without noticing.  We had already had problems with the reader on the bus requiring a couple of swipes each.  Eventually we reached the Cock Tavern, with its handsome stonework, and turned left just before the Hackney Empire, picking up a little speed. We passed the General Browning Club (or shellhole as it should probably be known, since that is how they refer to their branches).  We detoured around several streets of the Trelawney Estate before coming to Homerton Hospital, with the Hospital Tavern just opposite, presumable there to calm the nerves of staff and patients alike.  For people who wonder whether Homerton College, Cambridge used to train teachers around here, the answer is here, and a little bit more complicated than that.  We came past the old Hackney Hospital as well.

Now, as we travelled along the side of Mabley Green, we had surprise views of Anish Kapoor's Olympic 'thing':  surprising because  all our previous buses have approached from the Stratford side, and seen the various stadia first.  This time, we saw the distant red ironwork before anything else, and indeed kept seeing it from different angles for the next twenty minutes.  It is big....

Through the Kingsmead Estate, and then the Trowbridge Estate, we came to the Wick Community Centre, formerly the Public Baths, and then to Hackney Wick Station.  Our route took us under the A12 and into the Locton Estate, where there were were more than twenty cold people waiting at the bus stop, for our little single decker.  It appeared that the route had been 'on diversion', now cleared and some passengers had had a very long wait.  We were now in more familiar territory and came past the end of Roman Road Market as well as the former Bryant and May works about which we have written before. Bow bus garage and Bromley Public Hall brought us to Bow High Street and the statue of Gladstone by Bow Church.  


The next event was the huge and lethal Bow roundabout.  This was a good day to be visiting it (and its pointless 'cyclists beware, vehicles turning left' signs) as TfL announced today that they were finally going to do something, though what is not is yet settled.  Given that slower traffic is better for everyone, perhaps the suggestion to make the flyover single lane might be best.  There were further good views of the Olympic Orbit, though!

Newham was our third borough of the day and we crossed several branches of the River Lea and its various cuts to enter it and notice that there are still lots of roadworks around the Samuel Gurney Memorial to the philanthropist and brother of Elizabeth Fry.  Actually we passed his obelisk twice, once before and once after nipping through Stratford's fine bus station.  Next we headed towards Plaistow with views of Canary Wharf as we reached West Ham Station.  We went over the London Greenway, and the looped round to do it again.  It is such a pleasant walk that it seems sensible to call it the Greenway and not the Northern Outfall Sewer, which of course is what it is.  Coming off the Barking Road and heading finally towards the hospital, we realised that we should have to ride our bus back again if we did not want a long walk.  Newham General Hospital is big enough to have three bus stops, and the friendly driver made sure we knew which was the last stop, and then carried us back towards Canning Town.


She told us she had only been doing the route for a few weeks:  hard to believe, as she coped smoothly with all the loops through the housing estates, the road works and slow traffic of Hackney and Bow and indeed the whole 70 or so minutes of this interesting route.

The Number 275 Route

Walthamstow (St James’ Station) to Barkingside (Tesco)
Thursday September 29^th 2011

Probably this was our warmest trip of 2011 as we came out of St James’ Station, Walthamstow for a short wait in the sun for the 275; the other route from here is the super-abundant 212, which we have already ridden. The 275 tracks back along the railway line alongside the Selborne Centre (head to head Sainsbury’s and Asda stores) and round the gleaming Underground and bus stations before heading up the hill towards Wood Street and Upper Walthamstow, an area we had only really broached today.

Passing the Hoe Street Working Men's Club  makes you realise how important these meeting places must have been when founded. Quite close by is the Forest YMCA both strategically placed to help support students attending the Walthamstow College which sits snugly alongside the Town Hall – built 1938-1941 of Portland Stone with a copper Clock Tower (correct time today) it is a real monument to civic pride and just looking great in the sunshine, which the students were enjoying also. 

Just past the Wood Street library the 275 leaves the busier roads and heads north, for much of the route the only bus, towards Highams Park crossing the North Circular, after which the housing becomes typical streets of pleasant semis built just before the war. The road names such as Forest Glade recall this area would have once been part of Epping Forest. Similarly Woodford, through which we passed. Woodford today – and indeed for some time having once been the constituency of Sir Winston Churchill (he appears on their rather modern ‘village sign’) – has always been rather affluent due in part to the original railways having charged more on this bit of their line (the Ongar loop) while charging less round by Leytonstone. By now we had crossed over into Redbridge borough and over said railway, now of course the Central Line (which is actually showing its age in comparison to other revamped lines).

Just before we came out into Chigwell Lane we passed along Snakes Lane (a very exotic name – there cannot be many snakes worthy of mention round here can there?) where the Gas board still have a depot – no more gasholders but heaps of signs saying ‘Diversion’ (plus arrows), ‘Cycles this way’ ‘No through Road – Men at Work’: a break-in here and you could cause considerable havoc.

Snakes Lane took us across the Roding river valley and up the other side, with the occasional golf course but actually some undisturbed grasslands also – today we also noted how many trees were fruiting especially the crab-apples. Here are some recipes  but best ask if the apples are not yours…

There was a steady population of other passengers, including one person who seemed to be in the throes of breaking off a relationship in a mixture of tears and hardcore expletives. In the next breath she said she might do some voluntary work and I wondered how her language might go down. Sitting just behind us was a young lad who seemed very interested in the fact Jo was taking photos and we were both remarking on our surroundings – he eventually leant forward and made some helpful suggestions pointing out the ‘very rich people’ behind some golden gates (indeed another gated community). For a more orthodox history click here

I could not believe I had missed Claybury Hospital  – one of London’s more famous and grandiose hospitals – but we did not miss it for it has been renamed. We were very taken with the views down the hill (Tomswood Hill that is) right over East London down to the Thames and also distracted by the Guide Dogs

Training School. If ever a charity ticked all the boxes this is it and they always do well in street collections, when sometimes you can pat the dogs, otherwise discouraged.

Anyway, as our travelling companion had correctly identified, this was rich people’s Essex , but by the time we descended the hill to the Fulwell Cross Roundabout we were, after a long ride in completely new territory, back somewhere more familiar. The Leisure Centre at the roundabout is always an eye catcher and we made reasonable progress along Barkingside High Street watching as the driver of the van in front leapt out and into the baker’s completely blocking the traffic – his mate slid into the driving seat and we were able to progress to the end and where the route finished at Tescos, almost certainly built on the site previously occupied by the Barnardos cottage homes.

The walk to the Barkingside station was noteworthy for its lack of facilities for pedestrians – clearly a station where partner drops spouse off at the station, or you park your car, as it was almost impossible to cross the road and access the station safely on foot. Still we made it to tell the tale.

This was at the end a novel route for us, showing that even 275 routes down the line there are whole chunks of London where we have not been before. Once it leaves familiar Walthamstow behind this is a route, which carves its way along old lanes and up and down hills – there are loads of Essex jokes and clichés and being flat is one of them but today’s route demonstrated the opposite for us. This was a most enjoyable and surprising trip in wonderful late September sunshine.

PS

Just to give a shout out and thanks to Peter Watts at The Great Wen blog for posting the piece he published in Completely London back in October, and thus boosting our readership.  Peter and a photographer accompanied us on a trip out of Brixton (Route 355 to come) and of our occasional brushes with journalists this has been by far the most positive and genuine. The photographer was pretty good too though Peter was not able to use his pictures for his blog. 

The Number 274 Route

Tuesday 8 December 2009

In order to get to the start of the 46, today's bus, I met Linda at Angel, where major traffic realignment works meant the bus stop had moved.  This gave us a chance to note the New River Path, on its last stage towards Clerkenwell. It does, by the way, make a very good walk. easily completable in two or three days, and convenient to access by public transport most of the way from Ware to here (if you'll excuse the phrase)

The 274 is the bus I use most frequently in everyday life, so it was exciting to be travelling its whole length.  

The sun was shining, which made a change, and also made it possible to notice that the sundial was on British summer time, unlike the rest of us. We passed the dying Borders, and the Sainsbury's that seems to be surviving having Waitrose next door, and headed along Tolpuddle Street: the name is a reminder that the great Copenhagen Fields demo of 1836, demanding the release of the 'men of Dorchester' happened just here;  20,000 marched peacefully to Whitehall, and the government, aware that Peterloo had been rather poor publicity, kept the troops out of sight.

Islington Police Station is embellished with some youthful Art, which we admired as we headed towards the Caledonian Road, where we passed the Cally (swimming) Pool, and a centre for the training of cabbies, before turning into Market Road.  

We turned briefly into York Way, before heading down Agar Grove.  With few people wanting to get on,  we made rapid progress and soon crossed the Regent's Canal for the first of several times.

The Camden Sainsbury's is famous (or notorious if it's not to your taste) for having been designed, together with some housing behind it, by Nicholas Grimshaw. The St Martin's Almshouses, built for the Parish of St Martin in the Fields, are rather more traditional in design. Once we were across Camden High Street, we moved into the Regents Park Area of prosperous terraces and mansion flats (spot the magpie in Linda's picture!).  We passed Cecil Sharp House, home of the English Folk Dance and Song Society  and then London Zoo. 

After Lord's Cricket Ground and the Central Mosque, the route takes you down the length of Baker Street;  One building has competitive plaques:  the Arnold Bennett Society saying that their man lived there, and the H G Wells society saying the same.  Other (tourist) passengers spotted the Spymaster shop, for all your snooping needs, but did not get off to patronise it. 

The windows down the side of Selfridges were pretty, and we saw that there was a Christmas Market in that not-building site we have noted on every Oxford Street trip. (actually now a building site again:  let's hope it's not more offices to stand empty) 

The horse's head is still at Marble Arch, though initially meant to stay just a month but we were cheered by distant views of the funfair in Hyde Park, and a riding lesson on Rotten Row, before arriving at Lancaster Gate Station within an hour of our departure from Angel.  A splendid bus, even if single deckers provide less good views than might be wished.