Day ninety seven The No 153 from Finsbury Square to Finsbury Park

I was running a little late in the wet weather and luckily the 1135 hadn't arrived at 1142 when I needed to put more money on my Oystercard. Thus I was able to catch the fast train to London Bridge where I arrived at 1209. It was still quite wet and while standing under the Shard the winds were swirling about which meant even though I was under cover there was no where that I could stand in the dry. I didn't have to wait very long for a No 149 to come and this crawled across London Bridge owing to the building being built on the left side of the northern end of the bridge. I alighted at the stop after Liverpool Street called Primrose Street and crossed to Finsbury Square where I found a No 153 waiting for me. This bus is operated by London General and is an electric Alexander Dennis BYD E200MMC service, the first of these I have done the full route within.

Waiting in the pouring rain at Finsbury Square to board.

The 153 is one three buses that terminate at
Finsbury Square; the 271 and the 214 are the others

In order to remain dry I waited under some scaffolding and the bus driver was in no hurry to leave as I must have been waiting there at least 10 minutes. Eventually at 1254 I boarded SEe76 and we departed heading straight across Moorgate into Chiswell Street. From thence we travelled along Beech Street under the Barbican Centre to reach the Barbican Tube station where we turned right up Goswell Road. Briefly the bus turned into Clerkenwell Road before swinging north again up St John Street. Finally we started to pick up passengers as we reached the City University. Heading north we passed Sadler's Wells Theatre, away to the left down Rosebery Avenue and then the Old Red Lion theatre pub advertising its existence for 600 years. Here at the Angel Islington we swung up Liverpool Road past Sainsbury's and then turned left along Tolpuddle Street. This was the start of some really convoluted bus riding. After turning right into Barnsbury road we then headed left down Copenhagen Street to the junction with Hemmingford Road where we were located for rather longer before turning left just before we reached Caledonian Road and Barnsbury railway station. There had been a gradual shift from Regency and late Georgian properties to early Victorian as we traversed these roads. We turned right into Westbourne Road and passed one side of Arundel Square before running to the end and turning right into MacKenzie Road and then left onto Holloway Road. The bus then ran up Holloway past the Nags Head to turn right in Seven Sisters Road which runs straight to Finsbury Park railway, tube and bus interchange where we arrived at 1346.

The bus and railway interchange at Finsbury Park

A very grubby looking class 313 of 1976, soon to be replaced

The new replacement class 717 which has been very slow to be cleared for use

Having arrived at 1346 I walked up onto the mainline platforms with the intention of catching a Thameslink train to Norwood Junction, but there were none in evidence. I therefore waited for half an hour watching the comings and goings. In addition to those photographed above, I saw HSTs and their Adzuma replacements along with Class 91 with mark IV carriages which are also to be replaced by these Hitachi 'super trains'. Grand Central and Hull trains operated class 180s completed the long distance trains that sped through Finsbury Park station in just half an hour. I caught the next Thameslink train to London Bridge and changed there for a train to Norwood Junction, changing again there for a train home.