Day 213 To Waltham Cross bus station again, this time for the circular No 327.

 I caught the 1035 train to London Bridge and then a Thameslink to City Thameslink. After visiting Ede and Ravenscroft to return our son's academic hood I caught a No 8 from High Holborn to Liverpool Street. I caught the 1215 London Overground train heading ultimately to Cheshunt and alighted at Turkey Street, the last station within TFL's remit. I then walked to Totteridge Road and caught a No 279 from there to Waltham Cross bus station where I arrived at 1312.

A very odd interval service and only 9 minutes to the end

The bus service is an odd interval service running every 40 minutes, thus there are two in one hour and only one in the next. I caught the bus at 1340 having purchased lunch at my usual haunt just inside the Pavilions shopping centre.

Sullivan's AE24 arriving to rest until 1340

Waltham Cross bus station with AE24 arriving 

Sullivan's AE24 duly arrived to pick me up and we headed back the way I had come as far as Bullsmoor Road. Here the bus turned right in company with the Nos 217 and 317. However, after the Lee valley school stop the bus turned left into Lackmore Road and entered a hail and ride section through the Elsinge estate. The bus stop at Waltham Cross stated it would take 9 minutes to get to the end of the route at Cocker Road. We arrived here at 1350 and lingered only enough time for people to board and alight and then we continued onwards down Elsinge Road to reach Turkey Street.

The supposed end of the journey Cocker Road

Turkey Street Railway station

At Turkey Street we turned left and went under the railway bridge at Turkey Street station  now driving the section I had walked earlier. At Totteridge Road the bus turned left and stopped at the stop I had boarded the No 279 earlier at 1354. There is no equivalent stop for the No 327 on the other side of the road as this bus only goes one way around a loop.

The bus stop where I had previously caught the No 279

We then continued up this road to reach Waltham Cross Bus station at 1406.

Back at Waltham Cross bus station

I then caught a No 217 to Morrisons in Soulbury Road and then changed for a No 307 to take me to Enfield Chase station. Here I caught the 1502 heading for Moorgate and alighted at Finsbury Park. After just 2 minutes a train arrived to convey me to East Croydon and a bus from the Whitgift Centre got me home at 1645.

Day 212 Back to Brent Cross shopping centre for the No 326 to Barnet the Spires.

 I caught the 1205 train to London Bridge and then the Northern line to Brent Cross. Unlike my previous trip here for the No 324, I was getting off the Underground train exactly an hour after leaving Waddon. As I reached the North Circular Road a No 112 was arriving so used that to get to the shopping centre. As always a bus left as I approached and it was not until 1329 that I was leaving on RATP London United's  No 30373.

Bus route timetable suggests a 10-12 minute
 interval but I waited at least 20 minutes

RATP 30373 resting at Brent Cross before 
departure

My No 326 arriving

The bus replicated the route of the No 324 to Hendon Broadway but at the roundabout the bus turned right in company with the No143 and joined with the No 183 into The Burroughs to pass Middlesex University. The bus continued along Finchley Lane which became Hendon Lane as we crossed The Great North Road in company with the No 125 and climbed up to Finchley Central arriving at 1349. Very soon after we crossed the tracks at Finchley Central the bus turned left initially with the No 383, but soon became a hail and ride on its own along Nether Street. This took us past West Finchley station through many streets lined with inter war housing with a few pre First World War at first. At the end of the road the bus turned left into Argyle Road heading for Sussex Ring where we joined briefly with the No 384.

Riverside Park from Argyle Road, Dollis Brook.

Another hail and ride section started as we turned right at the mini roundabout along Chanctonbury Way once again on our own. This became Southover once we had crossed a stream and all housing became post war. At the end of this road we turned right joining with the No 251 to run up to Totteridge and Whetstone station. Atop the hill the bus turned left and headed in the direction of Barnet for the first time.

The Green Man pub rebuilt in 1890,
now a tyre and exhaust shop 

However, at the Great North Way we swung right into Lyonshall Road at 1408 then heading downhill under the GNR mainline where the No 383 met us and on reaching East Barnet Village a number of routes joined us as well. The bus turned abruptly left and headed for New Barnet where we arrived at the railway station at 1415. The bus was heading towards Barnet shops, similar to the other routes, until it peeled away left after crossing under the underground line into Underhill where another hail and ride section started. This was actually an out and back section and the most distant part was Hera Road, reached at 1423 which seemed to be a very newly built estate. Returning to the main road the bus turned left and climbed up the hill to Chipping Barnet and final arrival at The Spires Barnet was at 1434. The route thus took 65 minutes as opposed to 58 minutes shown on the Brent Cross bus stop. It must, however, be very difficult to plan the timetable with the large amount of hail and ride sections involved. On this occasion traffic did not give us any hold ups.

Arrival at the Spires shopping centre Barnet

The bus stop with 5 buses yet to be done, 4 in the 
300s and 1 in the 600s.

Swiss HB-JCJ CS-300 over Battersea Park

Turkish A/L A330 TC-JOD over Battersea Park

I returned home via the Northern line from High Barnet to Battersea Power Station and then walked to Battersea Park station where I caught the 1604 Epsom Downs train home.

Day 211 A very long way round to get not very far, the No 325 from Prince Regent to Beckton Sainsbury's.

 I caught a No 407 at 1047 to Croydon's Whitgift centre and then walked to East Croydon station to get  a Thameslink train to Farringdon at 1115 and from there an Elizabeth line train to Custom House. The No 325 starts from the Prince Regent bus station which is the next stop on the DLR, but having just missed one of these, I exited the station with the intention of walking there. However whilst walking along a No 241 arrived just as I got to a bus stop so I jumped aboard to avoid the cold air the one stop.

Journey should take 52 minutes

Arriva's ENL65 awaiting departure time

Bus now heading away from Beckton as it approaches me 

I as usual missed a bus in this process but the timetable suggested I should have less than ten minutes to wait. I arrived at Custom House at 1154 and at 1205 I was sitting in Arriva London's ENL65 which immediately took me back the way I had come to Custom House station. It took Freemason's Road here and as with the No 241 and 300 previously went under the underpass at Newham Way. There buses accompanied us across the Barking Road and then the Greenway before we turned left at Plaistow Broadway.

Hole in the wall garage on Plaistow Broadway

The bus was on its own for the first time when it turned right into Clegg Street and remained alone as we passed West Ham Park into Upton Road which became Upton Lane. At 1226 we were turning into Romford Road in Forest Gate and for the first time were heading East rather than away from Beckton. After a short period heading east along Romford Road the bus swung right into Katherine Road and was again on its own now heading in roughly the correct direction for Beckton. We took a left joining the No 238 and 376 which meant we passed Plashet school. However from here it was very slow going and it was at least ten minutes before the cause was revealed- roadworks just south of East Ham station after we had turned right and joined East Ham High Street at 1254.

Alms houses in Upton Road

Station Parade opposite East Ham
Underground station

It was 1254 before we had passed the roadworks and used the western bypass road Ron Leighton Way. At the end of this the bus turned right into Barking Road and remained on this road until we reached the North Circular Road roundabout. We did not take the north circular road but ran parallel with it along a private road called Freshwharf Road which took us past the Newham dump and Eric Clarke Lane into the Beckton Triangle retail park. Working our way around the back of this retail park we terminated at Sainsbury's at 1308, about 11 minutes longer than scheduled.

Arrival at Beckton Sainsbury's

Maneouvering ready to return

Given I would have to get to Brent Cross or Barnet for the next bus I resolved to go home and caught a No 366 to Barking station, then a District line train to Whitechapel and a London Overground train to West Croydon arriving home at 1515.

Day 210 To Brent Cross Shopping centre once again for the No 324.

 I caught a bus to East Croydon with the idea of catching a Thameslink train to St Pancras and changing to an all stations stopper there so as to get to Brent Cross West station again. What I was not aware of, and until arrival at Brent Cross there was no information about, was that there had been a points failure at West Hampstead. The fast trains were running as forecast but only one slow train was running each half hour and even some of these were cancelled. I had almost half an hour to wait at St Pancras when there should have been six trains an hour. Thus I caught the 1103 at East Croydon arriving at St Pancras at 1138 and my next train was not until 1203 which arrived at 1227 at Brent Cross instead of the booked time of 1155. I then followed the signs on the station concourse towards the shopping centre. I expected it to be fairly straightforward and I also anticipated there might be the odd direction sign after leaving the station. There were no signs at all, so knowing I was in the west with the sun to my south on a glorious sunny day with copious windchill I walked to the Brent Cross Town Pavilion which was signposted beside Claremont Park. As I approached the Pavilion I found bus numbers I recognised going past behind it, the No 102,143 and 189. Thus I knew I was getting close and following the direction these buses were going I could see the shopping centre in the distance. I crossed over the North Circular by the bridge and arriving at the first shopping centre bus stop I saw it was where the No 324 stopped. However, it was not where it started. This was on the other side of the North Circular at Brent Cross Tesco. I finally arrived there at 1259, just over half an hour after leaving Brent Cross West railway station. I quickly went inside and bought a Costa Latte to warm me up having checked I had 10 minutes to wait since I has seen a bus leave Tesco on my way in.

The turning place for the bus outside the shop

The timetable shows a twenty minute interval service which takes just under an hour.

Metroline's DE1018 awaiting
departure as I had my egg
sandwich and Latte.

At 1317 I boarded the bus and we set off back the way I had come to stop at the stop in Prince Charles Drive outside the shopping centre. From the shopping centre the bus turned left along the A41 to run into Hendon Broadway at 1326. Descending the hill from Hendon War Memorial the bus started a hail and ride section as it moved left of the A41 into Colindeep Lane. Apart from the initial run out of Tesco's car park this was the first time the bus route was on its own. 

Lots of building work going on north of Colindeep Lane

The hail and ride continued until we reached the Edgware Road where the bus joined with a No 204 in front of it and another of these behind it. These buses then turned right up Hay Lane and then descended to Roe Green at 1338. From here the bus made its way to Kingsbury High Street where we arrived at 1344.

Shop where Charmaine used to get her milk and
 TV Choice on way to work at The Village School

At Kingsbury Circle the bus did a 240 degree turn and headed up Honeypot Lane beyond the turning for Queensbury station to the next roundabout where it went left along Streatfield Road in company with the No 114. However at the roundabout with Culver Grove the bus started another hail and ride section which was rather longer than the previous one largely through early post war housing estates but also some sports fields.

Semi urban area of sports grounds and the like as we approached Stanmore

Eventually this hail and ride section ended when we reached the main road into Stanmore which saw us go through the high street to the Underground station where we arrived at 1406. Beyond this the bus turned left and climbed up the hill to go past the National Orthopaedic Hospital before descending the other side to reach the roundabout where the A41 is on top of the M 1. This is the start of Centennial Park and we entered this industrial estate and terminated at a bus stop labelled Roundabout at 1415.

The final stop in the industrial estate

Bus stop just called Roundabout. Only the
No 324 stops here

I then walked back the way the bus had come to the National Orthopaedic Hospital. The surface water streaming down over the bridge over the M1 is on a north facing slope in total shade at this time of year so was a mass of ice which I gingerly crossed. As I was walking up the hill a brand new Metroline bus came by, a Volvo BZL EV fleet number VMSL2843. This bus did a circuit of the roundabout at Centennial Park and then headed back to Edgware garage presumably on driver training. After catching a No 107 to Edgware station I went for a look at the bus garage and found two further buses of this type.

Metroline's VMSL2843 I had seen earlier 

VMSL2850 which went for a test
 drive as I walked]out of the bus garage

I then caught a northern  line train to London Bridge and a Southern train home at 1555 which got me back to Waddon two hours after alighting from the bus in Elstree.

Day 209 The almost local No 322 and back to Canning Town for the No 323.

 After a trip to Sutton station to deliver some books and then down the hill to Superdrug with a big bag of used blister packs for recycling I caught a No 154 to Morden Underground station. I arrived at 1026 and there was only a two minute wait for a train to Clapham Common where I arrived at 1040. I ascertained from the first map I found that I needed bus stop T but as I approached a No 322 bus left before I could get there.

Abellio 1009 picking up passengers as I approached stop T

Bus route should take 40 minutes

Abellio 1020 resting before departure

I then waited for almost twelve minutes for the next service on the route which is provided by the Abellio No 1020 an Optare Metrocity EV which has a 73 registration which left at 1059. The bus turned left to head down Clapham High Street and once we had reached Clapham North Underground station crossed right to enter Landor Road, this was the first of many occasions when it is the only bus service on each of the respective roads. This took us past Lambeth Hospital part of the Maudsley Trust. At the end of this road we turned right into Stockwell Road heading for Brixton along with the No 2 and No 196. On reaching Brixton the bus immediately turned left into Atlantic Road which was quite a squeeze with all the parked cars.

Artwork in Atlantic Road

Market entrance in Atlantic Road

This road becomes Railton Road and as we passed along here I noticed briefly a blue plaque commemorating Winifred Atwell, who on checking Wikipedia had a hair salon in the adjoining Chaucer Road. We also passed a closed business J Kleiner and Sons.

Formed in 1930 as a purveyor of housewares

From the start of Atlantic Road we had been running parallel with the ex LCDR railway line out of Victoria and at the end of this road reached Herne Hill railway station. Since leaving Brixton the No 322 had been the sole bus on the route but now joined many buses as it rounded Brockwell Park and headed for Tulse Hill. We crossed the South Circular and passed the road where I had recently emerged when aboard the No 315 from Streatham. As we reached West Norwood cemetery the bus again forged off on its own turning left away from all the other bus routes in the location. Initially we were on Park Hill Road in SE21 then utilised Rosendale Road, Tritton Road and Vale St where we reached St Gothard Road entering SE27 in the process. This was then a hail and ride section as we took the road to Gipsy Hill.

At the side of the South Circular as one approaches Tulse Hill

Passing up Gipsy Hill we crossed over the track here

We climbed up Gipsy Hill passing the railway station until we reached Westow Hill, here the bus turned left to entre the shopping area of Upper Norwood and deposited me on Crystal Palace Parade at 1138.

Arrival on Crystal Palace Parade

I walked from here down Anerley Hill to the Crystal Palace low level station where there was a train waiting for Highbury and Islington. However, it departed just as I reached the platform and seeing there was a London Bridge train at 1150, I hurriedly crossed from platform 3 to platform 5 which is quite a climb and the train was in before I had reached the top of the stairs. Luckily I managed to board it at 1149 and off we went to London Bridge. We arrived at 1214 and then was on the Jubilee line platform at 1223 and arrived at Canning Town at 1236. Annoyingly the No 323 left at 1235 so had to wait almost fifteen minutes for Stagecoach 64202 to arrive at 1252.

Layover point on opposite side of bus station

Stagecoach 64202 approaching

The bus left the bus station and headed straight under the flyover running parallel with DLR and Jubilee line to Star Lane DLR stop. The bus route went over the tracks at this point and almost throughout the journey was the sole route on the road. After turning right into Cody Road the bus entered Prologis Park which is a private industrial estate. At one point there was a bus stop which showed the No 323 going in opposite directions. After exiting the estate the bus crossed under the Blackwall Tunnel northern Approach Road and emerged close to Bromley by Bow station. Rather than take the A102M the bus turned right into Devas Street which led to us crossing over the River Lea at 1301 and entered Devons Road which it then followed for its entirety. At Bow Common Lane at 1308 the bus turned right and at the end of this road the bus turned right again and terminated by the park at a stop labelled Mile End station at 1313.

In the Prologis industrial park

Journey's end at Mile End

I then walked the wrong way left and instead of finding the Underground station I met a Palestinian protest  march asking for peace in Gaza. Eventually I reached Stepney Green station but stupidly got an eastbound District line train that took me straight to the next stop of Mile End. Here I had to go up the stairs and cross over to get a westbound train two stops to Whitechapel. Here I caught a Crystal Palace bound London Overground train and alighted at Sydenham. The next London Overground train was going to West Croydon but I needed to get to East Croydon so at Norwood Junction changed and waited for the following Caterham train arriving at East Croydon at 1429.

 

Day 208 A little further north than last time -to New Cross for the No 321 to Foots Cray.

 This journey started rather later than usual but as the journey was readily accessible this wasn't too much of an issue. I caught a No 410 to West Croydon station and boarded the 1316 London Overground train to New Cross Gate. The Sainsbury's where this bus and the No P13 start is adjacent to the station on the site of the engine shed in days of yore. 

London General's EH8 waiting to depart

Austrian Airlines OE-LZP

Two buses start from this point

HB-JBC of Swiss Int'l a/l

A beautiful blue sky revealed the glide slope into Heathrow passing right over this Sainsbury's. At 1349 I boarded EH8 and we headed left towards Greenwich for a while before turning right along with the route Nos 21,136 and 172 just prior to New Cross station. Soon the bus headed left though, leaving the No 172 to go straight on and drove past the building that was Deptford Central library.

London General's EH8 approaching

At 1359 we stopped on Loampit Hill at the stop called St Johns station but is actually situated right next to the Lewisham Road station overbridge. This station closed 107 years ago along with the other ones on the LCDR branch to Greenwich Park.

The remains of the station building of Lewisham Road.
A class 465 networker just disappearing
 around the corner to Lewisham proper.

From here we descended into Lewisham town centre passing the police station at 1404 and then heading left at the top of the High Street to follow Lee High Road. The bus was now on the A20 and was accompanied by routes 122, 178 and 261. The No 261 turned off at Lee Green and we were left with the No122 and the No 178 as far as Kidbrooke. On the way to Kidbrooke we passed from the London Borough of Lewisham into the London Borough of Greenwich. 

Approaching Eltham parish Church

The A20 peeled off to the right to meet the South Circular, the No 178 went left into Kidbrooke, whilst we continued straight on toward the Yorkshire Grey, now a McDonald's, where the No 122 pulled away and we were joined by two of the Bexley cluster of routes the B15 and B16 for the run into Eltham. Eltham High Street has so many buses use it, that there are bus stops grouped in pairs along its length. We were using the bus stops where buses would turn tight and head for Footscray Road, which we did at 1428. 

In Footscray Road there was a house with just the legs of Santa hanging out of a closed window.

This road I had travelled recently on the No 314 and this route was repeated by the No 233 as well. The No 314 left us at New Eltham station whereas the No 233 continued for while but finally left the No 321 on its own for the run into Sidcup town centre, having passed the building site that will be the site for Cray Wanderers next stadium.

Residue of Storm Henk the day before on the approach to Sidcup

We reached Sidcup town centre at 1442 and after a little aggravation getting past parked cars or delivery vans we were off down the hill towards the site of the Barley Mow at Footscray (closed 1974). Years ago this site was the starting point of many buses as it was close to Sidcup bus garage which closed in 1988. Here the bus turned right to get to Crittalls corner and again was alone on the run along the 'old' A20 route to Foots Cray Tesco where the bus terminated at 1452.

Site of the Barley Mow bus stop

A No 321 on its way back to New Cross

Ready to return

Journey's end but no actual bus stop sign or
timetable

On disembarkation I queried with the the driver the duration of the route advertised on the bus stop at New Cross Sainsbury's which had said 40 minutes. I did not think he had been held up much at all and he said he had arrived at the right time according to his schedule. So the bus company accept the journey takes an hour but whoever creates the timetables does not know this.

From here after a coffee and sausage roll I walked back to Crittalls corner, just missing a No 51 in the process so caught a R11 to the Crescent and went to see daughter and boy friend to assess damage after storm Henk. I subsequently caught a No 353 to Addington and then a tram and finally a No 407 home arriving home at 1750