Day Twenty five Finishing the No 47 and the No 48

The previous trip necessitated my leaving the No 47 at Surrey Quays leisure park, as my wife's meeting had ended. Thus I caught the 1011 which was delayed a few minutes to Norwood Junction and then the London Overground to Canada Water. I then walked two stops to the appropriate stop and waited for the next No 47 to arrive.

Stagecoach London 13092 at Surrey Quays leisure centre

Display showing next bus should be the No 47

Bus stop where I disembarked on my last day's work

 This was as expected one of the 13xxx of Stagecoach based at Catford Garage which is the ultimate destination of the route. Many years previously it was one of two routes that used to terminate at the George in Farnborough and I'd catch it many times to go shopping in Bromley with my mum as a child. On Sundays we used to get many people from 'up the smoke' walking around Farnborough village and going down the fields by St Giles Church. We had a café at the end of the parade of shops, which did a roaring trade on these occasions and at least one of my colleagues in the 1st Farnborough Scout troop worked. Still I digress-nowadays the bus still links Shoreditch with Deptford and Lewisham but no longer reaches as far south as Bromley, let alone Farnborough. I boarded Stagecoach 13092 at 1112 and fairly soon whilst travelling towards Deptford a dark Range Rover with police motorcycle escort passed by going West. It wasn't possible to discern who was inside-were they royal or governmental? It took around 20 minutes to reach Lewisham station and after passing through Lewisham we terminated at Catford garage at 1154.

My No 47 turning into the bus garage at Catford

In front a London General 171 waiting to go
back to Holborn whilst behind is located Stagecoach 13092 at Catford garage

To get to the No 48 at London Bridge I intended to go around the corner and take one of the new class 700 Thameslink trains to Elephant and Castle and then a bus to London Bridge. However, when I got down onto the platform the 1209 service to West Hampstead had been cancelled and with the next train half an hour away it seemed a good idea to take another route. So, having walked back to the garage I find the stop outside states no boarding or alighting here. The stop is for crew change only and I have to walk on in the Lewisham direction to Newquay Road. Here I caught a 14 year old Dennis Trident Stagecoach 17877 on the route 199 to Canada Water at 1215 and alighted at Lewisham station. From platform 3, at 1249 I caught a class 465 (Networker) to London Bridge and after enquiring at the information booth by the Shard where the No 48 starts from, I headed down to Borough High Street. I had noted on the previous day aboard the No 47 that the No 48 lays over at the church on the east side of Borough High Street so endeavoured to find where it started from.

Waiting in the rain on
southern side of London Bridge

A No 47 arriving at stop M

 The bus route is what it says on the 'tin' -it does actually start on London Bridge at the stop M and my walk down Borough High Street in the cold rain was fruitless.

Arriva LT345 'Boris bus' arriving on London Bridge

The No 48 is an Arriva operated ' Boris' bus and my mount for this journey was LT 345 which departed at 1321. I had recently experienced very slow progress around the roadworks between London Bridge and Liverpool Street but it must have been down to the time of day and now it was fairly brisk. Indeed after passing through Hackney and beside Clapton Pond we arrived in the Lea Valley Park at 1410 and reached Walthamstow Central at 1432, so barely more than an hour all told.

LT345 having arrived at Walthamstow Central bus station

To get home I caught the Victoria Line back to Victoria and a direct train from there home to be having a cup of tea by 1615.

At Walthamstow bus station LT345 parked
 behind another with a Tower Transit Dart in foreground