Day 20, a three hour foray to do the remaining 12 minutes that I missed on the No 40 last week.

For the first time and probably not the last I needed to complete a partially ridden route, which passage of time dictated that I had to abort last week. Thus I had to return to Denmark Hill railway station to complete the run of the No 40 from there to Dulwich Library.

The original facade of
Denmark Hill Station

In order to get there I caught the No 410 at 1225 and changed to the No 468 at West Croydon to take me to King's College Hospital, where I arrived at 1343.

Enviro Hybrid EH39 of London General
approaching Denmark Hill railway station bus stop

 I boarded an Enviro Hybrid of Go Ahead, their EH39, at 1349 and after a short trip was deposited at Dulwich library at 1403. The journey actually took 14 minutes, whilst the timetable says it should take 12!

The No 40 leaving the final stop at Dulwich library to layover before returning to Aldgate

Dulwich library which I had previously reached
 at the end of the No 12 route

From here it was possible to take the No 197 to East Croydon station where I changed to a No 119 to five ways, finally reaching home at 1525. A three hour trip which netted me 12 minutes of journey, but sets me up nicely for my next bus, the No 41, to do in a week's time.

Day nineteen after a rather long gap finally the 39 and most of the 40

Layover point at Clapham Junction North Side
 for the 39, amongst others.

There has been rather a large amount of business in my life over the last couple of weeks which has made making any further progress difficult. However, today I thought I could combine some Christmas present buying in Central London with the No 39 and the No 40. The plan was to take the train to Clapham Junction where the No 39 starts from and after the bus had wended its way through large amounts of the London Borough of Wandsworth it would deposit me at Putney Bridge station where I could take the tube to Central London. Although the train was 6 minutes late, for once with the bus starting at Clapham Junction it only took me 40-50 minutes to actually get onto the bus.

The bus stop located just before the road goes under all the tracks at Clapham Junction (This bus is the preceding No 49).

 The service was provided by a Wrightbus Streetlife of London General WS67 which left the first bus stop of the route at 1139. Despite this bus being rather new the oyster reader was not working so I had a free trip until arrival at Putney Bridge underground station at 1222.

Terminating buses at Putney Bridge station.
Mine was the bus on the right.

 The plan was there to catch the District line to Earls Court and then the Piccadilly line to Leicester Square. There was a signal failure at Parsons Green so that when I looked at the screens at Putney Bridge station they displayed train 'held.' I consulted the bus map which suggested I could get a No 74 to Earls Court which I duly did and then caught the Piccadilly line to Leicester Square. I walked from here to Warren Street station in a fruitless endeavour to source certain Christmas presents. At the shop here I was told to take the Victoria line to Victoria in another vain attempt to purchase something that is apparently only available in New York! So onto the No 40 which starts at Aldgate. However, because of problems on the Hammersmith and City line there was no service to Aldgate. I thus alighted at Tower Hill and walked to Aldgate bus station. I found, though, that this bus does not start from the bus station but bus stop B on the other side of the underground station.

Aldgate Bus stop B at St Botolph's with my No 40 approaching.

It was therefore from here that I caught Enviro Hybrid EH58 at the bus stop called St Botolph's Street. I left this stop at 1536 but the bus seemed to be on diversion along Leadenhall Street and then Gracechurch Street. The associated delays with the building works in the local area meant it took a full 20 minutes to reach London Bridge. Progress became rather quicker from there onwards to the Elephant and Castle, up Walworth and then Camberwell roads. However, since I had to reach the opticians in Bromley High Street before they closed at 1730 on arrival at Denmark Hill station I decided to disembark at 1638. The concluding part of the route from Denmark Hill station to East Dulwich, whilst not far, would have made it too difficult to make the appointment. Thus the rest of the route has been left for next time. This is the first time this has happened but may not be the last.

Denmark Hill station platforms from disembarkation point

Day 18 the 38, a bus I used to use regularly from Victoria to London weather centre 1992-2010.

As usual my intention was to get to the furthest point of the route from Zone one. The arrival at Clapton Pond was quite involved as I had an appointment at the optician's at 0940 in Bromley which required catching a tram to Beckenham and then the No 227 bus. From here I left on a No 261 bus to Lewisham and then transferred to the Docklands Light Railway, crossing platforms at Canary Wharf for a train to Stratford. At Stratford I took the London Overground to Hackney Central where I walked across the bridge and then to the end of the platform to utilise the walkway to Hackney Downs where I arrived at 1220. On arrival I found there was a 20 minute wait for a train to Clapton so then went out onto the road and caught a No 55 bus to Clapton Pond.

Clapton pond

Clapton pond

Thus it was at 1249 that I boarded the No 38 bus, an Arriva New bus for London, number LT225 heading into Victoria.

The bus stop where the No 38 starts

My steed to Victoria Arriva LT225

Sitting in my usual front right seat upstairs with Clapton Pond in view

This was a good time to travel as the roadworks had ceased in Islington and therefore the bus was now using its normal route. However, once we had joined New Oxford Street the traffic came almost to a halt and it took until 1400 we reached the Apollo Shaftesbury Avenue where I disembarked to buy some tickets. I got back onboard another No 38, LT201 at 1407 and continued along the No 38 route until we reached Victoria bus station at 1426.

Pulling into the bus stand at Victoria at Journey's end

My intention was then to take the No 170 to Clapham Junction in order to reach the start of the No 39 to Putney Bridge. The bus left from outside Victoria coach station at 1440 but the closure of Chelsea Embankment for roadworks made for incredibly slow progress.  The bus was stationary for long periods on Kings Road, in particular. Arrival at Clapham Junction was not until 1535 which was too late to take the No 39 as it would soon have become dark. So I took a re-branded Southwestern Railway train to Wimbledon and then home by tram.