The NUMBER 44 Route

Tooting Station to Victoria

Thursday May 16 2019

Thameslink has obviously been on its mettle since its debacle three weeks ago and not only did I step into the same carriage as Jo we disembarked at Tooting Station,  but we then crossed the road and straight onto a 44 bus.

 Tooting is well endowed with shopping opportunities though this stretch has more of the community facilities: two churches and I think two types of worshipping, a rather lovely restored library and even what looked like a thriving department store – Morleys – in the same small group as the original Brixton store, and its website reminded me to look out for another in Bexleyheath , if ‘we are spared’ to get to the B routes…  Family members will recognise that phrase.

Edward VII always looks a bit surprised to be outside Tooting Underground station and we got across the always busy crossroads and waited at the bottom end of Garratt Lane. I thought maybe he ( the bus driver not Edward VII you understand) was dawdling as this is quite a key stop for people coming out of the station but in fact the drivers were changing. 

 This bus was never busy, the reasons for which I will give you later, but we did have one upstairs passenger.  He must have heard us chatting and then asked what the trees were – he had studied botany in India but did not know about the ubiquitous and tough as old boots London Plane; I also recommended to him the book London’s Street Trees by Peter Wood. He got off at the top of Garratt Lane, which had taken us past the Streatham Cemetery, the Almshouses and small terraced homes that line this undeniable meandering lane. These would have housed light and heavy industry workers and later in the 20^th century many key workers. There is still some light industry along the River Wandle, whose valley this route follows from Earlsfield – the midway point between Tooting and Wandsworth and now a much sought after residential area , especially for families.  Earlsfield Station had had a facelift since we were last here , and named for the toffs who sold their estate and lands to the railways on the understanding the station would acknowledge this.

Also remembered round here is Henry Prince , a Tory housing councillor who believed in social housing and after whom the 1938-built flats (over 200 of them) are named. They front onto Garratt Lane and back onto the Wandle – the flats are generous in size and number of bedrooms and expect large families – our current mayor grew up here as his father was a bus driver, and key workers need local housing, now as then.

Approaching Wandsworth hub and the 1970s-built Southside / Arndale Centre both Jo and I thought we could smell brewing which seemed slightly strange as the Ram Brewery is now the context for a large and long-awaited housing development and brewing ceased in 2006, so were we enjoying some spectral scents?  The development, which has been planned since before the Blog Phase 1, is now nearly complete and the marketing suite was to be seen on Armoury Way from where the 44 pushes on along the Old York Road. This almost feels as though it should be pedestrianised and I suspect the 44 is the only bus allowed along this very gentrified stretch of what was once urban and gritty.

It is now time to confess that it is nearly fifty years since I started life pounding the streets of Wandsworth borough as one of its social workers and this patch used to be one of the smelliest stretches and tucked amongst the gin distillery, the Prices candle factory and even worse Garton’s Glucose was a homeless families unit, long since demolished along with most of the industry.

This part of the route, which more or less follows the curves of the river, is now filled (overfilled?) with densely packed housing blocks, mostly of the private persuasion and all promising luxury and a river view. I could link to numerous glossy websites but you know the kind already. Between the blocks we discovered plans for a new Academy of Dance  It seems they have been established in Battersea for a while but his will offer new opportunities.

‘The Asparagus’ (according to the useful Wetherspoons website) apparently recalls Battersea’s fame as a market garden area renowned for producing this crop presumably before industry arrived.  ‘Cartel’ on the other hand bills itself as modern Mexican but the name conjures up something more sinister. The Latchmere theatre is now well established having started in 1982 and still promotes new writing – some more successful than others.

Less easy to research was the George Blunden – I can’t think the Pub was named after a recent Bank of England manager but other sources elude me?

Continuing pretty much in a straight line, or as straight as the river ever goes, there is a Harris Academy indicating that real people with children who need educating actually live here as opposed to flats for investment. And there’s a library too – the third on this route so some credit due to Wandsworth for retaining them.

And so maintaining an unrushed but steady pace the 44 approaches Chelsea Bridge, leaving the park on the left with even more flats on the river side . The whole ‘Battersea experience’ seemed a strange mixture of past echoes – the Candlemakers Apartments and the pretty alms-houses and the now closed Imperial Laundry which has been re-purposed as a design forum, but overall dominated by rows of living spaces with aspirational names. The blocks actually on the bridge approach look a bit like ships... 

Once over it was quite a relief to see the well- established and very private US owned Lister Hospital in its handsome premises and the range of older housing along Ebury Bridge Road . Inevitably as we approached Victoria there was a slowing down due to volume of traffic and arriving tourists unsure which way to go on emerging from bus, coach and train stations. We know the feeling. We also passed the National Audit Offices in the once Imperial Airways Terminal.

Sadly this is not one of the now few privileged routes allowed into the rather shrunken Victoria Bus Station but squats just short of a ‘bus only’ traffic light and lane some distance away.  The Route 44 offers , in just under an hour, a sweep through what was once solid working class areas of SW London, with few station connections, but three libraries … less industry = fewer passengers?   

The Number 43

Friern Barnet (Halliwick Park) to London Bridge Station

Thursday June 6 2019

Having finished my previous route at Archway I travelled five stops on the Northern Line to get out at that very quiet station Woodside Park and walked from there to Friern Barnet  For once TFL had come up with a sensible back streets route and this being Barnet the walk was entirely salubrious.

I had walked past the Dwight School and noticed it was not supported by Barnet so of course Google confirmed it as independent school – I saw mainly boys in a small playground facing the street but they had gone in by the time the bus passed. Nearby is Friern Barnet Town Hall – a rather handsome curved building dating from 1938, now flats apparently.

This just about concludes the short westward bit of the route and from now on it is decidedly north /south, so at times we were into the sun (when it wasn't raining). Just before we crossed the North Circular there was a deserted car showroom – a sign perhaps of declining car sales, though a large Tesco had set up next door. A patch of grass near by the ever busy A405 declared itself Doggy Day Care – presumably pets minding traffic noise less than people??

Once over the North Circular the passengers were quite numerous and there was an open library (Barnet having shut the one that used to be named as the start of this route though the community has kept it running), this one rather more modern than many. There followed a steep climb out of Barnet borough and into Muswell Hill in Harringay borough – with the rain and the narrowing roads progress was slow though there is a 20mph limit anyway, in keeping with many of the other local authorities. 

Muswell Hill. Ignoring the property porn aspect of this siteit does capture far better than I could from a moving bus on a rainy day, the surprising hilliness of the area. Red brick Edwardian homes certainly dominate and while some of the shops have modernised the Broadway demonstrates the heyday of local shopping centres with its grand parade and detailed plasterwork on the cornices.

Once we had climbed to the top and negotiated the roundabout we were continuing to head south passing many of the independent shops of Muswell Hill with their Thursday shoppers. Leaving commerce behind and threading its way between Highgate and Queens Wood the bus passes a small and somewhat scruffy cottage with a plaque for Peter Sellers’ childhood home.

Once up at the top it was Highgate Station where most sensible people heading for London Bridge got off and onto the Northern Line.

Having reached one of the higher points in North London the only way was down and down the Archway Road we went.  Unfortunately due to a very misty day the Shard was not as clearly visible on the horizon as it should be but certainly coming down this route offers you one of the protected views of St Paul’s as well. 

This approach offers a grand view of the eponymous Arch as the bus heads downhill; at one point there were some school age children hovering near the middle, which must be very tempting if your route home takes you across the span. On the right was pub named for the suffragist and peace movement founder Charlotte Despard – on the whole I associate her more with the Battersea area but I suppose having done time at Holloway prison gives her a local link?

The Archway traffic re-organisation is quite impressive and on the whole has given some more protection to pedestrians and cyclists.Aldi had a newish supermarket near the station and two window cleaners were smartening up the exterior – on balance hanging from a cradle may be safer than teetering on a ladder?

Having negotiated Archway there was nothing for it but following the entire length of the Holloway Road, retracing much of the recently ridden 17. The Holloway Road throws everything at you: a large cinema venue, small shops, larger supermarkets and a couple of rail and underground stations too. One of the surprises was a Marks & Spencer closing this week and somewhere offering Triples table tennis – this is evidently a thing and you can attempt it on the Holloway Road.

More serious was the exhibition Journey to Justice at the Resource for London centre – by the time you read this it will have closed but maybe you will catch it somewhere else?

Also closed but now re-purposed as a Wetherspoons Pub is the former Coronet Cinema but you can see some of the former glory here. The front retains a good font.

Also worth a mention, or possibly to be avoided if you are allergic to puns, is the Piebury Corner Pie shop alerting us to our imminent arrival at the continuing roadwork show that is Highbury & Islington. The Central Library, which I take to be Islington’s central library, has some rather splendid statues of Spenser & Bacon who would certainly fit the category of Dead White Brits.

Talking of decorative statuary or plaster work the Hen & Chickens on the corner does well.

Unsurprisingly Upper Street had changed little since we were last this way though today I just managed to catch a wedding at the Town Hall and it seemed to me the parish church of St Mary had grown some scaffolding since last we passed, making a civil wedding the more attractive (photographic) option.

We actually made good progress past the Angel but once we turned into the City Road things somewhat ground to a halt not helped by wide vehicles straying into the bus lane . I think our model of bus may have had one of those automatic beepers if you get too close (pedestrian or vehicle) and it was working overtime down this stretch, certainly time for us to go 'in and out of the Eagle', nearby which we caught up with the previous 43 (possibly broken down). Old Street has its very own set of roadworks too and the nearby workers were spilling out in search of lunch.

Close by is Wesley's Chapel offering an oasis if you want some peace.

Passing Finsbury Square and Moorfields was at walking pace.

By now the camera had gone on strike and I was more than a little distracted by my fellow front seat passengers evidently tourists but as he had been to London before there was a certain amount of ‘mansplaining’ going on – not always accurate – ‘That high wall must be a Museum‘  he said ‘No I think it may be the bank for the whole of the country’ she opined.

'We are heading for the monuments'  – no just the one. And of course that common error – we are going to London Bridge and SouthWORK bridge . Their destination appeared to be the Shard which of course you see less of the closer you get.

The river views were good enough and reduced them both to silence as they headed off – one stop early and I stayed on till the 43 bus, with the same driver as we started with, trundled into London Bridge Bus station some 95 minutes after we left Barnet – what a marathon to drive/ride/blog and doubtless read if you even got this far?!

The NUMBER 42 Route

Liverpool Street Station (Primrose Street) to East Dulwich Sainsbury’s

Thursday May 29 2019

We are still waiting for a bus ‘billed’ as Liverpool Street to depart from the vestiges of the bus station that used to be a safe haven for waiting passengers, instead of dicing with the heavy traffic of Broadgate as was the case today. Still locating Stop J was less painful than for Route 35. The bus app indicated a 28 minute wait for this supposedly 12-15 minute frequency service. This seemed harsh, but then one suddenly appeared, and we were able to go upstairs which we had mostly to ourselves.

I reminded Jo we had ridden this one winter’s day when it was still a single decker, and of course in the opposite direction so this felt a very different experience.

One of the differences self-evidently is the amount of destruction and reconstruction that characterizes any trip through the City of London – the 42 does that loop that takes it from Broadgate and the crowds round Liverpool Street Station to Aldgate High Street again much transformed in the last ten years – except for St Botolph’s hanging in there and still active.

A building proclaiming itself WLS had some very nice flower beds, clearly newly planted, but I have failed to discover what they might be as the explanations on offer – weight loss surgery and West London Synagogue – do not really seem to fit.

Getting into the Minories can only mean a Tower Bridge approach and passing the Three Lords pub – England is not in the French habit of hanging nobility but apparently these were the last three convicted as a result of their involvement in the Jacobite Rebellion (in Jo’s absence I am reliably informed this was the Stuarts trying to oust the Hanoverians with their ‘Old Pretender’).

There were plenty of sightseers around today – understandably there is great satisfaction in walking over Tower Bridge even at street level but with the tourists spilling into the road the traffic soon slows down – better to view both the Tower and the river though.  We remembered we had visited the Design Museum, which used to be on this South Bank just tucked in after the converted warehouses.

The River was very high today which made a change from some of previous crossings where there were actual beaches to be seen. Tower Bridge Road is a very narrow approach from South London and when a fire engine honked from behind there was very little space for other vehicles to let it through. This is old Bermondsey and the sections closer to the river have been modernised or gentrified but as you edge towards the Bricklayers Arms there are more of what you might think were useful local outlets – we especially liked the locksmith and shoe repair shop.

The Bricklayers Arms is an unlovely major junction and the 42 only coasts along the Old Kent Road briefly before heading off down East Street, though not the really busy market end . This is one of the most endearing features of this route in that it avoids the obvious and mainer stretches preferring to cut across smaller thoroughfares of SE London, making it the only route for these intermediate stretches.

Out onto Albany Street and we were adjacent to Burgesss Park and could appreciate all its amenities – a well-used (it was half-term) children’s playground and skateboarding/ BMX areas as well as a hut for pottery. There is even a historical trail to follow. 

 They have inclined towards low maintenance but attractive wildflower planting …

Of course the other end of Burgess Park opens out onto the Camberwell Road and from this point the route joins many others to serve Camberwell Green – there has been much new building along here and with no very close rail service all these routes will be badly needed to get the new residents to their work and schools. O yes and of course to the hospital: King’s College Hospital and the Maudsley opposite cater for most ailments of the body and mind and are always busy . The helipad is complete and now just needs the Critical Care Unit to be finished – they are the most overspent hospital in the country and speaking from personal experience this is because they just go ahead and do what’s necessary.

Ruskin Park is much older and has more conventional park elements in it including a wonderful restored bandstand which hosts music on summer weekends. It is right next to the hospital.

Further up the hill the older houses or country that would have been here in John Ruskin’s day have been replaced by suburban semis on one side and large blocks on the other.

Today we were not heading towards Streatham but turning off down some very narrow (for a bus) streets into Dulwich – another small park, Sunray Gardens is part of the Casino Avenue estate of smaller cottage-type homes built for the soldiers returning from the Great war  The original casino house was a large grand affair belonging to a successful lawyer but eventually was demolished – nothing to do with gambling but all to do with ‘small house’ casina in Italian apparently.

The stretch between the park and station (North Dulwich this time ‘it’s almost as bad as Acton for numbers’ said Jo) has schools and churches and then heads back along East Dulwich Grove where we were not so long ago on the Number 37. The replacement health centre and additional school on the Dulwich Hospital site seem to make slow progress.

East Dulwich Grove comes out in the heart of East Dulwich now boasting its very own little banners (though I think Herne Hill got there first) and I could be a bit picky and say the carved totem pole really belongs to Peckham... however Southwark is clearly in charge here.

Once past Goose Green the bus starts the climb up Dog Kennel Hill but turns into the Sainsbury’s site before it has to go down a gear more. This was once the site of the Constancy Road Workhouse , which in its day had space for 898 inmates to include the deserving poor , and many elderly sick and infirm people thus indicating that this part of London has always had a sizeable needy population needing care. It was renamed St Francis in 1948 when it became part of the NHS and continued to offer a more long term care than the acute services of the other hospitals in the King’s Group – it was demolished in 1991 with the small park named for it with paths leading to a large Sainsbury’s . It used to house the venerable local football club Dulwich Hamlet which in its last season managed to get into the 6^th Division but the land was sold from under it for a ‘housing development’ and the club plays elsewhere under a different name. (Not dissimilar from the Wimbledon to Milton Keynes story of some years back but I digress.)  Was there no way of balancing the need for housing and a local community resource?

The bus stops here and we were able to use the shop facilities before heading south for the Number 40