Day 158 the first time since early August I have been able to do more than one route in a day. To Northeast London for the Nos 241 and 242.

The day began with catching the 1200 to West Croydon and then the late running 1210 to London Bridge at 1215. My destination was Stratford and having reached London Bridge at 1232 I was on a Jubilee line train at 1240 heading for the eastern end of the line. Unlike the No 238 this bus goes from the Stratford City bus station outside Westfield and at 1306 I was aboard Stagecoach East  London's 11027.

Bus Stop W at Stratford City Bus Station

Stagecoach 11027 arriving

The bus left the bus station heading left and then did three right turns to enable it to run alongside the main Stratford Bus station.

Stagecoach main bus station

From here the bus turned left into the Broadway and then right into Tramway Avenue the exact reverse of the No 238. 

Tramway Avenue Stratford

However, the bus went straight on along West Ham Lane continuing to Plaistow Station and then along Plaistow High Street until we turned right down Balaam Street. The road crosses the Northern Outflow Sewer or the Greenway and then we crossed Barking Road and continued into New Barn Street.

Plaistow station, most of it is closed

At the far end of this road we reached the A13 but had to burrow underneath it to continue heading southwards along Freemasons Road. Custom House station was at the bottom of the road with some rather annoying roadworks just before one reached the traffic lights at the bottom, making the passing of buses going both ways a little fraught. 

Elizabeth line train at Custom House station

Heading to Prince Regent we pass the Excel Centre

The bus here turned left and headed for Prince Regent where until recently the bus terminated. However, we went further crossing the docks past London City Airport before turning right at the roundabout and following the DLR concrete decking to Pontoon Dock DLR station. A little beyond here the bus turned left and headed through some newly built buildings to terminate at Royal Wharf at 1341, 35 minutes since departure from Stratford.

Arrival at Royal Wharf Silvertown

Typical builds around Royal Wharf

Looking east from West Silvertown DLR station

Looking towards river from West Silvertown station

The Tate and Lyle factory. We used to forecast
at London Weather Centre for their ship unloading

From here I needed to get to Homerton Hospital so had to go to Stratford once more. Here I walked through the same pedestrian tunnel I had taken earlier to get to Westfield but this time walked up to platform 1 for the London Overground train to take me two stops to Homerton. I caught the 1414 train to Richmond and alighted at 1420. I knew where I was going because I had seen both station and hospital when on the 236 last month and thus quickly reached the starting point of the No 242. A bus arrived very soon and I asked the driver if this was indeed the first stop and she confirmed it. I was concerned as there are stops HA and HB both served by the route. 

The route to the hospital from Homerton station

Stop HA at Homerton Hospital

HV234 at Homerton Hospital

Stagecoach 37572 ex Tower Transit 45108 on the No 488 route

The bus, Arriva's HV234, left at 1431 and did 3 sides of a square to reach stop HB before heading effectively north up Chatsworth Road past the hospital to the bus's left. At Dunluce Road the bus turned right and this required some very skillful driving to squeeze past the parked cars. The front window could have done with a good clean, however.

Dunluce Road parked cars both sides made transit very difficult

A quick right then left at the end took the bus into The Clapton Park Estate, unlike Dunluce Road which was evidently Victorian, this estate was 1960s and 1970s I would imagine. At the end of the run around this estate the bus reached the Millfields Estate,which is where Hackney park their refuse lorries. Heading West now along Millfields Road we reach the park and after 15 minutes are back on Chatsworth Road heading in the opposite direction. Not for long were we doing this though, before we branched right up Powerscroft Road with on one side 3 storey Victorian villas with basements downstairs presumably for all the servants. This road crossed the end of Dunluce Road becoming Median Road before we reached Lower Clapton Road. This road allowed us to run down to Hackney where we turned right along Graham Road which then led on to Dalston Junction station.

Approaching Dalston Junction station

The next route to be done going the other way in
Kingsland Road

After this the bus turned left down Kingsland Road past the Geffrye Museum and on to Shoreditch where Commercial Road was taken so we could access Aldgate. Aldgate was reached at 1527 and as I disembarked I told the driver how impressed I was with her squeezing past the parked cars in Dunluce Road. 

HV234 on its way to lay over in Aldgate bus station

To get home I caught a No 343 to London Bridge and just missed my train by 30 seconds so took a Thameslink to East Croydon at 1600 and then the No 410 from outside the Whitgift Centre so I was home around 1630.

Day 157 A visit to North London in very wet conditions to ride the No 240.

 The day started with catching the 1135 to London Bridge with our son to ensure he was able to get to Paddington on time for his train to Plymouth. From London Bridge I caught the Northern line to Golders Green where I emerged at 1238. It took a while to find the correct bus stand and having initially headed for the No 245 I discovered the No 240 was on its own in the middle of the complex. The wait was ten minutes for the next No 240 but with 7 minutes to go Metroline's TE985 arrived. 

The bus route is quite obviously a 15 minute service

TE985 turning into the bus stand after dropping
 off passengers from Edgware 

Condensation and rain streaming down front window

The departure was at 1251 and the timetable told me it should take 46 minutes. It had been a wet morning with areas of standing water on the roads, and the condensation inside and rain cascading on the outside made it nigh on impossible to take any decent photographs of the journey.

The bus took a right turn and headed down Golders Green High Street and continued in a straight line across the North Circular Road and on towards West Hendon. At the stop called the Quadrant in Brent Street the  bus continued in a straight line and was then the only route on the road called Parson Street.

The No 245 stop at Golders Green

Rain streaming down window at West Hendon

From here the bus crossed the A1 and travelled along Holders Hill Road to Holders Hill Circus past Hendon cemetery on the left. At the circus the route was joined by the 384 and shortly before we reached Mill Hill East station the No 221 joined, too. Bittacy Hill had been descended when I took the No 221 so this time I went the other way. Slowly but steadily TE985 climbed the hill and at Engel Park went straight on into the Ridgeway again as the only bus route. We continued thus past Mill Hill School and then turning left down Hammers Lane where there were good views over London. 

Brighter as the sun replaces the cloud in Hammers Lane but still rain drops preclude decent photos

The front window was still very difficult to take photographs, through. Daws Lane was taken on the right and at the end of this, and we had to go through a couple of narrow roads so as to be able to cross the A1 at the roundabout, these being Albert and Victoria Roads. Crossing the roundabout allowed access to Mill Hill Broadway at 1315 and we were back under the railway station and M1 at 1319. The No 221 route had rejoined us just before the station and we then followed that route in reverse to Edgware station where I arrived at 1338, 47 minutes since departure. 

Once again disembarking at Edgware Underground station

The London Sovereign bus garage at Edgware coded BT for Barnet. Next to it is the Metroline garage coded EW for Edgware

To get home I took the Northern line back to London Bridge and the 1455 Epsom train home arriving home around 1530 

Day 156 The No 239 a trip way outside the TFL area which means I had to pay to use a bus for the first time since prior to Covid.

 There has not been a TFL bus numbered 239 since the 16th Feb 2008 when the bus route was combined with the No 170. Thus I was required to take only the second foray outwith the London area to continue the sequence in an unbroken manner. The nearest No 239 I found was a bus betwixt Maidenhead and Henley run by Thames Valley buses which runs Monday, Wednesday and Friday twice each way. We couldn't use the freedom pass to catch the 1100 to Henley from Maidenhead so decided to do it the other way round.

Return to Maidenhead from boundary of Zone 6, single Maidenhead to Henley on Thames, and 
then between them the bus ticket from Henley to Maidenhead. The bus is 40p or 8/- cheaper per person.

Thus we caught the 1030 to Victoria then the Circle Line to Paddington and a GWR train heading for Didcot Parkway at 1157 as far as Twyford. The train arrived at 1241 and I could see the train to Henley waiting in the platform was booked to leave at 1245. We had 4 bags of books we were taking to a second hand book shop in Henley so it was a hard job getting over the footbridge in time for the train.

Charmaine dozing courtesy of GWR.

387142 of GWR leaving Twyford for Didcot
 Parkway

Charmaine grateful we have made the Henley train

We managed, however and duly arrived in Henley at 1257, I had suggested we might arrive by 1PM to the proprietor and we were pretty close to that as its wasn't far to get to Friday Street from the station.

165125 of GWR ready to return to Twyford
3 minutes after arrival

Henley On Thames station

Once we were through with the negotiations on behalf of the Feed The Mind Charity for Purley URC we repaired to Starbucks in Bell Street for lunch and to wait for the No 239. 

The packing tape across where the bus No 239 is shown on the bus stop in Hart Street. 

Starbucks and the stop in Bell Street
where the bus used to start from

I was more than a little concerned that there was no sign on the bus stop in Bell Street that the bus stopped there so went to find the bus stop in Hart Street to check if it stopped there.

When I arrived at the Hart Street stop there was a strip of packing tape over the details of the No 239 timetable which made me fear the worst. Having looked at the website since arriving home it seems the timetable was changed from last Sunday and hence they were yet to put the updated one at the bus stop so just blocked potential passengers reading it. There are now 3 buses a day rather than 2 on Mon, Wed and Fri but still 2 on Saturday.

Thames Valley 126 with Charmaine boarding at 1435

However at 1435 we boarded Thames Valley's Optare Solo No 126 at the stop in Hart Street and it departed at the time it said on the website. Nobody was waiting at the other stops in Henley, which was hardly surprising giving their total lack of information. I asked locals and they didn't seem to have a clue. The bus continued around the Henley one way system and over the river bridge and up Remenham Hill. So many times I made this route when commuting to RAF Benson at all times of day and in all weathers.

Running beside the Thames before crossing
the bridge in the distance

The Angel public house on the Oxfordshire side of the bridge

The bus stop on the opposite side of the road at Aston Lane was completely blank. Was that deliberate or was it just weathering- we were going too fast to check and continued at breakneck speed down the other side of the hill where we turned left for Hurley caravan site.

Hurley Caravan site indicted off the main road to the left

 This was a very narrow road and once we had dropped off one of the two other passengers at the site we turned right and headed for the stop called Hurley High Street. To get there we passed a sign stating road only open between dawn and dusk- not seen that before ever. We emerged out of Shepherds Lane in the middle  of the High Street but I only noticed a barbers and the Rising Sun pub as businesses there. After passing a blue plaque saying this was the site of Station Victor at the next stop we picked up two people who were returning to Maidenhead. These were the only people we picked up until we reached the edge of Maidenhead itself. The bus resumed its way back on the main road until it reached the roundabout and turned right which was signposted Burchett's Green.

Berkshire College of Agriculture Zoo sign

 We didn't progress far though, before we turned right into the Berkshire College of Agriculture. Here we saw tree surgery being practised, lots of cabbages, some people playing footie, and a sign for the zoo which Richard later informed us is where someone he knows called Emily works. The bus did a complete circuit in the car park and returned whence it had come.

Hall Place Mansion Berkshire College of Agriculture

At the end of the drive there was sign forbidding turning right so we had to return to the roundabout and from there we took the road back towards Maidenhead. However, I expected us to take the old road through Pinkneys but we drove onto the A404 M4 to M40 link road and absolutely pelted down to the junction with the A4. We then headed into Maidenhead along the A4 but after a while took the left called Courthouse Road past Boyn Green Park which was a method of getting the bus to St Mark's Hospital. The bus took St Mark's Road at the hospital and ran back to the A4 with none added to the clientele. Here went left for a little while before taking the right, Grenfell Road over the single line to Marlow and entered Frascati Way at the end. The final bus stop was on the wrong side of a dual carriageway and so we had to turn left run up to a roundabout and do a 360 degree turn here to return  precisely on time at 1517.

On time arrival at Frascati Way with bus already showing its next trip on the No 234

From here we walked to Maidenhead station and just missed the fast GWR train to Paddington so had to wait fifteen minutes for the next Elizabeth Line train at 1540. The 'Marlow Donkey' was waiting on Platform 5 when we arrived but as soon as this left our train was indicated as arriving.

The 'Marlow Donkey' on platform 5 at Maidenhead

The train got us to Paddington for 1625 and we were then able to get the 1700 train straight to home unlike two weekends ago when a trespasser meant it took 3 hours to get home from Paddington.