Day one hundred and thirteen, two buses from Lewisham the No 180 and No 181.

In an endeavour to reduce my expenditure, I first caught a tram to Beckenham Road and then a train from Clock House to Ladywell at 1129. From Ladywell where I arrived at 1151, I walked around the corner and into Lewisham High Street. I quite quickly caught a No 180 at 1209 which was expected to take me to Belvedere industrial estates. This route is operated by London General with Wright Gemini 3 double deckers; WVL313 being my mount on this occasion.

London General WVL313 at first bus stop in Lewisham High Street

Passing police station in Lewisham High Street

The bus heads up to Lewisham railway station and once under the railway bridge up Blackheath Hill in the direction of Greenwich. The last time I used this bus was for the Flood Forecasting Centre's visit to the Thames Barrier about ten years ago. There was a building site on the right as we passed the DLR station at Elverson Road which looked like the site of the original LCDR railway station for Blackheath Hill closed in 1917.

Blackheath Hill near Sparta Road where Blackheath Hill station used to exist

Approaching Greenwich, lovely junk shop

Bus passing one of the entrances to Greenwich Market

The bus heads through Greenwich at 1230 and follows the route I recently took on the No 177 along the A206 through Charlton, Woolwich  and Plumstead.
















At the stop at Vanburgh Hill bus drivers were exchanged betwixt 1238 and 1241. For once, as we passed the roundabout under the Blackwall Tunnel Approach Road there was a train moving along the Angerstein Wharf branch.

Freight  train crossing the A206 from Angerstein Wharf

From Lewisham to the Thames Barrier there was a collection of kids with parents on a day out which were making a tremendous noise all the way until we reached the Thames Barrier. Woolwich was reached at 1258, and at the next bus stop it was announced that the bus would only go as far as Thamesmead East.

Nativity scene above entrance to church that was previously a cinema

 By the time we had arrived at Plumstead bus garage it appeared there was another No 180 in the distance behind us and after travelling the length of Plumstead High Street it was right behind us so at the Purrett Street bus stop I jumped off.

Where I had to change in case bus behind overtook the bus I was on

WVL328 approaching to continue
 my journey towards Belvedere

I then boarded WVL328 which took the right turn called McLeod Road, where the No 177 went straight on and this road took the bus to Abbey Wood station after taking a left at the roundabout at the bottom of Knee Hill. Beyond this, at the roundabout where the No 177 comes in from the west, the No 180 heads due east through Thamesmead South and on towards Belvedere industrial site. The bus stopped at a number of stops as it wended its way through the estate. Eventually at 1326 I arrived at Crabtree Manorway North.

Threading our way through the industrial estate

Arrival at Crabtree Manorway North

LIDL warehouse with WVL328 heading off to the bus garage

Container ship Undine based in Valetta, on the Thames

View across the Thames at Belvedere

I walked to the riverbank where the tide was high but it was a bitterly cold wind which suggested I shouldn't linger, so I made my way back to the bus stop. The next No 180 which departed at 1400 delivered me back at Abbey Wood railway station at 1410.

Typical brutalist architecture in Thamesmead

The Abbey Wood Crossrail platforms yet to be used

Destination boards at Abbey Wood showing Heathrow Terminal 4 and Paddington!

Lewisham station stop C

The 1424 train towards Charing Cross arrived at Lewisham station at 1447 where I was then able to walk to bus stop C to catch the No 181.

It was another chilly wait for this next bus which arrived at 1459 in the person of Stagecoach 36691.

Stagecoach No 36691 on No 181 service

 The bus is booked to take 55 minutes but it took 8 minutes to reach the far side of Lewisham shopping centre. Once beyond the railway bridge and fire station the bus turned left into Longbridge Way and then right into Courthill Road which becomes Hither Green Lane. This road is principally flanked by mid to late Victorian terraces with the Lewisham Library Resource Centre before turning right into Torridon Road.

Catford Town Hall

No 284 on opposite side of road at Catford Town Hall

As the bus reached Sandhurst Road there was a No 124 approaching from the opposite direction and together the buses then proceeded to the A21. Instead of turning left towards Downham and Grove Park that the No 136 does, this bus turns right and then left past the town hall and both Catford railway stations at 1526.














Beyond Catford stations the No 181 takes Catford Hill which becomes Perry Hill where again there were a proliferation of Victorian properties.

Typical ornate Victorian property at Perry Hill

Descending Perry Hill the bus arrived at the Sydenham shopping park where the bus exchanged drivers from 1534 to 1539.

Sydenham shopping park

The bus turns left out of the shopping centre and left again under the Mid Kent railway line and down Southend Lane. Here the homes are of the 1920s and the bus crosses the Catford Loop line to the north of Beckenham Hill station. Finally we returned to the A21 and swung right and head down towards Bromley before turning left up Downham Lane. The bus finally arrived at Grove Park bus station at 1602, held up a little by a plain clothes police car which was blocking the road just before Grove Park railway station.

Almost dark on arrival at Grove Park bus station

Bus station at Grove Park 

From here I was able to catch a No 126 at 1605 and once at Bromley North boarded a No 119 which took me to Five Ways, from where I could walk home.

Day 112, two hours to get there and one and a half hours to get back after doing the No 179.

I departed on the 1200 train towards Victoria and alighted at Clapham Junction. I arrived just as the 1232 train to Hackney was leaving so had to wait until the 1247 London Overground service which arrived at Hackney Central at 1341. I used the linking walkway to Hackney Downs station in order to catch a train to Chingford. This was the 1355 TFL Rail train which arrived at Chingford at 1413.

Class 315 trains at Chingford station

Buses outside of Chingford station, three different companies but no No 179

The No 179 bus starts in the bus terminal at the railway station but there were no buses of the desired bus route in when I arrived. It wasn't long, however, before Stagecoach's 10181 from Barking garage arrived at 1421 and since it did not layover started back straight away whence it had cometh.

Stagecoach No 10181 ready to convey me to Ilford

The driver advised me that it had taken ten minutes to do the length of the high street owing to the roadworks in the middle. It did take quite a time but was actually only eight minutes. After stopping at the green the bus turns left and takes the road under the railway to Friday Hill where the road name changes to Whitehall Road. This road reaches the old A11 at traffic lights where the bus turned right and headed for Woodford Green. Throughout the journey we were under a succession of showers and that made it impossible to take photographs through the front window which was constantly streaming with water. Rather than follow the old A11 just after the North Circular the bus turned left down George Lane and after following a strange one way system reached a stop called South Woodford station where we arrived at 1449.

Approaching the Charlie Brown's roundabout

After this the bus turned north along Chigwell Road towards the Charlie Brown's roundabout where it turned right to reach the road that I had taken when on the No 123 which runs from here to Gants Hill. The next No 179 overtook us along this road before we reached Gants Hill, this being Stagecoach's 19779.

Stagecoach No 19779 overtook us as we approached the
Gants Hill roundabout.

The route mirrored the No 123 and many others thereafter, travelling down Cranbrook Road and into Ilford where once again the bus terminated at Hainault Street at 1522.

Once again I arrived at Hainault Street in Ilford

The journey home was a route I have now taken many times-train to Stratford, Jubilee line to Canada Water, London Overground to West Croydon and then onward by Southern Train.

Day One hundred and eleven the No 177 and No 178 which took me past £1000 spent on my Oystercard

The 1135 train towards London Bridge was cancelled because of a fault so I had to wait for the 1150 to Victoria which enabled me to catch the 1230 London Overground train from Clapham Junction to Peckham Rye. My arrival at Peckham Rye was at 1245 and after a swift visit to Morrisons I boarded Stagecoach's 12273 operating the route No 177 to Thamesmead.

Peckham bus station with Stagecoach 12273 awaiting departure

General view of bus station with another No 177
in background

The bus left at 1301 and managed to travel quite briskly reaching Queens Road Peckham station at 1305 following the routes 36, 136 and 171 that I have already utilised to New Cross garage. Following east past New Cross Gate and then New Cross railway stations I was then following the route No 53 and its 'Borismaster ' counterpart, the No 453 as far as Deptford Bridge DLR station.

On Deptford High Street with a DLR train in Deptford Bridge
station

After Deptford Bridge the bus turned left into Greenwich High Road where it became the sole bus route for a short while before the Nos 180, 199 and 386 joined from the right afore we reached the centre of Greenwich.

Waiting at the lights in central Greenwich

We stopped in Greenwich at 1323 and then passed the Royal Naval Museum and on to a building that although had Greenwich Central library chiseled upon it suggested it was actually now East Greenwich library. This brought us to the Blackwall Tunnel Approach Road at 1336 and continuing east along the same road through Charlton we arrived at the Woolwich Ferry at 1356. The bus then threaded its way through the town of Woolwich before rejoining the same road past the new building at the Arsenal and on to Plumstead. The bus took the bus only short cut past Plumstead bus garage and continuing in an almost straight line down Plumstead High Street where there was a large library that seemed to be undergoing some works. Beyond this the bus maintains this course to Plumstead corner and only finally turns off at Bostall Hill to the left down Basildon Road. This road takes the bus across the railway line west of Abbey Wood station and into Eynsham Drive where briefly the No 177 is the only bus before the No 469 rejoins it after a its short foray into the estate to the north of the road.

The road climbs over the southern outfall sewer and into Thamesmead

The bus turns left to head into Thamesmead at this point at 1412, so 71 minutes after departure and after passing over the A2016 we enter the London Borough of Bexley and twist and turn to reach the final destination of Thamesmead town centre which is semi-rural in appearance at 1424.

Marsh bird named roads such as Curlew Close

All very recent builds with my 1982 A-Z having no reference
to these roads at all

Windscreen of the bus too blurry but this is Hoveton Road
 leading to various other roads that are all Broads in Norfolk such as Salhouse or Orlesby

Building with water flowing underneath but all very recently
built-not a converted Tudor mill or such

No room in the layover point for the bus on arrival so it had to come around to the bus stop and wait there.

I quickly disembarked and checked which bus would get me back to Woolwich quickest and it appeared it was the No 472 and so I boarded this at 1427. I took some photographs that I had missed on the No 177, as by the time I had reached Thamesmead the bus windows were steaming up with condensation. I alighted at the Ferry Terminal at Woolwich and made my way to Sainsbury's where I could pick up the No 178.

Bus timetable suggests journey should take 42 minutes, surprise
surprise it didn't

I have been here before on the Nos 51 and 161

Woolwich library which was now the Labour headquarters

London General's E275 arriving to convey me to Lewisham on the No 178

The initial bus stop is Calderwood Street and this is opposite what was Woolwich library but is now the Labour party Headquarters. London General's E275 appeared at 1509 and the bus driver asked me when he saw me photographing the bus what I was doing. I explained the plan and he thought it was an excellent thing to do!
The bus stopped near Woolwich Arsenal station and then turned right and headed away from the river towards the barracks before turning right towards Queen Elizabeth Hospital. There were some picturesque views across London as we reached these higher elevations but every time I got the camera ready a tree intervened so I'm afraid there are no depictions of these on the blog.
Beyond the hospital the bus turned right along Shooters Hill Road and once past the Sun in the Sands roundabout took Kidbroke Park Road. At this point at 1530 I caught sight of my first No 335 which began on the 29th October this year. Previously a No 335 was a country area route from Windsor to Watford.

Unfortunately due to low light levels not a very
good picture of Arriva's HV40 on the No 335 route. New buildings at Kidbroke behind.

Berkeley homes advertising the amount of work they have created by this development

From Thomas Tallis school onward the bus took a direct route to Kidbroke unlike the No 132 whose route it was following up to this point which turns off to the left towards Eltham Well Hall. After the bus had done a circuit outside Kidbroke station it entered the newly built or still under construction Kidbroke village.

Larger vista of already built parts of the village

The turn from Kidbroke Park road west onto the A20 towards Lee Green was quite difficult at this time of day and there were quite a few hairy moments I saw whilst we were waiting. There was then quite slow progress as we neared Lee Green, however, after we passed this spot there was an ambulance half on the pavement so that was perhaps the source of the hold-up. The bus then followed the A20 straight into Lewisham and we arrived at Lewisham station at 1615, rather more than than the 42 minute journey stated on the bus timetable.

My No 178 resting before returning to Woolwich

E275 turning left to layover before return

I had just missed the train from here to Elmers End so got myself a cup of tea and some ginger biscuits and waited on the platform at Lewisham railway station for 25 minutes. At Elmers End I then caught a tram home.