Day One hundred and eleven the No 177 and No 178 which took me past £1000 spent on my Oystercard

The 1135 train towards London Bridge was cancelled because of a fault so I had to wait for the 1150 to Victoria which enabled me to catch the 1230 London Overground train from Clapham Junction to Peckham Rye. My arrival at Peckham Rye was at 1245 and after a swift visit to Morrisons I boarded Stagecoach's 12273 operating the route No 177 to Thamesmead.

Peckham bus station with Stagecoach 12273 awaiting departure

General view of bus station with another No 177
in background

The bus left at 1301 and managed to travel quite briskly reaching Queens Road Peckham station at 1305 following the routes 36, 136 and 171 that I have already utilised to New Cross garage. Following east past New Cross Gate and then New Cross railway stations I was then following the route No 53 and its 'Borismaster ' counterpart, the No 453 as far as Deptford Bridge DLR station.

On Deptford High Street with a DLR train in Deptford Bridge
station

After Deptford Bridge the bus turned left into Greenwich High Road where it became the sole bus route for a short while before the Nos 180, 199 and 386 joined from the right afore we reached the centre of Greenwich.

Waiting at the lights in central Greenwich

We stopped in Greenwich at 1323 and then passed the Royal Naval Museum and on to a building that although had Greenwich Central library chiseled upon it suggested it was actually now East Greenwich library. This brought us to the Blackwall Tunnel Approach Road at 1336 and continuing east along the same road through Charlton we arrived at the Woolwich Ferry at 1356. The bus then threaded its way through the town of Woolwich before rejoining the same road past the new building at the Arsenal and on to Plumstead. The bus took the bus only short cut past Plumstead bus garage and continuing in an almost straight line down Plumstead High Street where there was a large library that seemed to be undergoing some works. Beyond this the bus maintains this course to Plumstead corner and only finally turns off at Bostall Hill to the left down Basildon Road. This road takes the bus across the railway line west of Abbey Wood station and into Eynsham Drive where briefly the No 177 is the only bus before the No 469 rejoins it after a its short foray into the estate to the north of the road.

The road climbs over the southern outfall sewer and into Thamesmead

The bus turns left to head into Thamesmead at this point at 1412, so 71 minutes after departure and after passing over the A2016 we enter the London Borough of Bexley and twist and turn to reach the final destination of Thamesmead town centre which is semi-rural in appearance at 1424.

Marsh bird named roads such as Curlew Close

All very recent builds with my 1982 A-Z having no reference
to these roads at all

Windscreen of the bus too blurry but this is Hoveton Road
 leading to various other roads that are all Broads in Norfolk such as Salhouse or Orlesby

Building with water flowing underneath but all very recently
built-not a converted Tudor mill or such

No room in the layover point for the bus on arrival so it had to come around to the bus stop and wait there.

I quickly disembarked and checked which bus would get me back to Woolwich quickest and it appeared it was the No 472 and so I boarded this at 1427. I took some photographs that I had missed on the No 177, as by the time I had reached Thamesmead the bus windows were steaming up with condensation. I alighted at the Ferry Terminal at Woolwich and made my way to Sainsbury's where I could pick up the No 178.

Bus timetable suggests journey should take 42 minutes, surprise
surprise it didn't

I have been here before on the Nos 51 and 161

Woolwich library which was now the Labour headquarters

London General's E275 arriving to convey me to Lewisham on the No 178

The initial bus stop is Calderwood Street and this is opposite what was Woolwich library but is now the Labour party Headquarters. London General's E275 appeared at 1509 and the bus driver asked me when he saw me photographing the bus what I was doing. I explained the plan and he thought it was an excellent thing to do!
The bus stopped near Woolwich Arsenal station and then turned right and headed away from the river towards the barracks before turning right towards Queen Elizabeth Hospital. There were some picturesque views across London as we reached these higher elevations but every time I got the camera ready a tree intervened so I'm afraid there are no depictions of these on the blog.
Beyond the hospital the bus turned right along Shooters Hill Road and once past the Sun in the Sands roundabout took Kidbroke Park Road. At this point at 1530 I caught sight of my first No 335 which began on the 29th October this year. Previously a No 335 was a country area route from Windsor to Watford.

Unfortunately due to low light levels not a very
good picture of Arriva's HV40 on the No 335 route. New buildings at Kidbroke behind.

Berkeley homes advertising the amount of work they have created by this development

From Thomas Tallis school onward the bus took a direct route to Kidbroke unlike the No 132 whose route it was following up to this point which turns off to the left towards Eltham Well Hall. After the bus had done a circuit outside Kidbroke station it entered the newly built or still under construction Kidbroke village.

Larger vista of already built parts of the village

The turn from Kidbroke Park road west onto the A20 towards Lee Green was quite difficult at this time of day and there were quite a few hairy moments I saw whilst we were waiting. There was then quite slow progress as we neared Lee Green, however, after we passed this spot there was an ambulance half on the pavement so that was perhaps the source of the hold-up. The bus then followed the A20 straight into Lewisham and we arrived at Lewisham station at 1615, rather more than than the 42 minute journey stated on the bus timetable.

My No 178 resting before returning to Woolwich

E275 turning left to layover before return

I had just missed the train from here to Elmers End so got myself a cup of tea and some ginger biscuits and waited on the platform at Lewisham railway station for 25 minutes. At Elmers End I then caught a tram home.