Day 108, the missing part of the No 172 and the No 173

Today got off to a late start owing to our trip to Gatwick Airport with our son to take him to a zoo educators' meeting at Edinburgh Zoo. So after we had gone back to bed for a bit it was the 1150 train that I caught to Balham. The Northern line conveyed me from thence to Elephant and Castle where I was able to rejoin the No 172 route we had exited on Saturday.

Back at the same bus stop at Elephant and Castle

London General's EH180 

I duly boarded London General's EH180 at 1239 which headed up London Road to St George's Circus then along Waterloo Road past the station and across Waterloo Bridge to terminate at the Aldwych Drury Lane stop at 1251.

Running around the Imax

At the Aldwych all of twelve minutes after boarding

Disembarkation at the Aldwych

I decided the quickest way to reach the No 173 was to walk to Holborn Underground station and take a Central line westbound to Newbury Park.  I was really lucky with the timing of this being on the platform one minute before a Newbury Park terminating service was due. The literature said it should take 31 minutes but having boarded at 1301 we reached Newbury Park at 1335.

The Great Eastern Railway origins of this station are evident in the
support brackets for the canopies at Newbury Park

Looking down the platform to an approaching Central line train from Central London

After a brief comfort stop as I left the station there was a No 396 outside destination King George's Hospital which was exactly where I had to go. The bus left at 1338 and reached the destination at 1347 just as Arriva T187 was leaving its layover point to commence route No 173. A quick change was thus effected but this made it impossible to photograph the bus before boarding.

Wending our way through King George's Hospital on the No 173

The route took me initially back the way I had just come from Little Heath but there it struck out to the East along Chadwell Heath Lane which later became SE. On arrival at Chadwell Heath the bus route does a strange circuit around a triangle with what was the police station but is now a Wetherspoons pub within it.

What must have originally been Chadwell Heath police station. POLICE is chiselled into the parapets above the windows

 Again heading east for a while I was following the same route I had done before on the Nos 62 and 86. The bus turns south once more when it reaches Whalebone Lane which took us back to the Becontree Leisure Centre and as we entered Wood Lane we joined the No 175 route. The bus then forks left down Heathway and part way along this road the No 174 joins forces along with the No 175 down to the old A13. Here these bus routes part company with the No 173 heading west along Ripple Road and then Alfred's Way just over half an hour after departure at 1422.

Three sequential bus routes on the Heathway Dagenham

Running along the road after Dagenham entertainment centre we pass these statues with Bobby Moore in the middle holding the World Cup

There was quite a hold up as we reached the junction to turn left towards Beckton and underneath the flyover there had obviously been quite a coming together of vehicles.

London General's SE102 has collided with a car underneath the A13 whilst on bus route No 300

Beckton DLR station

The Beckton bus terminus opposite the DLR station

Arriva's T187 at Beckton

It was quite a swift run on to Beckton station where we terminated at 1443. I then crossed the road to catch a DLR train to Canning Town, there to change to a Jubilee line to Canary Wharf and there another DLR from Heron Quays station to Lewisham and homeward.