The third anniversary of the start of the odyssey 6th Sept 2020.

 Well thanks to Covid-19 I have not been able to do any bus trips since March 2020 and as things stand now I do not know when it was sensible to resume. I would feel guilty if my project led to me bringing the virus home and I'm sure John would perfectly understand. I have put the whole thing in abeyance until it is a much safer to continue. In the interim I have reached 60 years of age and now have my TFL bus pass which I have yet to use 4 months after receiving it. 

So with no recent bus trips herewith a couple of photos of my co-travellers.

Debbie and Charmaine preparing to
 do the No 100 bus at Shadwell.

Tim and Charmaine at Stratford ahead of taking the No 104

Day one hundred and twenty one the nearby No 194.

The day started with catching a No 410 to Croydon with my wife. I got off at West Croydon bus station and she continued to East Croydon to catch a No 119.

Arriva's DW311 arriving as it has circulated the bus station.

Arriva's DW311 arriving at West Croydon bus station.

At 1126 I boarded Arriva DW311 destined for Lower Sydenham, having advised a lady to join this bus in order to change at East Croydon for the No 119 as she wished to get to Bromley South. She was considering catching a No 367 which has a most convoluted way of reaching Bromley.

East Croydon bus station with Charmaine at head of line for No 119

Shirley library where the bus turned right.

The No 194 follows the route of The No 119 until Shirley library is reached and then it swings south down Hartland Way which then runs into Westway where the front of the bus hit a tree branch very hard but was uninjured, the bus that is not the tree.

Heading south to turn around the roundabout and then back north
down the opposite carriageway.

At the end of Westway the bus headed east along Shirley Way until it reached Bridle Road where the bus turns south again and does a 360 degree turn around a roundabout near Shrublands and heads back down Bridle Road in a northerly direction.

No 198 which before computerisation was the No 194B in
Bridle Road

Eden Park station with a Metrobus No 358 passing heading for
Orpington.

Back on Wickham Road the bus turned east and finally reaches the Bromley borough boundary at 1159. After West Wickham High Street the bus turned left into Station Road past the swimming pool and then we didn't stop until Eden Park station.















From here we reached Elmers End Green at 1212 where we turned right for Beckenham. In the years before we moved to Croydon the bus turned left and went past Elmers End bus garage but whilst my wife was working at Beckenham library betwixt 1984 and 1992 the change was effected.

Beckenham war memorial

 From Beckenham the bus headed west to Penge where I passed Cottingham Road and saw a plaque on both sides of this road called Central Exchange?

 Central Exchange plaque above The Mobility Centre

The bus turned right down Green Lane past the new Penge library under the railway then left along Parish Lane, Lennard Road and into Newlands Park once past Penge East station. Sydenham High Street was reached at 1230 and the bus terminated at the Bell Green Retail Park at 1238.

Arriving at Bell Green Retail Park

From here I caught the No 181 to Bromley Road and after a short wait a No 320 heading towards Biggin Hill valley which I took as far as Bromley Market Square. I then met the wife with her librarian friends Angela and Gill for lunch in Waitrose before heading for the Victoria and Albert Museum and then home.

Off the bus prior to it heading east to layover.

Day 120 to NE London for the Nos 191, 192 and 193.

Today was an earlier start than most as I hoped to do all three routes which were a fair way away. Thus I boarded the 1005 train to London Bridge which started off 3 minutes late but arrived early by 30 seconds. At London Bridge it was one stop on the Northern line and then one stop on the Central line to reach Liverpool Street. I had just missed the 1045 train to Edmonton when I arrived so had to wait almost a quarter of an hour for the 1100 to Enfield Town which deposited me at Edmonton at 1128.

Two London General EN's providing the route No 191 service in thrbus station

Thick traffic made getting to bus station a little difficult
as there was no crossing initially as I headed north.

The railway station is situated just across the roundabout and as I approached I could see there were two No 191s in the bus station. Within five minutes of arrival at Edmonton railway station I was leaving the bus station on London General's EN7 heading for Brimsdown. Although the main destination on this bus route is Enfield the bus does anything but go straight there. After turning right out of the bus station towards Enfield it soon turns right down Bounces Road to Nightingale Lane where the bus takes the left and becomes the only route servicing this road. The road takes us back to the Hertford Road A1010 but after a short return to the northerly heading road we again swing to the right and head down South Street to Ponders End railway station.

Ponders End railway station at the end of the road

Blocks of flats under demolition near Ponders End railway station

The road cannot cross the railway track here so the bus goes left around the corner which is notable for the blocks of flats being demolished and then goes under Nags Head Road which crosses the Lea valley to Chingford at this point. After the bridge the bus turned left into Durants Road and left again so we could reach Nags Head Road. From here the bus runs straight into Enfield.

About to cross the Hertford Road with bus garage and Tesco
before the climb over the railway line at Southbury station

Once across the Hertford Road again, the road to Enfield becomes Southbury Road and we passed the Arriva bus garage and Southbury railway station. All the housing stock flanking the roads around here seem to be turn of the twentieth century-a fact exemplified by the road names Mafeking Road and Ladysmith Road.

Enfield Town centre-a place I returned to once we had been to
the terminus of this route.

Finally I reached Enfield Town at 1212 having crossed the A10 where I saw two Sullivan buses on route No 217. This is a service provider I have yet to use on my odyssey. After passing the library, strangely marked 1912 to 2010, we saw the bus terminus for my next route the No 192 at Little Park Gardens and headed up Chaseside.  Once again there was a meeting with the W8 as we turned right into Lancaster Road, a route I had previously seen soon after leaving Edmonton Green near Pickett's Lock. At the end of Lancaster Road, an area which seemed surprisingly built up, given how far north from London we had come, the bus reached Baker Street and turned left to go even further northward.

Baker Street Enfield style

At the end of this road the route reaches its furthest north at Forty Hill and then heads east and southeast along Carterhatch Lane.

Reflection of my bus EN7 in the back window of a No 279
now in the Hertford Road again going to the utter north of Waltham Cross

Back at the Hertford Road, again, the bus turns north then right along Bell Lane and finally south down Brimsdown Avenue to reach Brimsdown station where we terminated at 1240.

My bus departing to layover.

The diversion sign indicating that my quicker bus
back to Enfield, the No 307, was on diversion

I then had to return to Enfield Little Park Gardens to catch a No 192 and the No 191 driver suggested catching a No 307 would be quicker. However, because the No 307 was on diversion owing to roadworks on the Hertford Road I actually passed EN7 coming the other way before I reached the town centre. Still we are only talking 4 or 5 minutes, so I would have been unable to catch the No 192 that passed us as we drove past Bryn y Mawr Road and Clydach Road, two places close to Ebbw Vale. I alighted at the town centre museum and cafe and walked to the park to find the No 192.

Arriva's almost new ENN59 at Little Park Gardens

I have used part of this route before betwixt Edmonton Green and Tottenham Hale but had never used the more northerly part. An almost new ENN59 of Arriva was waiting for me at Little Park Gardens and this I boarded at 1336. Initially the bus turns left and takes to Enfield High Street but just beyond the Boer War roads mentioned earlier it heads south down a small residential street with parked cars on both sides called Fotheringham Road. After a short while of winding through Victorian residential streets the bus announced we were on a hail and ride section: these are quite a feature of this bus route. Hail and ride briefly ceased as we reached Bush Hill Park station but soon resumed. Eventually the bus turned left into Bury Street West near Salisbury House, which I had visited with Charmaine for a craft fayre last year. This road crosses the A10 Great Cambridge Road and then becomes Bury Street all the way until the A1010 Hertford Road is reached and we here turned right and arrived at Edmonton Green bus station at 1400 exactly. This proved to be half way through my day and was also half way through this particular route.
From Edmonton Green the bus only travels briefly down the A1010 before deviating east then north along Plevna Road, where hail and ride was again initiated. The bus goes east along Town Road and then south on Montagu Road which brings the bus to the junction with the North Circular Road. Here the bus then hops over the railway track and under the A406 to reach the Angel Road superstores. However, Angel Road station closed a few months ago to be replaced by Meridian Water station which now allows for the extra platform for a shuttle service to Stratford.

New railway station

No 341 which I used to get to work
at Angel Road Tesco

     From here the bus moved swiftly south passing Northumberland Park London General bus garage and the Victoria line tube depot. We reached Tottenham Hale interchange at 1419.

A line of No 192s at Tottenham Hale awaiting return to Enfield.

My No 192 at Tottenham Hale

Next I needed to find the No 193 which starts at Queen's Hospital Romford. Therefore boarding a train at Tottenham Hale bound for Stratford was necessitated where I could swap to a train to Romford. It was quite a chilly day so I was pleased not to have to wait more than 7 minutes for my train for Stratford. I arrived at Stratford at 1435 and had to wait until 1446. However, I did see my first example of the new Greater Anglia 12 coach class 745 trains. This was introduced early in January apparently.

Class 745 at Stratford with some coaches articulated

My Crossrail class 345 took me to Romford where I arrived just after 3 PM and then had to walk to the hospital. By now it was getting increasingly bright as the cloud cleared which had meant some rather blurry photographs on the No 192. I found after walking through the Brewery Mall to the ring road that half of it was shut off and traffic was proceeding rather slowly from the hospital.

The previous No 193 caught in traffic by Brewery Mall

The No 193 approaching

I arrived at the bus stop just as Stagecoach 37520 was approaching from its resting place and I boarded the No 193 at 1523.

Stagecoach 37520 at Queens Hospital Romford providing my
No 193

The traffic was rather slow as previously seen and it took until 1532 to get to the other side of the ring road at Romford Market.

My bus at same location as earlier photograph looking through
back window at Freightliner class 86 running into Romford station

Thereafter though, the bus moved at a fair rate. Beyond Romford Station the bus took Brentwood Road as had the No 165. However, this bus took a right down Osborne Road, which was a hail and ride section. Here there were some really intense showers and we were also caught up by Stagecoach 37522 which then created a state of leapfrogging of the two buses all the way through Hornchurch which was reached at 1552. From this point the bus took a southerly route to Hornchurch station and after this roughly easterly down Vaughan Avenue. This area all seemed to be a post war estate and this was proved when two of the roads I passed were Bevan Way and Clement Way. There was now a slight hold up in order to cross the A124 where a sign said Romford 2 1/2 miles. The journey by this stage had taken 3/4 of an hour! Across the main road there was a narrow hump back bridge for the single track Romford to Upminster railway line where it was impossible to pass traffic coming the opposite way. This road had the lovely name of Wingletye Lane.

Country park reached!!

This took us into the Country Park Estate and the bus terminated at Essex Gardens at 1616. However, almost as soon as we arrived swarms of school children arrived and we were back returning to Romford at 1617 once again overtaking Stagecoach 37522 as we did so.

Approaching second stop of return journey after leaving Essex Gardens

I remained on the bus to Hornchurch station and then caught a District line service to Whitechapel and here changed for London Overground to West Croydon. I finally arrived home at 1815 after an eight hour hour jaunt.

Day one hundred and nineteen the No 190 from West Brompton to Richmond

This trip started with my helping to carry second hand books to a community centre in Battersea where my wife is organising a library with a thespian friend. After depositing the books I took the 1104 from Battersea Park to Clapham Junction and crossed to platform one for the 1117 to Stratford. This train, however, was rather tardy arriving and it was not until 1133 that I reached two stops down the line at West Brompton. The start point of the bus route is given as Empress State Building, a location I had a Civil Service training course in presentation skills in 1985. The bus lays over in the forecourt but does not pick up at this point.

Metroline's DE1004 outside Empress
State Building

The point of embarkation is a fair distance down
Lille Road. DE1004 arriving at 1149

I boarded the bus at 1149 which arrived just after an Easybus minibus that was taking half a dozen travellers to Gatwick airport. The route takes the bus straight west southwest across North End Road and on to join the Fulham Palace Road at the western end of this road. This was where the No 74 had turned left, but we turned right which took us past Charing Cross Hospital and on into Hammersmith bus station. We left Hammersmith bus station at 1201 and took King Street until it morphed into Chiswick High Road near Stamford Brook bus station. The bus then turned left and became the only bus route for the first time, as we took Chiswick Lane North. At the end of this road we reached Dorchester Grove where the driver was requested to wait a few minutes to even up the service at 1216. By 1218 we were queuing to round the Hogarth roundabout in order to take Burlington Lane, south of Chiswick House, which then became Alexandra Avenue and finally the Great Chertsey Road.

A car crossing the Hogarth roundabout flyover

After crossing Chiswick Bridge the road becomes the Lower Richmond Road and we headed straight on to Lower Mortlake Road to reach Richmond Circus at 1231. The bus here takes the road past Richmond station and terminated at the bus station at 1237, only 48 minutes after departure for a journey that is supposed to take 53 minutes. However, we started 4 minutes late so in effect we were only one minute early!

Arrival at the bus station in Richmond

To return home I took the 1249 train to Clapham Junction and then the direct train home. It seemed sensible to leave the next two buses until another day as they are in far northeast London and it would be good to do both in one go, if possible.

Apologies for poor quality of the photography as unfortunately I left the memory card in the laptop at home!

Day 118 After a visit to the Design Museum to see the exhibition about the future trip to Mars I headed to Marble Arch to do the No 189.

There has been a break in activities for two weeks. Firstly my dear mother passed away and in addition there were the GCSE and A level mock examinations to be invigilated. However, the opportunity arose this evening to do the No 189 from Marble Arch after a trip to the Design Museum with my wife. I dropped Charmaine off at Kensington High Street Underground station so she could visit a theatre in Islington. I walked from the station eastwards past the Albert Hall and on beside Hyde Park until I reached the Household Cavalry barracks. Here I boarded a No 23, on a totally different route to when I had travelled on it in 2017, at 1802 and alighted just past Marble Arch in the Edgware Road ten minutes later.

Coach rounding the Marble Arch

Coach in front of Marble Arch

Bus stop L Marble Arch station

LT655 of Metroline approaching to take me once again to Brent Cross

The No 189 lays over on the north side of Hyde Park but the first stop which I could board was stop L to the east along Oxford Street from Marble Arch Underground station. At 1825 Metroline's LT655 arrived at this bus stop and the bus turned left and headed north towards Baker Street Underground station following the same route as the Nos 13, 113 and 139. Beyond Rudolf Steiner House the bus turned left which meant the route followed the No 139 alone across the throat of Marylebone railway station. The bus turned right after this and took Grove End Road and then along Abbey Road.
After this there were buses coming down the road which were evidently not supposed to be there, eg the Nos 187, 13 and 113 so presumably there were issues along the Finchley Road. As we joined West End Lane the bus headed west down Quex Road when finally the bus took a route I hadn't used on the odyssey, although previously I had used it on the No 328. At the end of this road the bus turned right into Kilburn High Road at 1856 and then we passed Kilburn Underground station at 1902. This meant I was again on a road I had covered before whilst aboard the Nos 16 and 32 . On reaching Cricklewood Broadway the bus turned right along Cricklewood Lane to the railway station of the same name which I had used when on the No 245 when headed for Golders Green. Immediately after the station I returned to a road I hadn't previously used: Claremont Road; at least the southern part of it, because half way along the route is joined by the No 102. Soon after this the bus crossed the North Circular Road and ran into Brent Cross bus station terminating at 1921.

Arrival at Brent Cross showing the futility
of my trying to take photographs well
 after dark

In order to get home I decided to catch the No 113 at 1934 to Finchley Road and Frognall London Overground station. I only had to wait 4 minutes for a train to Clapham Junction and then caught the 2039 to Epsom Downs.

Day one hundred and seventeen a trip to Greenwich for the No 188

I left Orpington on the 1422 to London Bridge and then caught the Jubilee line eastbound to arrive at North Greenwich interchange just before 3 PM.

London General's WHV186 awaiting departure
 at North Greenwich Interchange 

The bus now approaching

London General provides the service on route No 188 to Russell Square from North Greenwich and this time the bus was WHV186 which departed at 1501. Unlike other buses I have boarded here this bus takes a much quicker route to Greenwich rather than going around all the new housing estates and eating emporia. The route taken was along Edmund Halley Way and then left and under the A102M into Blackwall Lane. The bus runs to Greenwich and on to Deptford along the A200 most recently used when my wife and I watched the London Marathon competitors from here last April. At this point I heard some loud noise which I couldn't identify until I spied two Army Apache helicopters running up river at low level. Very quickly afterwards two Chinook helicopters were seen heading the other way.

Surrey Quays, the old dock gates.

From here the bus does some twisting and turning around the Surrey Docks, we reached Surrey Docks station at 1526 and moved into Canada Water bus station at 1533. This location was the scene of the start of the odyssey 28 months ago when I boarded the No 1 here. The bus then headed for the roundabout where the Rotherhithe Tunnel branches away and here there were a multitude of roadworks. There was similar multiplicity of roadworks from here through Bermondsey where a new cycle lane is being provided along Jamaica Road. At Shad Thames the bus turned left down Tanner Street to run parallel with the railway into London Bridge as far as Tower Bridge Road.

Six storey accommodation blocks on Jamaica Road

The Shard as viewed from Druid Street

At this point the bus turned left and away from the city to the Bricklayers Arms junction where the bus took the route to Elephant and Castle where we arrived at 1558. A little further on as we approached the Waterloo stations the bus stopped at the Old Vic and changed drivers, 1604-1607. Thereafter we ran over Waterloo Bridge, up Kingsway and into Southampton Row where the bus turned left and terminated in Russell Square at 1624.

Heading up Southampton Row with Russell Square beyond the No 68 bus ahead

The next bus starts from Marble Arch, so my initial thought was to walk there, but by the time I had reached Bond Street it was getting increasingly dark and therefore decided to walk to Victoria and took the train home where I arrived at 1830.

After arrival at Russell Square