Monday 18 December 2017

Day nineteen after a rather long gap finally the 39 and most of the 40

Layover point at Clapham Junction North Side
 for the 39, amongst others.
There has been rather a large amount of business in my life over the last couple of weeks which has made making any further progress difficult. However, today I thought I could combine some Christmas present buying in Central London with the No 39 and the No 40. The plan was to take the train to Clapham Junction where the No 39 starts from and after the bus had wended its way through large amounts of the London Borough of Wandsworth it would deposit me at Putney Bridge station where I could take the tube to Central London. Although the train was 6 minutes late, for once with the bus starting at Clapham Junction it only took me 40-50 minutes to actually get onto the bus.

The bus stop located just before the road goes under all the tracks at Clapham Junction (This bus is the preceding No 49).
 The service was provided by a Wrightbus Streetlife of London General WS67 which left the first bus stop of the route at 1139. Despite this bus being rather new the oyster reader was not working so I had a free trip until arrival at Putney Bridge underground station at 1222.

Terminating buses at Putney Bridge station.
Mine was the bus on the right.

 The plan was there to catch the District line to Earls Court and then the Piccadilly line to Leicester Square. There was a signal failure at Parsons Green so that when I looked at the screens at Putney Bridge station they displayed train 'held.' I consulted the bus map which suggested I could get a No 74 to Earls Court which I duly did and then caught the Piccadilly line to Leicester Square. I walked from here to Warren Street station in a fruitless endeavour to source certain Christmas presents. At the shop here I was told to take the Victoria line to Victoria in another vain attempt to purchase something that is apparently only available in New York! So onto the No 40 which starts at Aldgate. However, because of problems on the Hammersmith and City line there was no service to Aldgate. I thus alighted at Tower Hill and walked to Aldgate bus station. I found, though, that this bus does not start from the bus station but bus stop B on the other side of the underground station.
Aldgate Bus stop B at St Botolph's with my No 40 approaching.
It was therefore from here that I caught Enviro Hybrid EH58 at the bus stop called St Botolph's Street. I left this stop at 1536 but the bus seemed to be on diversion along Leadenhall Street and then Gracechurch Street. The associated delays with the building works in the local area meant it took a full 20 minutes to reach London Bridge. Progress became rather quicker from there onwards to the Elephant and Castle, up Walworth and then Camberwell roads. However, since I had to reach the opticians in Bromley High Street before they closed at 1730 on arrival at Denmark Hill station I decided to disembark at 1638. The concluding part of the route from Denmark Hill station to East Dulwich, whilst not far, would have made it too difficult to make the appointment. Thus the rest of the route has been left for next time. This is the first time this has happened but may not be the last.
Denmark Hill station platforms from disembarkation point

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