Once again I had to get to Barnet so caught the No 407 to East Croydon and then the 1101 Cambridge Thameslink train as far as Finsbury Park. I crossed the platform at Finsbury Park and also immediately a Welwyn Garden City train arrived which conveyed me to New Barnet. I then walked down the station approach and conveniently was able to catch a No 184 to Barnet Church. This allowed me to walk through the Spires shopping centre to the bus stops beyond where I arrived with 7 minutes to wait for the hourly bus service provided by the No 389 at 17 minutes past each hour from 1000 to 1400.
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| Five services a day Mon-Sat which take ten minutes |
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| London General SE168 arriving to form the No 389 |
An old friend, SE168 of London General arrived at 1224; previously it was one of the 4 buses that provided the No 455 service in Beddington, which now no longer operates. The bus ran me left down Salisbury Road to Barnet High Street where we turned right and followed the road back past the church and down the hill past High Barnet Underground station.
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| Passing Barnet church |
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| Fork in road |
At the Underhill stop the bus announced it was Hail and Ride from here onwards and the bus turned right into Fairfield Way. The road, after a while, forked and we took the left fork which was Sherrards Way almost to the end before going right into Western Way. This is nominally where the bus terminates and we heard hail and ride ends here.
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| The end of the road, Wyatts farm open space |
However it didn't stop but just headed back along the other fork, Grasvenor Avenue and Hail and Ride was again announced. This took us to rejoin Fairfield Way and then left up Barnet Hill where the bus joined all the other routes that head up to Barnet. I alighted as we got to High Barnet station at 1240.
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| Getting out of the bus opposite High Barnet station |
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| SE168 heading back to the Spires |
From High Barnet Underground station I took the Northern line to Archway and found the Junction Road stop W where I didn't have to wait long for 'Borismaster' LT760 of Metroline to arrive.
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| LT760 arriving at bus stop W at Archway |
We were on our way at 1307 but at the next stop labelled S it was announced that we would be changing driver. This process only took two minutes and we were on our way again along Junction Road following along the same path as the No 134.
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| Sharing Junction Road with the No 134 |
At Tufnell Park Underground station the bus ploughed its own furrow left along Brecknock Road rather than going straight on to Kentish Town.
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Mucky windows from recent road gritting,
we are crossing Camden Road |
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| York Way with tracks out of St Pancras in distance |
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| On our own once again |
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York Road Piccadilly line Underground
station closed in 1932 |
This took us to Camden Road where we crossed directly over into York Way which lead us eventually to the east side of Kings Cross Station. At one point my next 'London' bus the No 393 joined us and later the No 274 but there were still parts where the No 390 remained on its own along this road.
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| Kings Cross railway station |
After crossing the Regents Canal the bus had to follow the one way system past the Canal Museum and then right along the Caledonian Road before right again to run along Euston Road. Kings Cross station was reached at 1334 but it was quite a slow slog along the Euston Road and down Tottenham Court Road to reach the Dominion Theatre at 1347.
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| Ikea arriving in Oxford Street |
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| On at the Dominion Theatre |
Here we turned right and ran the length of Oxford Street, which took twenty two minutes. You might be able to walk it faster, although it is quite a way. Our ultimate destination was Victoria and thus we turned left down Park lane to Hyde Park Corner and then around the boundary of Buckingham palace and into Buckingham Palace road to reach the bus station outside Victoria railway station at 1420. The journey is supposed to take 66 minutes according to the bus stop at Archway so 73 minutes is a fairly good performance given the traffic encountered. I was then able to catch the train home from Victoria arriving at 1610.
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| Arrival at Victoria |
