The Number 36 Route

Thursday 9 May 2019
This is a really remarkable route, going all the way from New Cross Gate in the south east, to Queen's Park in the north west. We set off at 11.20 from the stop near the bus station, in very 'April-y' weather for May:  first sunshine, then heavy showers and then more sunshine. This meant that even Linda's camera skills were tested by the rain on the windows.
We turned left to travel along Queen's Road, past the Hatcham Liberal Club and the magnificent, pinnacled Fire Station to reach the railway at Queen's Road, Peckham.

There is, of course, new building going on here, and you can read all about Peckham Place here.

We came into Peckham, where the High Street remains completely closed to motorised vehicles while they do something major to the gas works.  It was with wry amusement that we noted that they have picked this period to do other roadworks in the streets along which the buses are diverted.

The Kentish Drovers Pub is a Wetherspoon's.  Whatever you think about the CEO's views on current national and international issues (well, THE issue) you cannot help but admire the chain's approach to the history of their pubs: not just to the drovers who brought meat on the hoof to Smithfield, but to the area surrounding the place.

We also spotted that Persepolis was open (on the way down it had been closed: perhaps something to do with Ramadan?) It's a shop and cafe stuffed with good things.

The Harris Academy chain has one in Peckham, and we passed Oliver Goldsmith primary School as well, making it easy to decipher the nearby blue plaque, though this website does not mention is living in South London.

Next we came to Camberwell, with its historic Arts College and the site of the former Mary Datchelor School.  This is clearly still an issue with local residents, who would like some kind of school to (re)open on the site, and nothing much seems to have happened since we were last this way.

Once we passed St Giles' Church, we were heading along the Camberwell New Road, pretty Straight, and passing both the Abellio Walworth Depot and the Go-Ahead bus driver training facility., as well as the Hermit's Cave Pub. Not being a Wetherspoon's, it has no history details on the web, so I speculate that a local art student painted them a sign with a hermit looking out of a cave, and it all went from there.

The next significant landmarks were Oval Station, and the Kia Oval, home, as the many banners say, of T20 cricket. The one day international against Pakistan on Wednesday was ruined by rain and hail and all the other horrible weather, which is a pity.  Of course other sports do not allow themselves to be rained off (look at day 1 of the Women's Tour de Yorkshire, for instance).

As we continued westwards, I drew Linda's attention to CS5, a cycle lane pretty well worthy of its name: segregated, and going behind the bus stops to avoid friction.

So then we came into Vauxhall, where there are some interesting (but unidentified) pillars with metal people on top, as well as a bus station which Linda and I quite like, and a fine view of Spies-R-Us across the river.

We crossed the river, noting how very low the tide was, and came past the Jugged Hare Pub, formerly a bank, but now a pub and restaurant. They don't seem to serve jugged hare, which is as well, since I think hares are protected anyway? I always thought that Mrs Beeton's famous recipe began with the words 'First catch your hare' but intensive internet research proves me wrong.

We were soon at Victoria Station, an area noted for musicals, since both Wicked and Hamilton are on in the vicinity. The 'works' in the bus station are still ongoing, but fortunately this route does not go in, but trundles on, past  Grosvenor Gardens and the Queen's back garden.

We reached Hyde Park Corner without difficulty (not our recent experience) and went up Park Lane, with a distant view of the memorial of the victims of the 7/7/05 bombings.

At this stage the camera gave up its recording facility, so I must report without visual confirmation that the fountains at Marble Arch were looking pleasant in the sunshine, and the Edgware Road was less clogged that it has often been. From here we zigzagged around to get to Northumberland Terrace, Paddington, where we were pleased to see that the Crossrail works were making slow but steady progress, even if 2021 seems a long way off. In a way its claim to be the Culture Line seems to be rather a frill, since the art works will not be visible until the place opens.

Anyway, we went left along Bishops Bridge Road for some way, before wiggling to get to the Harrow Road, parallel with the Canal and past the huge Sir Naim Dangoor bit of Westminster Academy. We passed the Science Photo Library (you might enjoy their pictures since this post has failed to provide many!) We then did some more wiggling to get into Queen's Park, noting a Blue Plaque for Norman Wisdom on the way. You can watch a bit of him if you would like to.

The last moment of the trip was a sad one:  the Falcon Pub has been closed for some time, and there seems to be a local contretemps about using the site for housing. Still, here we were, at 12.40, eighty minutes after leaving New Cross Gate.

The Number 35 Route

Thursday 2 May 2019

We got on this bus at 13.05, a late start which can be explained by a pretty unsatisfactory beginning to the previous ride, thanks to Thameslink and other factors, which left Linda with a long wait in Nunhead.  Still, off we went, from Shoreditch High Street, and left down an extremely congested Bishopsgate.  

The lunch hour pedestrian crowds were not helped by the relentless building works. The claim to be 'considerate constructors' does not protect the roads from being narrowed for the convenience of the builders.  And does the city truly need more office blocks? or residential blocks?  One of them, 'twentytwoLondon' has been under construction since 2008.

We could tell we were on the straight north-south route to London Bridge because many of the side streets were formerly inn yards:  Bells Inn Yard; Bull's Yard and so on.  When there was only one bridge across the Thames, and limited crossing hours, pubs could make money.

In some places, the name of the street is all that remains of one of the many churches of the city: St Benet's Gracechurch (rebuilt after the Great Fire of 1666) was demolished in 1868 for a road widening scheme.  Plus ca change....

We headed south to cross London Bridge and pass London Bridge Station, before proceeding, still south, along Borough High Street.  Here again, the side alleys recall the pubs that used to accommodate travellers waiting to cross into the City: Talbot Yard, Queen's Head Yard and Tabard Street among many others.

We liked the ghost sign for a clothing company with 'branch establishments' in Paris, Antwerp and Ghent.  As well as Borough Station and the Inner London Crown Court, we noted an Institute of Opthalmology and a University of Osteopathy (later we were to pass an Institute of Hepatology) so clearly medical specialising is all the rage in Lambeth.

Next is Elephant and Castle.  The Shopping Centre, dingy and smelly, is due to be demolished and redone soon.  This will presumably happen just as all the road works are a distant memory, thus ensuring further traffic hold ups for the forseeable future

We passed the blue plaque for Charlie Chaplin (not that he lived in a block like this) and headed on down the Walworth Road. The trees were very attractive in their spring foliage and we thought they might be acacias, but of course the Interweb resists my attempts to find out, offering me Garden Centres in Walworth, Wisconsin instead. Some beautiful horse chestnuts were, however, within our knowledge, and we were able to admire them when we had a driver change at Camberwell Green.

We turned sharp left along Orpheus Street, to pass the splendid Denmark Place Baptist Church, and travel past newly built apartments to reach Loughborough Junction Station.

Brixton, as always, had lots of interest:  the standard shaped borough photinias were in full flower, and the railway bridge was embellished with the words 'come in love'.  But we were also interested in a message from the borough about air pollution, with a couple of road signs reading 'BrixtNO2.  The one way system here meant that we passed Brixton Town Hall from three sides in the end, during which time we saw a Commonwealth War Graves Commission van, presumably doing maintenance work in the local graveyards.

Brixton also has a number of Churches , including the Universal Pentecostal Church, which feels the need to explain who said their strapline.

But most interesting were the borough's banners, reminding all who pass that almost 79% of Lambeth residents voted to stay in the EU.

Once we were through Brixton, we were pretty close to Clapham Common, all green and lovely.  we had plenty of time to enjoy the views as we were held up by road works, or rather by gas works along the road.  having got through those, we came to another lot, though these seemed to be actual road repairs.

Into Clapham itself, we came to one of the Temperance Billiard Halls which were supposed to keep the working man safe from the demon drink. There were about 50 in London at the height of the temperance movement, and there is a certain irony in the fact that many are now pubs.

And there we were, at the Falcon Pub, where this route ends, conveniently for getting home from the enormous Clapham Junction Station.  We had come from the busy City to the upper cut Clapham, via some really interesting areas of London.  We hope this is one bus route that will not get 'rationalised' by TfL.