Day 128 On John's birthday the No 202 from Crystal Palace to Blackheath Royal Standard.

My wife had been wanting to see our friend Tim's new workplace situation for  a number of years. He told us he has now been there for five years so it really was time to get to Woolwich Arsenal. It seemed a good opportunity to catch the No 202 bus to Blackheath. We thus caught the 1300 train to West Croydon and then changed to the 1321 train from there to Crystal Place. Climbing Anerley Hill we were astonished to see a young adult on a skate board hurtling down this steep slope in the middle of the road with one leg in the air. He seemed totally oblivious to his own personal danger or that he might cause to others!

Anerley Hill looking ESE, skate boarder by this time
around corner at bottom

Crystal Palace bus station with Arriva's HT9
ready to depart on the No 202

At bus stop awaiting our mount to Blackheath

The bus station that I have now used a  number of times is just around the corner at the top of the hill and we could see there was already a No 202 waiting. However, the bus doesn't pick up in the bus station but as with the No 3 I took 4 years previously it starts from bus stop B on the other side of Crystal Palace Parade.

Charmaine boarding HT9 at bus stop B

At 1352 we were aboard and were heading north past the transmitter mast and at the end of the Parade took the left along Sydenham Hill. There was an abrupt turn to the right down Wells Park Road and before I realised it we were passing the station building for Upper Sydenham station which closed in 1954, hence the blurry picture. 

Now a private dwelling, Upper Sydenham Station building

This road took us through the Sydenham Hill estate and at the end of the road we turned right into Kirkdale. At the end of this road we entered Sydenham High Street and I was sad to see the cake shop where I bought my wife's 60th birthday cake was no longer there. Further along we passed a presumably reproduction Tudor type house which had what looked like a Magnolia tree coming into bud!

Looking back across Sydenham Hill Estate with
invading Altocumulus

Sydenham Road, extension of High Street

As we reached Bell Green I was reminded that the Bell Green shopping area was where I ended my last trip before the first lock down on the No 194. This bus doesn't enter the shopping 'village' but heads past up Perry Hill and then down the other side into Catford Hill where we joined with route No 75 at 1415. This then meant we joined the South Circular Road through Catford and once around the one way system we remained on this road as it became Brown Hill Road, where I noted many of the Victorian villas had names of West Country locations carved above their doorways. As we approached the bridge under the main Southeastern railway near Hither Green the traffic suddenly became much slower for some reason. We managed to pick up speed though once we had turned left down Burnt Ash Hill towards Lee.

Travelling up the South Circular road. Every side
road on the left had the new ULEZ signs

View towards London from Burnt Ash Hill

Once past Lee Green station we crossed straight over the A20 and climbed towards Blackheath with the private Cator estate to our right hand side.  Reaching Blackheath village the bus goes down and up  towards the Heath and then crosses the Heath itself as the Royal Standard is actually nowhere near the village, being almost at Charlton House. We arrived at 1448 just under an hour's journey from Crystal Palace. 

Approaching North side of Blackheath 'heath.' 

Arriva's HT16 making a return journey

Journey's end the Royal Standard turn around.

Moving on we caught a No 54 to Woolwich arriving at Tim's workplace for half past three for tea and choccy biccies. Getting home was much easier taking a train to London Bridge and then the fast train to Epsom home from there, arriving around 6PM.

Day 127 the opportunity arose after a short trip to Central London to do the No 201 on the return.

 After a trip to the Charterhouse for the Christmas fair we went to Leather Lane which appears no longer to be a leather market and also tried to visit the Museum of London which is now closed Monday and Tuesday. Therefore we arrived at City Thameslink just in time for a train to Herne Hill; the 1249 to Sutton. I left Charmaine at City Thameslink for her to get a train home, whilst I caught this train and arrived at Herne Hill at 1302. However, by the time I had walked through the pedestrianised section to the main road I was in time to see a No 201 just leaving.

Herne Hill railway station bus stop

The next No 201 awaiting its
departure

There was, however, an Abellio single decker waiting in the distance by Brockwell Park and this did a 'U' turn and arrived at the first stop at 1317. It was Abellio's No 8822 an AD E20D -AD Enviro200 based at Beddington Cross.

Abellio 8822 arrives to take me to Morden

The bus initially headed South parallel with the Herne Hill to Tulse Hill railway but soon burrowed left under the railway along Croxted Road which I had also used 4 years ago on the No 3. There were numerous banners outside houses complaining about road closures and the effect this would have on air quality in Croxted Road.

Croxted Road with a No3 in distance

Croxted Road, sign above grey car says stop road
closures

When the bus reached the South Circular it turned right and headed for Tulse Hill station. At this point instead of following the South Circular it took the parallel road to the north called Tulse Hill until we reached Upper Tulse Hill where the bus turned left and entered St Martins Estate. Here we passed the Royal Military Police HQ before taking a left into Roupell Road where the bus was asked to wait to regulate the flow from 1331-1334.

The sign on the post in Roupell Road is a new sign signifying the Ultra Low Emissions Zone starts there since we were just north of the South Circular Road.

From here the bus regained the South Circular as far as the A23 where we turned left and followed down Streatham High Road. This is now the sixth bus I have covered this road on. However, when we reached St Leonard's church at 1348 the bus went straight on into Mitcham Lane unlike 4 of the other buses, a road though nevertheless I had already covered as it was duplicated by the No 57.

Mitcham Lane two churches side by side,
St James West Streatham and Mitcham Lane Baptist Church

This road is Mitcham Lane until we reached the River Graveney where we changed boroughs and it became Streatham Road. This took us down to Figges Marsh and on into Mitcham where we reached the Fair Green, once again, at 1405. The bus then took London Road down to Mitcham station, or tramstop as it is called now whereupon it turned right into Morden Road and Morden Hall Road to terminate in the High Street opposite the Underground station at 1417. This meant the journey took two minutes longer than stated, not bad given the convoluted route switching between surburban and main roads as it crossed SW London.

Having alighted from the bus I saw it was pretending to be a different route

To get home I walked to Morden Road tramstop and got home two hours after starting the bus journey.

The bus heading off to layover

The bus heading off to layover

Morden Road tramstop, a good ten minute walk from the Underground station

Day 126 Finally I reach 200, a three hour trip to do a local bus of route duration 47 minutes.

 The No 200 runs from Raynes Park to Mitcham and I thought perhaps I would start from the farther end at Lambton Road Raynes Park. Therefore I caught the 1330 train to Clapham Junction and then at 1406 boarded the Hampton Court train as far as Raynes Park. I had seen the No 200 laying over at Raynes Park many times when driving to and from Heathrow Airport and the bus at that time was operated by the first 14 single deck AD Enviro Dart 200s of which London General has now in excess of 300. These were registered in 2007 and it was a surprise when I saw they were now replaced by double deckers registered in July this year. The service was now provided by Optare Metrodecker 1050s which are wholly electric.

Optare Metrodecker Me13 at Lampton Road Raynes Park

Having never tried to get a bus at Raynes Park I stupidly walked the wrong way down the road towards Kingston instead of heading right and crossing the road into Lambton Road, so therefore missed the first bus I could have got. I was at the bus stop at 1422 and Me13 was already waiting and left for Mitcham Fair Green at 1431.

A series of new blocks of flats at Atkinson Close
West Wimbledon

The bus does a circuit of the one way system along Worple Road and then back past the railway station before turning right into Durham Road. This road is a constant climb as it turns right into Cottenham Park Road and then winds left up to Copse Hill Church West Wimbledon. Here the bus turns left passing a host of newly built flats, all with gates, until we reached Atkinson Close.

King's College School Rugby field. They also had numerous

tennis courts, hockey pitches and other sports facilities 

Two forlorn phone boxes outside the telephone exchange

We turned around at this point and headed back east along the same road to the church to halt outside King's College school at a stop called Edge Hill at 1438. Straight on from here the bus runs along Ridgeway where we passed Wimbledon Telephone Exchange and reached Wimbledon Village.  The bus took a 270 degree turn and headed down Wimbledon Hill into Wimbledon proper. The bus didn't stop outside Wimbledon station, probably as it is the only bus to turn left along Queens Road where it stopped by the Centre Court retail complex. We travelled along Queens Road to the end where we turned right into Haydons Road, still as the only bus route utilising the road until we reached the A24 at Merton High Street.

Haydons Road victorian villas with almost pargetting
type decoration

The other side of Haydons Road still victorian villas but
not quite as exquisitely detailed

From here the bus passed Merton bus garage where there was another Optare Metrodecker lurking within and turned right at Colliers Wood underground station.

Turning at Colliers Wood
tube station

Instead of running straight into Mitcham which the No 152 does this bus takes Church Road and then turns right down Haslemere Avenue into the Phipps Bridge estate. After running around the western edge of the estate the bus returns to Church Road along Phipps Bridge Road.

Mitcham Church

We passed the church and then turned North towards Mitcham town centre which was a crawl for a while before finally arriving at the Fair Green at 1518. This was exactly 47 minutes after departure which is precisely to time.

There was only one other bus type on the No 200 that I saw 
this AD400 Enduro

Arrival-Bang on time

Me13 moving away
to lay-over after arrival

To return home I caught the No 127 to Carshalton at 1529 and on arrival just missed a No 407 so walked to Wallington Green to catch the No 410 and arrived home exactly 3 hours after leaving home.