Day 222 An hour's ride betwixt Shadwell and Leytonstone stations on the No 339.

 I had a dentist's appointment at 1040 so made my way there by tram and train so I wouldn't have to come home from Orpington to start the trip. Having been given a clean bill of health I joined the 1141 to Cannon Street and left that train at New Cross at just after 1200. From here I caught the 1212 London Overground train towards Dalston Junction as far as Shadwell. On arrival above ground there was quite a heavy blustery shower occurring and it took a little while to ascertain that the No 339 left from the opposite side of the railway line and DLR station to the No 100 I had caught in 2018.

Martha Street stop where Stagecoach 67011 waits

Stop D Shadwell station

The service was being provided by the penultimate in the series of the new Stagecoach London single deckers number 67011. The bus left stop D in Martha Street at 1236 and turned right then right again along Tarling Street to intercept Sutton Street where the bus turned left heading north across the Commercial Road and along Jubilee Street as far as Stepney Way. We then turned right to reach the Stepney Green and city farm where we entered the High Street.

Tarling Street E1

Stepney City Farm

As we turned right into Ben Johnson Way we met another bus route for the first time the No 309, however soon we were alone again turning left along Harford Street. At the top of this we turned right into the Mile End Road thereby joining other bus routes and we did not remain alone thereafter as we headed north up Grove Road after passing under The Green Bridge.  

Ecology centre at Mile End

The Roman Road E3 one can ride along

The gate to the pedestrianised part of 
Roman Road

The next change was to turn right into Roman Road where we were joined with the No 8 to Old Ford. When we reached the arch delineating the pedestrianised part of Roman Road the bus headed right down St Stephen's Street and subsequently left along Tredegar Road now on its own again. We crossed over the Eastway on a bridge and entered the Old Ford Trading Estate where we stopped at Fish Island at 1305. 

Fish Island stop

Passing the Olympic now West Ham stadium

After this we were briefly joined by the routes No 276 and No 488 but forged off alone again amongst the Olympic park area passing the Bobby Moore Primary Academy and the Olympic stadium and finally the Aquatic centre before reaching Stratford City Bus station where drivers were exchanged at 1315. By 1317 we were leaving the bus station and entered the new postal zone of E20 after passing by the International station. The area had twenty years previously been the London International Freight Terminal but was now full of recently built tower blocks. We returned onto more long lived parts of Stratford at Chobham Road turning north up Major Road and then right along Crownfield Road to reach the Leytonstone High Road. I had intended to combine this bus with the No 340 from Harrow to Edgware so was taken aback when we stopped at Harrow Green! 

The bus turned left off the High Road along Cathall Road and as we emerged over the Central line which was running parallel with the A12 there were good panoramic views of London, had it not been for the rainwater on the windows! 

We turned right at the lights here into Groves Green Road and followed this road for the rest of the route to Leytonstone Underground station where we arrived at 1338, so slightly over an hour was taken for the journey.

The final stop at Leytonstone Underground station

I checked when i was on the Central line train how long it would take to get to Edgware and I would not have arrived until 1450. I presumed this would mean the buses would be full of school kids so decided rather than risk contracting a cold or something worse I would leave the No 340 for another day and got off the train at Stratford. After a short while here, I took an Elizabeth line train one stop to Whitechapel and then the London Overground to West Croydon arriving home at 1530.

Day 221 Another trip outwith the TFL area in order to do the No 338 from Radlett station to London Colney Fields retail park.

The journey began with taking a suitcase and large bag of items for delivery to the Beatrix Potter AGM being held at the Victoria and Albert Museum. So after leaving the contents and my wife there, I caught the Piccadilly line to Kings Cross and St Pancras station. On arrival at St Pancras and having paid for my ticket I found at 1400 that the next train was the 1342 and it said delayed. The following train at 1412 was also delayed and further down the 1442 train was stated as on time. However, at 1410 the 1442 was also displayed as being delayed. So after standing on the platform until 1443 the 1342 arriving to convey me to Radlett where I arrived at 1516. I checked where the No 338 departed from which was just around the corner in Watling Street but I groaned when I saw the previous bus was at 1507 and the next was not until 1607. Other hours have two buses but not the hour I happened to arrive in thanks to the delays on the railway. It seemed odd to me that the bus stop was on the side of the road heading south when the map showed the bus going north so I checked the bus stop opposite. Indeed the No 338 was not indicated as stopping there so I was about to return when I saw a piece of paper fluttering on the bottom of the stop stating changes owing to road works, It did not mention my bus but it made me uneasy. People at the bus stop with me who were waiting for the No 602 were getting worried when time for their bus came and it didn't. I was lucky, however, and the bus arrived bang on time at 1607.

Cessna on base leg for Elstree airfield overhead

Bus stop display at Recreation Ground Radlett

The bus service is provided by Lucketts of Watford and I had a very engaging driver. The bus did very briefly head towards London but soon turned right up Aldenham Road and then right down Station Road to arrive almost opposite the Recreation Ground bus stop I had spent fifty minutes at.

Lucketts of Watford minibus on route No 338

Turning left at the end of station road aboard
the No 338

We then turned left and headed away from London up Watling Street towards St Albans. After about a mile and a half the bus swung right at some traffic lights to enter Harper Lane which starts with a narrow bridge over the Midland mainline. This took us to the site of Harperbury hospital which seemed still to have some NHS function but was also a housing estate where the bus did a circuit and waited for a while. The driver informed me this route was busy in the rush hour with people heading to the station as the car park was more expensive than the four pound return bus ticket. On Saturdays though, it was always quiet-I was the only customer for the entire route there but another passenger did join on the route back. 

Narrow bridge at start of Harper lane

Harperbury Park on site of hospital

After leaving the hospital site we ran parallel with the M25 passing Watford FC's training ground before pulling up over the M25 and turning left into the retail park which is a turning off  Barnet Road. We arrived at just after 1620 when the driver advised me to be back for ten to five in order to be taken to Radlett station.

Sullivan Bus on the No 84

My bus running off back to Radlett

Red Rose bus company operate the No 357

I went into the shopping centre and upstairs to the cafe to have a latte and sandwich and it was suggested if I got crisps too it would be two pounds cheaper which obviously I did. I made my way back to bus stop 2 or B and the No 338 duly arrived as the driver said he would. I found out on my way back he used to drive for Arriva from their Garston depot and at one stage was seriously looking at moving to Halfway on Sheppey and transferring to Arriva's Sheerness depot, He thus knew where I meant when I explained what I was doing and how I had been at Sheerness only a few days ago.

Bus services from bus stop B-5 different bus companies

However the No 200 bus appears only once and that only on a Monday at 1233

The destination of the No338 London Colney retail park

The bus arrived back at Radlett at about five past five and this was plenty of time to catch the Sutton train at 1712. However, this was a slow way round from my point of view so I left the train at St Pancras and took the following Brighton train which was diverted away from London Bridge owing to engineering works. I arrived home at about 7PM.

A rather cheaper trip than the No 334, £3.75 on the train and £4 round trip on the bus.

Day 220 Three buses in southern London the No 335 from North Greenwich, the No 336 from Catford and finally the No 337 from Richmond.

 I took the 1005 London Bridge train all the way and then at 1034 caught a North Greenwich bound Jubilee line train. As I approached the stop for the No 335 a bus on the route drew up and so I had to board without taking the customary photograph of it laying over or of the timetable. 

Departing from North Greenwich bus interchange

Next major location on the Greenwich Peninsula

Thus at 1048 I was aboard Arriva London's HV149 which headed through Millenium Village and then went through the Millenium Leisure Park. After this the bus went under the A102M Blackwall Tunnel approach road and turned into Combedale road with the intention of heading up to the Blackheath Royal Standard passing Westcombe Park railway station as it did so.

Running toward the Blackwall
 tunnel approach road

Blackheath Social club

Looking SE across Blackheath

 This was at times narrowed by parked vehicles and at 1100 we were waiting at Kirkdale Road for other buses to come down the hill.Taking Stratheden Road at the Royal Standard we met Shooters Hill Road on the NE corner of the the heath of Blackheath  and then swung left so as to access Kidbrook Park Road at the traffic lights before the Sun in the Sands roundabout. We passed Thomas Tallis school where roadworks closed the bus stop and next stopped near Kidbrook station before heading into the newly built and currently building estate south of the station. 

Artwork commemorating Stephen Lawrence

New building at Kidbrook

The bus exits the estate and headed back the way it had come before taking Weigell Road and running through another building site area to terminate at Wingfield school at 1119.

Journey's End for the No 335

I was in two minds as to how to reach Catford Bridge station from where the next bus started. Should I get the train to Lewisham or the bus. I attempted the former only to just miss the train, so then boarded the next B16 to Eltham Road where I caught a No 321 to Belmont Hill in Lewisham. I could have caught the 1154 train to Catford Bridge from Lewisham but it was looking like I would just miss it so I 'jumped ship' and took one of the new electric No 199s to Catford town centre instead, arriving at the bus stop in Thomas Lane at 1207.

Thomas Lane bus stop but no timetable for the 336

Stagecoach 36618 arriving

At 1212 Stagecoach 36618 arrived to convey me to Locksbottom. This bus almost immediately set off on its own once it was across the South Circular down Canadian Avenue. It then took a right down Fordmill Road under the railway and over the river Ravensbourne and this road morphed at one point into Brookhowse Road which the bus then followed across Randlesdown Road and finally left at Southend Lane.

Brookhowse Road sign at Randlesdown Road junction

Market at Catford Wanderers Sports Club Southend Lane

The bus crossed straight over the A21 and headed up Whitefoot Lane which was quite a long drag. At the top the bus turned right into Haddington Road and then spent quite a while meandering around post war or inter war housing estates in the south of Lewisham borough. Much of these roads the bus seemed to serve only one way with other roads covered by northbound buses.

Nice church like models at Churchdowns

 It was only when we reached Rangefield Road that we met other No 336s coming the other way and at times the road was so narrow buses had to mount the pavement to pass. 

The change from Lewisham into Bromley 20 MPH speed limit becomes 30 MPH and blue road name signs become green

At 1238 the bus crossed Valeswood Road and entered the London Borough of Bromley. Rangefield Road continued until we met Southover and then the bus went right and met up with Burnt Ash Lane which enabled us to reach Bromley North station at 1246. From here the bus followed the usual route of Kentish Way and Elmfield Road to take us down the High Street proper. Emerging onto the south of Kentish way we followed the A21 to its next major junction and then went left along Holmesdale Road. Once again the No 336 was on its own as we passed the dump ar Waldo road past Tescos and took the right turn at the mini roundabout at Page Heath Villas, 

Page Heath Villas where my parents
procured my piano from in 1978 

Behind Southborough library the dance studio
where I met my future wife on 13th Jan 1980

This road leads under the railway again and then after a dog leg up to Southborough Road where we turned right for Southborough Lane. After only a very short time on this road the bus went off again on its own up Turpington Lane. This was its final foraty on its own though as emerging onto the A21 it took that to the Fantail crossing with the A232 then right at the BP garage and pulled up at the bus stop next to Locksbottom Sainsburys behind what is now the PRU Hospital at 1315. 

Stagecoach 36618 at rest at Locksbottom

Countryside as we approach the Fantail junction

At 1327 I was on a No 61 bus heading for Orpington station and this delivered me at the station at 1332 just in time foie the fast London train from platform two at 1334. Thus I reached Waterloo East in enough time to walk to the mainline station where I boarded the 1403 Windsor and Eton Riverside service at platform 22. I arrived at Richmond at 1425 and thought with so much time to do the last bus I could afford to sit down in Costa and have a tuna melt and latte. This was a big mistake as it turned out.

The bus stop at the bus station where the No 337 should start from

Timetable showing bus starting from here

At 1445 I started to walk to the bus station and as I approached I noted there was a No 337 parked with its hazards on at the junction of Paradise Road. When I walked around to the bus stop I thought I could see why the bus wasn't laying over in the bus station, as it was already full.

Bus pulling away without me aboard
 in Paradise Road

However, I waited and I waited and a No 337 didn't come, many buses of all the other routes came by repeatedly, so after half an hour I asked one of the drivers where the No 337 was and he told me, eventually after discussing with others that the bus was stopping where I had seen the bus with its hazards on. I walked briskly there and saw one waiting but it drove off just as I got to it. I followed the way it had gone and found the next stop was George Street. Here I waited until 1548, so almost an hour since leaving Costa London General's WHV157 arrived. 

Kind of message that should have been displayed
at bus station. This is for night changes, though.

These notes were on a No 337 stop

Timetable at George Street stop
showing bus starting there

George Street stop

A No 337 finally arriving WHV157

The bus didn't go very far along this main shopping street of Richmond before turning right and heading east along Sheen Road. This bus unlike the last route doesn't take any road as sole user and follows east to Sheen where we join with the South Circular and pass Mortlake to Barnes. This is the now called the Upper Richmond Road at this point having been Sheen Road at first.

Interesting name for a barbers in East Sheen

Blue plaque on building commemorating
Captain Lawrence Oates of Antarctica fame

Putney Methodist church

Once past the crossroads by Rosslyn Park RUFC ground the bus meets up with just the No 430 for the run into Putney where we arrived at 1614. The No 430 bus route is exchanged for the No 37 from Putney onwards to Wandsworth where many other buses join as it goes around the one way system having descended West Hill, the A3.

Rather unhealthy food offered on Wandsworth
 one way system

Railway bridge decoration East Putney

Beyond Wandsworth the bus climbs East hill and then descends St Johns Hill towards Clapham Junction station beyond which the bus went right along St Johns Road until reaching Northcote road and coming to a stop at Bolingbroke Road at 1637. As I got down to the driver he called me to show me his phone. He had taken a photograph of the instruction displayed in the garage informing them to not use the bus station at Richmond. He had taken it for self preservation but I told him it was not fair on customers that there was nothing displayed at the bus stop in the bus station which should have been notified as being out of service.

Two class 455s soon to be history at Clapham 
Junction

Final stop at Bolingbroke Road

I then walked to Clapham Junction station and arrived just two minutes before the next train to Sutton at 1654 was due. Thus I arrived home at half past five.