Day 62 to Brent Cross for the No 102 to Edmonton Green

I initially looked at the A to Z and thought it would be easier to catch the Northern line to Hendon Central and walk from there to Brent Cross rather than the actual underground station labelled Brent Cross. However, having caught a train to Balham and then the Northern line via Bank to Brent Cross I found that a walkway was provided over the North Circular Road, and after an initial lack of signposting telling me to use the footbridge, the rest of the journey was well signposted. Alongside the bus station runs the River Brent and as a previous forecaster from the Flood Forecasting Centre I thought I ought to take a photograph of the weir where the height of the river is measured to warn of down stream flooding potential.

Weir on River Brent

Notification of ownership by
Environment Agency

The river runs underneath a mass of concrete walkways and roadways towards Staples Corner and the start point of the M1

The bus was waiting to leave as I arrived so I took a quick snap of Arriva London T268 before boarding at exactly 1300.

The bus driver said as I got on board 'I wished you'd warned me I would have straightened my six hairs'.

We immediately crossed the North Circular Road heading south through housing estates before turning left to reach Hendon Way. After a brief journey down the Hendon Way at the next traffic lights we turned left and headed up Vale Rise to the Finchley Road at Golders Green.

The cenotaph at Golders Green with bus station and underground station beyond

 It has been quite a time since I was last here but we then followed the  No 13 route up Finchley Road until again we met the North Circular Road . We only joined the A406 briefly though, before heading just south of it along Falloden Way and then Lyttleton road briefly left up Bishops avenue we reached East Finchley tube station. After this we then turned right climbing up to Muswell Hill along Fortis Green Road.

View from Muswell Hill towards London but too hazy for camera to catch the detail. The subsequent brief view I got to NE as I descended towards Bounds Green was much clearer but I was too slow to get the camera out!

The descent from Muswell Hill heading east towards Bounds Green tube, where the Piccadilly line was on strike today, revealed in the distance the destination of Edmonton and the high ground of Epping Forest beyond.We again joined the North Circular for a while following the No 34 route passing Palmers Green bus garage before reaching the Cambridge roundabout where the A10 crosses the A406. From here the route follows the back street called Silver Street parallel with the North Circular and Pymmes Brook. The bus then returned briefly to the North Circular Road as it headed under the railway bridge at Silver Street station. After this it turned left into Upper then Lower Fore Street past Edmonton police station and on to Edmonton Green where the bus terminated at 1419.

Approaching the war memorial at the Edmonton Green roundabout

Following a  less than a year old Arriva bus on a W6 route with bus terminus beyond. I had seen these buses when I was on the No 34 route awaiting to be put into service at Palmers Green depot yard.

To return home I took the No 149 'Borismaster' heading for London Bridge but alighted at Seven Sisters. Here I took the Victoria line to Stockwell and changed for a northern line to Balham where a train was only five minutes away to take me home where I arrived at 1630.

Day sixty one After a two week rest time to start the next hundred-The No 101.

Monday 24th was a day when my wife had a committee meeting at CILIP HQ, (formerly the Library Association), in Central London and so after travelling with her to Tottenham Court Road underground station I took a Central line train eastbound. The first train I boarded was going to Epping and since the No 101 start at Wanstead I had to change at Leytonstone to take a Hainault via Newberry Park service to Wanstead.
My bus guide had told me the bus started in Wanstead so it was a bit difficult to find the first bus stop on the route when I arrived at 1257. There are five bus stops in Wanstead that get visitations from this bus. The first one I chose was at George Green, but when the bus arrived there were people already aboard, so I knew I had to choose one of the others.

What a glorious day after a foul weekend-the bus already
with passengers at George Green

Consulting the map of the layout of bus stops on the bus shelter I decided to choose the one in Woodbine Place which necessitated a short walk down Spratt Hall Road.

The layover point for the No 101 in Woodbine Place

Boarding the No 101 at 1312

The bus WVL469 of London General picked up at the other four stops in Wanstead passing over the A12 heading past Bush Woods and then turning left with Wanstead Flats alongside us. There were some roads reminding me of home, Selsdon Road, Woodcote Road, Overton Drive and Felstead Road.

Passing Wanstead Flats with Docklands in the distance

The built up area recommenced as we reached Manor Park railway station and then continued SSE through East Ham. The bus passing round the eastern side of the High Street, unlike my run in the No 58 which took me up the High Street. I took the same route as the No 58 to its start point and then on South towards Beckton.

Passing another 'local' road name Mitcham Road, just past the terminus of the No 58 

As we passed the DLR terminus
 at Beckton we turned right into
 Beckton bus station briefly
before heading on to Gallions
Reach via an area called Cyprus.

Beckton DLR Terminus

The road we used looped around the DLR depot at Gallions to finally reach the Gallions shopping centre.

DLR Gallions depot

The bus arrived almost exactly an hour after leaving Wanstead at 1358.

The terminus at Gallions Shopping Centre

I took a trip to Tesco to obtain lunch and then decided as time was not on my side to abandon the hope of doing the No 102. I therefore boarded the No 262 to near Custom House and walked to the dock beside London City Airport.

EMB170 G-CIXW of Eastern Airways landing

EMB170 G-CIXW Eastern A/W

Bae146 Cityjet EI-RJX

Bae146 Cityjet T/O

Luxair DHC8 LX-LGE

Bae146 JOTR aviation G-JOTR

One of the 4 Bizjets Cessna 550 G-SPRE

Bae146 JOTR aviation T/O

I stayed there for an hour and then took the DLR to Canning Town, the Jubilee line to Canada Water and finally London Overground to reach Home about 1730.

Day 60 I reached bus route No 100 and took Debbie and Charmaine with me to mark the milestone on John's anniversary

To mark the occasion of John's anniversary and my first anniversary of doing the quest I arranged to do bus No 100 with Debbie. To make life easier and to ensure Deb made it safely this time across the pavement to Grove Park station we drove to her house and walked with her to the station. We caught the 1153 towards Cannon Street and alighted at New Cross and almost immediately jumped on the London Overground 1212 to Dalston Junction leaving at 1230 at Shadwell.

Debbie and Charmaine after arrival at Shadwell

The starting point of the No 100 in the distance

Unlike most underground stations there wasn't a map showing which buses stopped where, just a map showing the bus stops and so it required a little perambulation to find that the No 100 actually started from outside the Town hall.

Town hall Cable Street

Charmaine and Debbie about to board SE225

We waited until 1247 and then the bus, London General SE225 set off initially east but soon turned south to Tobacco Dock and it then followed south towards the river and traversed Wapping passing by the River Boat police station and various wharves.

One of a number of wharves that have been 'gentrified' Pierhead Wharf.

At one point (1302) the bus came across two vans parked illegally on the left hand side of the road and two motorbikes parked legally on the right hand side. For a while he just sat blaring his horn in the hope someone might come and do something. Nobody did so after 3 minutes he very gingerly and very expertly squeezed past the obstructions. This generated spontaneous cheers and applause from Debbie; admittedly someone not known from being quiet and unobtrusive.

Squeezing past the vans to the left

The closeness of the motorbikes on the right

In many parts of this road the roads traversed were cobbled

On Vaughan Way we crossed what had been a dock
water system at some point but was now a water feature

From Wapping the bus headed to the Commercial Road where we turned left to Tower Hill and then at this junction went under the tracks leading into Fenchurch Street station to then go up Mansell Street to Aldgate.





The bus subsequently headed to Moorgate and finally terminated on London Wall outside the Museum of London at 1323. My 2016 map had the bus heading towards Blackfriars Bridge and ending at Elephant and Castle but apparently this does not happen any more.

Masonry along London Wall

Museum of London viewed from London Wall

Disembarkation after one of the shortest
 trips I have done: only 36 minutes.

Last Thursday we all should have seen, "Everyone is talking about Jamie" and we then headed to the Southbank to go to the Hayward Gallery to see a presentation about drag queens. We had a late lunch here and then walked over the river to catch a train from Charing Cross. No dice though, signal failure meant all trains were cancelled. No matter I said, 'let's get a No 176 to Elephant and Castle and from there get a train to Bellingham.' This worked quite well; the bus soon arrived at 1518 and by 1540 we were at Elephant and Castle station. Five minutes later the 1545 to Sevenoaks arrived and this reached Bellingham at 1612. Then we walked down to the main road to catch a No 136 to Grove Park station. This was actually quite a wait as the bus didn't arrive until 1630 and so it was 1649 before we were walking to Debbie's house to have a cup of tea and a biscuit.

Day fifty nine 4th sept 2018 Routes No 97,98 and 99

After catching the 1050 towards Victoria and finding I had missed the London Overground to Canada Water I caught the next train to London Bridge. Here I took the Jubilee Line eastbound to Stratford where I was able to a board the No 97.

The bus station at Stratford I was familiar with
from the footbridge over to the Stratford City bus station

Stratford City bus station with a No 97 waiting

A No 97 and  No 388 at Stratford City bus station

Stagecoach 15106 arriving

However, on arrival at Stratford I looked for the bus stop for the No 97. I found it wasn't in the bus station I had used hitherto, but was on the opposite side of the railway tracks at what was called Stratford City.

At 1206 I was aboard Stagecoach 15106 heading west on the No 97 with the bus doing a circuit of Westcroft shopping centre. It then picked up at the International station before running across the southern throat of Temple Mills yard and then turned north for Leyton. The bus then ran to Bakers Arms and on towards Walthamstow using many of the roads I had previously travelled on.

Heading towards Bakers Arms
under the Gospel Oak to Barking
line

At this stage I contacted Tim and organised that he would meet me at Walthamstow bus station and travel with me for the rest of the day. At 1242 Tim joined me after having once again crawled towards the bus station owing to the roadworks that were still ongoing by the railway station.
From the bus station we headed north and passed Walthamstow Stadium which closed five years ago and is now a development of luxury flats.

No need to comment!

From here we climbed up Chingford Mount where a number of buses terminate and eventually reached Chingford High Street terminating at the railway station at 1316.

Arrival at Chingford bus layover

We found a shop for our lunch and then settled on a London Overground train: the 1340 to Liverpool Street, and ate it on a much speedier return to Walthamstow Central.
From here the Victoria line took us to Finsbury Park where we crossed the platform to board a much cooler Piccadilly line train at 1401. We emerged from Holborn tube station at 1414 and walked to St Giles Circus where a number of No 98s were waiting.

Tim considering which bus to board; there was also one behind the photographer

It was actually quite confusing which of the three buses were going to leave first but eventually it was decided that the middle one, Metroline VWH2386 was going to be the next to leave. So at 1422 this bus set off towards Holborn station and into New Oxford Street. Unlike the No 94 last Saturday we did the entire length of Oxford Street and with the Crossrail works and numerous traffic lights progress was painfully slow.

Brand new Metroline VMH in Oxford Street

Typical traffic outside Selfridges

It was 1451 by the time we turned into the Edgware Road and from then on we followed the A5 much as I had done on the No 16 until Kilburn.

One of the five Chinese buses that are used mostly on the No 98

Before the bus reaches Brondesbury North London line station the bus turns left though along Willesden Lane as is the only bus that uses this road. This, as to be expected leads to Willesden and we duly arrived at Pound Lane outside the bus station at 1529.

The bus heads towards the garage after dropping us in Pound Lane

In order to get to the start of the No 99 we took a No 260 to Willesden Green tube station and took the Jubilee line to London Bridge. Arriving at London Bridge at 1608 we caught the late running 1545 to Gravesend at 1615. This train travelled via Bexleyheath which was our destination but we decided to continue to Bexleyheath as it was easier for Tim to return home from Woolwich rather than the alternative end in Bexleyheath.

This bus starts in the town centre which would have been a considerable hike from the railway station so we caught a B11, a bus operated by our third bus company of the day, London General, at 1649.

A selection of buses that start at Bexleyheath our No 99 DW452 on the left.

Bus stop S showing the No 99 and also the B11 stop there

This bus deposited us at exactly the right stop we needed for the No 99 and after 8 minutes DW452 of our fourth company Arriva arrived at 1709. This route was surprisingly tortuous as it wound its way to Slade Green. We had good views of the Dartford Bridge and what looked at a distance like the blue river Thames underneath it. However, when we reached the roundabout where we turned left for Slade Green we found the blue was a parcelforce building! Emphasising the tortuous nature was the bus stopping on both sides of Slade Green station but once out of that estate the route seemed a little more straightforward. However, a rather unusual aspect was the narrow part of the entrance to Slade Green Road being by-passed by a single carriageway but two way bus only road. By 1751 we were passing the south of Abbey Wood and we then headed down through Plumstead and on to Woolwich terminating at the bottom of Beresford Way at 1803.

Myself leaving the bus in Woolwich taken obviously by Tim

Tim and I then repaired to the Dial Arch pub for refreshment at the end of a most satisfactory day's work