The Number 60 Route

Friday 4 October 2019
This was a pleasant South London trip; the route has a surprisingly low number for something that gets no closer to the middle of London than Streatham.  Reaching its head stop required trains and other buses, including a brief trip on the 60 to get to the end/beginning.  The kind driver let us remain on board for the five minute turn around break at the Tudor Rose in Old Cousldon, which was pleasant as the rain had begun and the bus shelter was full.

We set off at 10.45, to pass the handsome and modern Coulsdon 6th Form College, and head steeply down hill along Tollers Lane.  We noticed that the bungalows were cleverly designed, with the 'downhill' one of each pair having a garage underneath, while the 'uphill' halves had their garage on the level. 

We came to the Coulsdon Memorial Ground, but thought that the bowling green looked to have rather a challenging and uneven surface.  Possibly people no longer play bowls around here.

 

Coulsdon South Station is surrounded by recently built apartments, mostly new since we were last this way.  It's quite a good place to commute from, since trains these days go to both London Bridge and St Pancras

We noted the cycle shop near Coulsdon library:  the sort of hill we had come down makes an electric bike look rather a good idea.  We also admired Coulsdon's large Methodist church with its uneven looking tower.  

Now we headed straight along the A23, with residential properties on either side.  Most of them had large front gardens, depressingly turned into car parking spaces, though some had at least got smartly trimmed hedges.  I think it was P G Wodehouse who once referred to something as being 'straight as a privet hedge in Purley'.

We passed apartment blocks where (we thought from our youth) Purley Cinema and its Orchid Ballroom used to be.  Croydon, like many other boroughs, has adopted banners proclaiming the delights of the place.  Whatever we think of straplines like 'safe in Purley', we did approve of the borough flowers on the street barriers

As we came into South Croydon, we noted that the Earl of Eldon had gone the way of so many pubs, but the property (or space for apartments) had not yet been sold. We thought at first that the Swan and Sugarloaf, a bus stop as well as a pub, had survived, but no: it is now a Tesco.

We passed 'Wandle Apartments' which may, for all we know offer riverside living.  And now we were into Croydon, interesting in many ways:  the attractive pedestrian crossing; the huge amount of street art of various kinds, both formal and informal;  and the fact that former offices were now becoming flats.

Opposite the Clock Tower Museum (the bus stop was called 'Croydon Library, but we know better...) there is a large hole in the ground.  It is being cleared by John F Hunt, whose website says
Queens Square, Croydon – a major asbestos removal and demolition project on behalf of R&F Properties at their Queens Square mixed use scheme in the heart of Croydon. The scheme comprises the demolition of 4 commercial blocks and associated ground clearance with a value of circa £9m due for completion Q3 this year.
And this appears to be what will be going up instead.

We travelled on to admire the little pedestrian area in the centre of the scary dual carriage way by Croydon College and the Fairfield Halls, and came to a small gym where the art work appeared to be tiles, not paint.

As we passed West Croydon Bus Station, we saw that the force was gathering for some bus fare inspections:  not our bus, though.  It's a good interchange, with the Overground, the trams and the buses all in close proximity.

The next place you go through used to be called Thornton Heath, but it seems to have been rebranded as Broad Green, Historic Village, for reasons which are explained here.

As we headed on, we saw a EuroLoos van displaying the sense of entitlement from which drivers of motorised vehicles seem to suffer:  double yellow line? so? Cycle lane? who cares?

More enjoyable were the ladies in the fountains outside the hotel we passed: presumably they were in cages to protect them from unwanted attentions and litter.

What we used to know as the Mayday Hospital has been renamed 'Croydon University Hospital' which is probably sensible.  The nearby Saints and Sinners Pub seemed to be alive and well.

Once we had passed the Thornton Heath Pond roundabout, we were quickly into Merton, passing both the Library and the densely packed graveyard, before moving swiftly into Lambeth, our third borough of the ride.

As we came along the Streatham High Road, we were startled by a brightly ornamented pub called 'The Rabbit Hole'. And we were right to be amazed:  the former Greyhound Pub has been themed as an Alice place!

But we were nearly at the end of our journey.  Thank heavens for bus lanes, I thought, as we moved past stationary traffic to reached Streatham Hill Station at 11.55

The NUMBER 59 Route

Kings Cross (Wharfdale Road) to Streatham Hill

Thursday June 13 2019

Well from what concerns the photos this blog will be more like a visit to Tate Modern featuring as it does similar works to those of Monet and Rothko, rather than a record of our journey on this Number 59. The camera was on borrowed time but today it was so dark and wet the automatic flash kept cutting in.  Also it was a despised Boris Bus (can anyone seriously expect this man, whose tenure as London mayor was full of overspent vanity projects such as these buses, to run the country?) which gives poor visibility and that’s before the rain came bucketing down so three excuses for poor photos. (we were of course en route to the 45)

For a briefer but slightly sunnier account please  see our 2010  trip.

We did manage to keep dry while waiting rather over the promised 8 minutes before boarding our 59 skulking rather than enjoying a proper bus station.  The one-way system to get clear of the King’s Cross complex is always slow, and today was no exception. As the side windows were cleaner than the front ones I peered into a side street that seemed to have some kind of information board and thus discovered Keystone Crescent and this rather interesting blog entry.

We eventually made it along the Euston Road and turned down south into Upper Woburn Place – the Greek Revival Church (new St Pancras) was built to order but I do like this story about the caryatids'

I was actually looking for some explanation for the large humanoid sculptures in the side garden which you can read below.

The trundle down to Holborn was at the usual slow pace with the garden squares to the right and the hotels to the left, the latter looking fairly miserable in the rain.  Southampton Row and Aldwych were little better though it was slow enough to spot a plaque we had not noticed before telling us that Michael Faraday and others had conducted experiments between 1903 and 1967 (we sort of imagined him in the Royal Institution building where his lab is preserved) on that site.  You can just about identify the church as the bus swings round in front of King’s College with its windows of notable alumnae.

Crossing Waterloo Bridge was faster than on some days but then we slowed again in front of St John’s and the station side entrances.  This route, and it is the only one to do so, turns right at the Old Vic down Baylis Road, named for Lilian founder of the theatre of course. There seemed to be some kind of demonstration (I do like a demo , said Jo) by what is known as Waterloo Millenium Green . It was a bit hard to read the placards but we think they were students from the Oasis Academy, which is a recently founded Free School, by which I take it not part of Lambeth Education.

One of the benefits of rain of course is that the trees thrive and there was so much greenery in front of the main site of the Imperial War Museum that it was barely visible.

As more passengers boarded, which they did south of the river, we added steamed up windows to our barriers to vision.

Kennington actually has many very handsome tall houses – there are gaps of course but terraces intact enough to make an impression – and these appear on both sides of the road. There used to be huge cinema on the right , which had been Bingo Hall for years and now seems to be  flats though there was also a large building site?

At the big Kennington Junction we ran into the second of our apostles – St. Mark – and then continued down the Brixton Road, by now thoroughly steamed up, and with more passengers taking short trips to avoid being soaked.

Brixton Hill is quite heavily packed with different ages of residential blocks from the old pre-war mansion types to more utilitarian post war housing , but fewer squeezed in modern ‘developments’.  Passing Brixton Water Lane reminded us that the Effra still flows here underground and from time to time re-asserts itself though there are ways of harnessing the water and preventing flooding as this website. shows. 

I had always been a bit puzzled as to why there were two bus garages along Brixton Hill, one clearly a leftover from the  Tram days  but this link explains the upper one is used as over spill from the lower Brixton Garage, where we had, in our time, had a ‘photoshoot.’ courtesy of KFH’s Completely London magazine (Page 67 and ignore the headline) 

Proximity to the bus station is of course why the 59 terminates at Telford Hill which is no longer in Brixton and not quite in Streatham. The trees were still dripping as we emerged but our timing was lucky and we could walk the short distance to the start of the Route 45.

The Number 58 Route

Thursday 26 September 2019


Our journey today began in the splendid bus station of Walthamstow Central: easily accessed by the Victoria Line, clear information (and a staffed information point), useful facilities and classical music. How different from Euston (where the taxis have a new huge space) and King's Cross, where the buses merely loiter in the road.

We came out of the bus station at about 1.10, and turned right to pass yet more evidence of Waltham Forest's new-found commitment to cycling, in the shape of fine secure parking by the railway, with a green roof

There is a great deal of new building going on, including The Mall, which seems to be about retail, and The Chain, which is a huge part-Council residential scheme. Later we came to the  former Essex Brewery, now inhabited apartments.

We also saw signs to the Walthamstow Wetlands, which used to be called Walthamstow Marshes.  There's a very good walk from here down to Liverpool Street, much of which is surprisingly green!

We were not enjoying the lovely weather of our previous two trips, but the rain mostly held off.  We came past the Methodist Lighthouse Church, with its appropriate tower, as well as the very smart new Kelmscott School named, we take it, for the William Morris connection.

Traffic was very slow as we came down to Lea Bridge Road, because they are doing some roadworks. We wondered if there was any part of London where roadworks are not occurring. One of the many churches along this route is the Potter's House Christian Fellowship, an import from Perth, Australia.  It takes its name from Jeremiah Ch 18 vv 1-3 (if you're interested) when God suggests that the prophet should visit the potter and see him squashing and remaking pots which are turning out wrong, something that God intends to do with his creation.

Speaking of church matters, we next passed Etloe House, rather a fine and listed (II) building, where Cardinal Wiseman, Archbishop of Westminster, once lived.  It is now apartments. We noted with interest that some of the bus stops along this route are still the old red request stops, a distinction now redundant since buses only stop when you ask them to at all stops.

Some pretty little almshouses also drew our attention.  We could not see their name, but I think they are probably these.
So we had reached Leyton, and passed the fire station, as well as admiring the hanging baskets and green spaces. The banners of this borough were cheering Leyton Orient's great success in returning to the Football League, but there were also some which declared 'Culture as a bond'

When we passed what had clearly been the old Town Hall, but was now labelled Leyton Technical, we assumed that it must be a school of some kind.  Wrong! It is a place to eat and drink.  But Leyton Library still has books.

We noted excellent cycle parking at Leyton Station, too: as at Walthamstow, the borough has clearly made good use of the £30,000,000 TfL money.

While some pubs are doing well, the Lord Rook pub was being converted into smart apartments. The Holly Tree, on the other hand, seemed to be having renovation work done.  




But the most interesting ex-pub we saw was The Woodgrange, as we came into Upton Park: no longer a pub, but still with its Tudor type carvings above the doors.

Coming into Forest Gate, we noted the war memorial on the pavement near the police station: too low to get a photo of,  but you can see one with this rather disturbing news story

We also saw a group of more modern looking almshouses (or at least retirement homes) these with solar panels on their roofs.  Amongst the many churches of this route, we noted the 'Salvation of the Living Rock Revealed'.

There are many hotels along this route, though we were not able to work out why this should be. 

Now we reached the area of Upton Park noted for its British Asian traders, and we ogled the sumptuous clothing and jewellery on display, as well as the various food outlets and the pretty pavement.

We also liked the name of the Turkish restaurant which called itself 'Turkuoise.

Queen's Market was looking quite quiet, but building was going on steadily at 'Upton Gardens', where West Ham used to play.  The video on the sales website (attached to the second picture) certainly makes the area look wonderful. There was no mention in the sales material about the former occupants of the site:  perhaps to attract supporters of other football clubs?

We've always wondered about the whole Boleyn thing, but it seems that archeologists are discovering remains from at least the right period, even if Anne was dead before the monastery which used to occupy the site was dissolved in 1538.

The next landmark is of course the 1966 statue, which the borough has embellished with excellent flowers. The we turned left into the Barking Road, passing the Who Shop, where you can apparently buy all things connected with the Doctor (I had thought it might be the pop group) . It was looking a little uninviting as we nipped past, but after all, who actually goes into a shop these days?

The flats on the left have pretty metalwork plaques of flowers and trees, together with a message about how Chlorophyll can help save the climate and thus the planet.

We passed Klipout, which proves to be a trampolining venue, and also the Kuramoh Louge. This baffled us with a sign which read 'live point and kill catfish'.  The explanation is that it is a pan-African restaurant, which does indeed sell catfish which you choose before it is killed and cooked.

Passing the enormous Town Hall and Library, as well as Newham College, we came to our terminating point at Central Park, having enjoyed an interesting tour of this culturally diverse part of North East London.  It was just after 2.20, 70 minutes after setting off.  One can cover a lot of distance in an hour if one avoids the middle of London!