A (Wet) London Bus Ride
28 December 2021
ABOVE: Finsbury Park Interchange (the eastern side of the railway station - there's another bus station on the other side).
All pictures in this article were taken on Bank Holiday Monday, 27th December 2021
All pictures in this article were taken on Bank Holiday Monday, 27th December 2021
To be honest, I was in two minds about making this trip at all, as it was teeming down with rain. Bus riding is less fun if you can’t see out of the windows because they’re covered with rain or steamed up!
But here I am standing at the bus stop at Paddington at 9.45am, on the Christmas Bank Holiday Monday, wondering where I’m going today.
And that is a feature of my London bus trips. I often have no idea where I am going until a bus arrives and I decide to board it. Even when I do, the question for me will always be – how far am I going on this bus and what will follow? One decision can completely change the shape of the day, and literally the direction that I will take.
So I could be heading east on the 205 to Bow Church – a long, interesting ride that I haven’t done for some years.
Or I might take the 36 south, not getting off at my regular work stop at Stanford Street, but instead staying on for those far southern outposts of Vauxhall, Camberwell, Peckham and New Cross. The kind of ride could open up journeys to the very far extremities of South East London.
Maybe the 332 towards Brent Park, but I did that in October. 23 to Hammersmith? Did that recently as well, and anyway that’s pointing me back towards home. 7 to Oxford Circus? Not a long run, but might be worth it to try out one of the hydrogen buses that I haven’t yet used.
So I’ve ended up on the number 27 and am heading for Camden Town. It’s an Abellio LT and the front windows are indeed steamed up, so I opt for the fourth row and a left-hand view.
A very quiet and uneventful run and, after 17 minutes, I’m at Mornington Crescent and realising that my journey is almost over. It’s only scheduled to take 18 minutes at this time on a Sunday service. I’m quite staggered because I was expecting a much longer run!
At Camden Town station I’m again weighing up my options. There’s a 31 for White City due, but I settle for a 253 towards Hackney Central.
The 253 has always been a major Inner London service. It converted to driver-only in 1987 – by which time the axe was falling heavily on any non-Central crew service, however busy. Even on a pseudo-Sunday morning I am expecting a lively ride, although I start with the top deck to myself!
We pass Holloway Prison, still boarded up five years after it closed for ‘redevelopment’ into housing. As we move into Islington, there are posters calling for Jeremy Corbyn, the local MP who now sits as an independent, to have his Labour Party Whip restored.
As we enter Stamford Hill the bus is indeed getting busy. There’s a man on the lower deck calling someone up regularly on his phone to help with his way-finding. He seems to be looking for Clapton station, but when we get there, the person on the phone tells him to stay another seven stops, which by my reckoning, will bring him pretty close to the end of the route anyway.
“What’s the name of the stop,” he belatedly asks? I’ve no idea whether he ever finds what he’s looking for, but we have now reached journey’s end at Hackney Central. It’s 10.50am – just an hour and five minutes after leaving Paddington. Feels quite impressive to me!
I’m near the Hackney Empire, where I once saw a recording of the BBC radio panel game 'I’m Sorry I Haven’t a Clue' (ISIHAC). I recall some people on the bus afterwards talking about having loved the evening, but not having understood how the 'Mornington Crescent' game worked (can’t go into that here – it’s complicated)!
A 106 is three minutes away, so I decide to travel to Finsbury Park on that. Even though I am heading back much the same way that I have just come, it does follow a different routing.
It’s the best ride of the morning. After two cramped LTs, the weather is improving (a little) and I have a lovely, airy Enviro 400 EV City electric bus, which carries me smoothly through Stoke Newington and into Lordship Park. The contrast between this vehicle and the previous ones could not be more marked.
Someone rings the bell for Queen Elizabeth’s Walk, but the bus does not stop . I don’t hear any howls of protest so presumably the passenger has indicated to the driver that it wasn’t the stop they wanted.
It’s a very quiet run. Never more than a handful of people on board and a world away from the route that became so notoriously unreliable in the 1970s that it had to be re-converted to crew operation after nearly a decade of driver-only operation.
After the twists and turns of Brownswood Road, we suddenly reach Finsbury Park Bus Interchange. A 236 is momentarily blocking the way as its own stand is blocked, but that soon sorts itself out.
ABOVE: Go-Ahead London’s Ee12 at Finsbury Park Interchange
I’m in Finsbury Park for precisely one minute when a number 4 turns up for Blackfriars. It’s one of those ‘halfway house’ Volvos with some of the newer features, but still with the panoramic front window that is lost from later models.
We pass through Highbury & Islington – scarcely recognisable as it’s been converted from a roundabout since my last visit.
Sadly the weather is going off again and the front view becomes ever more distorted as the rain sets in again. I’m just able to admire the rather wonderful St Mary’s Church in Islington before things really go downhill.
There are few people aboard as we move through the City – and few on the streets either. There’s a last gasp of interest as a family of seven boards at the Museum of London for a short ride to the Millennium Bridge. The bridge is to the left, but look right instead and you can see the passage from St Paul’s that was famously taken over by "Doctor Who" Cybermen in 1968. None in sight today but they would probably rust in this weather.
ABOVE: Metroline VWH 2108 at Blackfriars
I reach Blackfriars and decide to head for home. After which the rain stops for the rest of the day. Still, it was fun while it lasted.
PS: For those who don’t know, there are no rules to the ISIHAC 'Mornington Crescent' game. Bit like my London bus riding really.