I took a rest day on Valentine’s Day. It’s just a coincidence that I took that particular day. However, it occurred to me that if we did something we might end up eating something nice, somewhere.
The winter has been pretty grey with lots of rain, but on Valentine’s Day, although it wasn’t sunny, it wasn’t raining either. We decided that it might be a good day to take the number 38 bus all the way to the end – from Hackney to Victoria. It’s a well-known route. We’ve done it many times before, but typically we get off when we reach Shaftesbury Avenue, a street which runs parallel to Oxford Street – one one side is Soho, and on the other Chinatown. Lively in every direction. Going to Victoria takes you along fancy Piccadilly and past even fancier Park Lane, and into Buckingham Palace territory.
First off, the photos seem lacklustre – because of the grey – or maybe I’m wrong, They all I have so they’re going here anyway. Secondly, I thought it might be interesting to show how the terrain changes as you move west, and I’m not sure I achieved that but here goes, anyway. All taken from the top of the bus, through the dirty window, but not too bad!
I took this photo on Balls Pond Road in Dalston. A typical East end main road row of housesLeaving Balls Pond Road, the bus goes down Essex Road, where things start to space out a bit and there are more blocks of flats rather than just housesAt Angel the characteristic N1 Georgian architecture asserts itself. Things are looking more upscale alreadyLeaving Islington, you arrive on Rosebery Road, Clerkenwell, where you’ll see the art deco awning for the old Finsbury Town Hall. The inside is described as opulent, a mix of art nouveau, baroque and art deco. Building began in 1894.
With Mount Pleasant Post Office on one side and Exmouth Market on the other, this has always felt like the beginning of the west end, which is the centre of London. In fact it has a central post code, EC1Feeling more central now, as you pass Gray’s Inn, Gray’s Inn is one of the four Inns of Court which have the exclusive right to call men and women to the Bar of England and Wales. The inn has existed for more than 600 years, but these buildings date mostly from between 1669 and 1774. Now we’re officially west, post code WC1Leaving Gray’s Inn Road, you’re in Bloomsbury. It stands at the edge of the west end, just before you hit the shopping areasPassing Holborn Station, looking more like the west end now. Here’s where they announced bus stop closures and a diversion ahead.
The bus diversion announcement told us after our next stop, ,Tottenham Court Road, we’d be going down Charing Cross Road, around Trafalgar Square, and up to Piccadilly Circus. A detour can be annoying but this one was nice – a scenic route for once. I can’t promise the route is accurate on the map. Maps and I aren’t good friends.
Usual 38 bus routeOur detour – scenicAlong Charing Cross Road it feels very west-endishFeeling like a tourist as we pass Trafalgar SquareIn the very centre at the back of the photo is the very grand Admiralty Arch. It has some awful hoarding in front of it. One of my favourite views ruined…for nowWaterloo Place, as we passed by it. Always always impressive and grandSpeeding along Piccadilly and barely managed a photo of The Royal Academy
Google tells me that this is the Royal Air Force Club – we are by Marble Arch and Hyde Park
It seemed like the height of posh to be nearing a bus stop called Buckingham Palace. The bus doesn’t stop near there. Nothing does. But it did mean we were a hop away from our destination
And we were there. It had taken about an hour and a half, including the detour, but just one bus from door to door. We
were ready to explore Belgravia.
