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.

The Number 273 Route

Petts Wood Station to Lewisham Station

Thursday January 5^th 2012

Happy New Year to all our followers and random visitors, and thanks again to Tim for setting up an index and generally giving the blog a fresh look. 

Back on the road after the holidays and 10AM found Jo, Mary and Linda 'raring to go’ if slightly puzzled on leaving Petts Wood Station where the ‘little bus’ signs, (not unlike our new smart logo) suggest exiting the other way. However, after some judicious texting we met in time to catch this small 1 door only bus, which only runs 3 times an hour.  

It seemed appropriate to be in SE London on the days following the final conviction and sentencing of two of the Stephen Lawrence killers, as SE London had been the setting and background to the whole shameful saga. The route today was not going to take us directly through Eltham, but Mottingham en route is not very far from Eltham and all of SE London has long been tainted by this incident.

Petts Wood clearly sees itself still as a Kent village as the sign by the bus stop shows – it also comes with a handy key so I can tell you the White Horse is for Kent, the Galleon for King Henry’s warships built at Deptford from Petts Wood Oak, the local Petts family’s coat of arms and the eclipsy looking thing for Mr William Willett who gave us daylight saving.

The 273 waits alongside the R2 and an eager passenger, en route to her day centre, was keen to tell me it would take her all the way there. I suspect Petts Wood likes to hark back to its importance as a timber supplier in Tudor times by building all its post war (1920s) housing in a distinct pseudo-Tudor style  - not only the restaurants opposite the station but whole streets of semis were all half-timbered. 

The 273 follows Poverest Road and then effectively what must be the Cray Valley along Cray Road which is lined with substantial industrial units – Sun Chemical and Allied Bakers for example. A man boarded clutching his beer can (this was 10.10 in the morning) and regaled the largely empty bus for some stops to come.

The route 273 follows the Route 61 to St Mary Cray and then up Leeson’s Hill – Jo felt the trip overall was developing a banking theme but we doubt that Leeson’s Hill was named for the Rogue Trader of that name.  The 273 had few takers so we progressed swiftly on, passing the remnants of  woods still there in place names, and as the homes became ever larger and more detached with the occasional private road we knew we were approaching Chiselhurst. The Bullshead Hotel stands close to some very large late 19^th century homes called Warren Wilton and Chesil House, now all subdivided or business premises.

After the Duck Pond complete with duck house came the Queen’s Head (she was anonymous or at least unidentifiable) which was promising us a Psychic Night – do they offer ‘free spirits’ Jo wondered? (Some old jokes are best left to die.) White Horse Hill, our route for leaving Chiselhurst behind, usually offers excellent panoramas but on a single decker the best we could manage today was the last of the front of house mounted Santas before they get tidied away for another year.

Very soon we were on the  Mottingham Estate built by the LCC post World War II to rehouse the folk who were blitzed out of their homes during the war. I had a colleague who remembers moving down from Elephant and Castle as a young child and certainly her children never knew any other life than outer SE London.

In the streets between Mottingham and Grove Park we could glimpse the Shard between gaps in the houses. The bus was by no means crowded but certainly we had taken on more passengers through the 2 big estates than before. To be honest the bus did some serious and confusing  ‘looping’ through Grove Park, often through some quite narrow streets, with the odd brave sortie out onto the bigger mainer roads such as Baring Road – our second banker of the day.  The bus continued with a hail and ride section close to Horn Park before we rejoined Baring Road and headed towards Lee Green. However the 273 has a mind of its own and again it branched off at the Lord Northbrook pub – this was to be Jo’s third banker but as Northbrook started out as a Baring perhaps that only makes two? Anyway he was Lord Northbrook of Lee and there is still one sitting in the House of Lords, which is a testament to the enduring if dubious powers of the hereditary peerage system.

 Anyway the pub has been nicely restored and the bus turns down Southbrook Road, which delighted us with its lovely double fronted well-proportioned homes. We were able to admire these at some leisure as we ran into 2 dust carts - one for recycling and one for rubbish - and it took a while to negotiate a route through but then we were passing Hither Green Station. Close by Bellway are developing some new homes (handy for the railway you  might say) but it was a bit of a puzzle as to why they were called ‘The Old Biscuit Factory’. This  is usually taken to mean the old  Peek Freans (Chocolate Bourbons etc) factory in Bermondsey – though the 225 bus which stops at Hither Green would take you to Bermondsey this seems a rather spurious link.   

After picking up our last raft of passengers we took a turn along Manor Park – a very grand and broad avenue lined with substantial Victorian homes so it is then rather an anti-climax to come onto Lee High Road, which is gradually being refurbished. But it has a way to go.

Unlike most other buses which terminate in the bus area next to Lewisham station the 273 goes just beyond and tucks in neatly in a small parking slot in front of Tescos, and that is where our tour of outer, and quite rural SE London stopped, having taken just under an hour from Petts Wood.