Station Transfers at Kings Cross
I asked at the infornation desk how you get to Marylebone. I got a very unprofessional answer. Surely, when the new Kings Cross is finished, there should be information on how to get to the various other stations in London. I know all the links across London, and especially some that are not obvious, like Waterloo to Liverpool Street. It’s a 26 bus by the way.
I also hope when the new station is complete, that they sort out the buses as well. I use a 30 or 73 to get home from Kings Cross and there is a rather windy, unprotected stop in front of the station. Marylebone is also a station best got to from Kings Cross by a 205 bus. some of the buses are also good for getting to Euston, which has a rather terrible Underground station.
Perhaps though, Euston needs a properly designed pedestrian route from Kings Cross/St. Pancras, lined with cafes and shops and perhaps some form of light public transport, like bicycle rickshaws or small electric vehicles.
I’d possibly ban cars and trucks from Euston Road and run a low-floor bendy bus or tram from Paddington to Kings Cross and possibly all the way to Liverpool Street.
What’s Red and Lies Upside Down in the Gutter?
This is an old elephant joke from the 1960s and the answer is a dead bus.
It’s funny, but I’ve been on trains and planes that have broken down or developed faults, but I’ve never been on a bus that has suffered a similar fate.
Until today, that is!
A Dead Bus
As I was close to Turnpike Lane station, I took the Piccadilly Line to Manor House. This is one of the longest runs between stations on the tube and breaks the two-minute rule of calculating how long the journey will take. A good estimate of journey time is two minutes per station with five minutes for each change of line.
I’m not sure if it is unique, but Turnpike Lane still has the classic 1930s uplighters on the escalators. One place that still has them is Moscow, where London Underground installed all the original escalators. In Moscow, when I was there a few years ago, most of the escalators were still in wood, just like they used to be in London, until they were replaced after the King’s Cross fire.
A Walk Down Memory Lane
Or more correctly between Turnpike Lane and Wood Green stations on the Piccadilly Line.
I’d taken a 141 bus to Turnpike Lane from the end of my road and alighted opposite the station.
Turnpike Lane Tube Station
Or should I put the local name underneath which sounded like Turnpicky Larny. I wonder if it’s still used.
I walked down the west side of Wood Green High Road and the first place I remembered was the Marks and Spencer on the other side.
Marks and Spencer at Wood Green
I didn’t go in, but it certainly looked to be in a worse state than how I remember it from the 1960s, when it was one of their flagship stores. I visited it many times, as a bag carrier for my mother, when she used to do the food shopping, when she was working with my father in Wood Green.
Further up you can still see the remains of the old Wood Green Empire above the Halifax.
The Remains of the Wood Green Empire
I can remember going there once to see the pantomime. It may have been Babes in the Wood, with Ted Ray, but even if I hadn’t had the stroke, I wouldn’t be sure.
My father also claimed that he’d appeared on the stage there in a variety show. But at one time, I know he did print the programs and posters for the theatre, so perhaps he did a deal. Knowing him, that could have been possible.
The centre of Wood Green High Road used to be crossed by a railway bridge that carried the Palace Gates railway line to Palace Gates from Seven Sisters. At one time there was a station in the area called Noel Park and Wood Green, but although I can remember the bridge and trains running on the line, I can’t remember the station. To the south of the bridge there used to be a pub called the Alexandra, which was pulled down in the 1960s or just before to build Wood Green’s first supermarket. Now the whole area has been redeveloped as Wood Green Shopping City.
Wood Green Shopping City
Moving along towards Wood Green tube station, I passed what some refer to correctly as the Broadway, but I just remember it as the place where you caught the trolley buses. On the left there used to be a restaurant called the QS for Quick Service and one of the first burger bars. I can remember visiting both quite a few times with my mother. I can still remember and smell, the chef, Ally, turning the greasy burgers as he fried them.
On the corner opposite the tube station, there is a pub which is now called the Goose.
The Goose, Wood Green
I think the pub used to be called the Nag’s Head and it is part of a family tale. My father used to live with his mother over the print works in Station Road, which is just around the corner. One Sunday morning her dog, who was a renowned thief, arrived back with a large cooked joint of beef in his jaws. My grandmother, immediately washed such a prize present off and that was the family’s Sunday lunch. My father surmised that the chef in the Nag’s Head had put the cooked joint on the window sill of the kitchen at the back of the pub to cool down a bit and the dog just couldn’t resist.
I then crossed the road by the tube station to catch a 141 bus back home from where the trolley buses stopped.
Wood Green Tube Station
All of these stations from Cockfosters to Turnpike Lane are very much part of my childhood and I remember them all with affection.
The Bus Powered by a 2-Litre Diesel Engine
The 141 bus passes the end of my road, on its way to Wood Green, where my father’s print works used to be.
A 141 Bus to Wood Green
The route is partly operated by hybrid buses, some of which are Wright Gemini 2 HEVs, which are powered by the 2-litre diesel engine from a Ford Puma.
I’ve always been a bit suspicious of hybrid cars, but surely this bus must be more fuel-efficient, than a similar-sized traditional bus.
An interesting aside here is that the bus is also built without a chassis, partly to save weight and the company that builds these buses, the Wright Group, is family-owned in Northern Ireland.
So does innovation and good design flourish in companies which benefit from not being under the control of unimaginative shareholders and wunches of bankers?
Moaning About the Price of Petrol
I’ve had a rough three years and now can’t drive because of the strokes. I just laugh at all those idiots, who insist on using their cars to do things, that I now have to do happily on the bus, or by walking. Although I live in London, I rarely use the tube, as the bus stops within a hundred metres.
Today, I’m off to Liverpool on the train from Euston. In First Class too! Paid for incidentally, by selling something on eBay from a car I used to own twenty years ago, that just happened to turn up in the move.
Life is fun! And funny as I listen to the selfish moaners!
Walking to Victoria Park
I picked up my paper and then walked through to the Kingsland Road, where I got on the towpath of the Regent’s Canal and headed east.
Unfortunately, my camera was low on power, so I couldn’t take any pictures. I will later in the year and they will be so much better with the sun.
Next time, I must, as it an interesting walk under the bridges with the last stretch smelling of woodsmoke from the heaters in the barges parked for the winter.
I emerged on Roman Road in Tower Hamlets, before taking a 277 bus back to the stop around the corner.
The last bit brought back memories, as my late son and his family used to live just round the corner. But I wouldn’t dwell on what might have been!
After the Match
It was in some ways a disappointing draw for Ipswich, as they dominated for long periods and should have scored two before they actually did.
But we did have the pleasure of seeing the odious Marlon King sent off for a tackle well up with the sort of behaviour that got him doing time in prison.
I had been assured by one of the stewards that there would be buses from Tesco’s after the match.
Wrong! Especially, as he’d checked on the radio.
So it was a taxi to the city centre, which cost me as much as my lunch and about the same as a one-way ticket to or from London. Still the vehicle was clean and the driver was pleasant enough.
I do find it rather sad, that in some of these cities, like Coventry and Middlesbrough, it seems that the limit of ambition of many Asian youth is to own their own taxis and consequently, these cities seem to have thousands of taxis, completely non-functioning bus systems and no decent walking and cycling routes.
Perhaps though, it is not the limit of their ambition, but surely there are other worthwhile professions they could enter.
Or is it down to that belief typical of many young men and probably me at 20, that you aren’t anybody unless you have your own car.
Only now, when driving is off-limits to me, do I realise that there is something better. Certainly in London, I am more mobile now on the buses after a stroke, than I was in my twenties, when I had a car and all the attendant costs and problems like finding a place to park.
What I Had Intended to Do Yesterday!
In an earlier post, I said how disappointed I was with Coventry yesterday.
To be fair to the city, I think I should say what I had intended to do and talk about some of it.
When I got my fixture list, I saw that Ipswich Town were playing there on New Year’s Day, so I made a mental note that if I had moved to London by then, I would go and visit the cathedral, as it is a mystical place, where I could contemplate the recent deaths of my wife and son. I thought too, that I might sample a good curry before the match and perhaps visit an art gallery or a museum.
The day had started well, with just the minor distraction of being unable to buy my copy of The Times at Euston, after a twenty minute bus ride from the Balls Pond Road, just round the corner from where I live.
The train left London dead on time and all the way to Coventry, I had two seats side-by-side in Standard Class all to myself. My only complaint would be that the seat back tables are a bit difficult for me to balance a magazine on, but then that isn’t serious and as I was paying just over £10 each way, it was good value and comfortable.
Arriving in Coventry, we were still on time and as I don’t know the city well, I decided to look for a map or some form of tourist information. Perhaps, I should have gone elsewhere or perhaps come on a different day, as I couldn’t fmind anything. I almost felt that I’d come to Coventry on the wrong day for the match, as the place was totally closed. Even the WH Smith’s was closed, so I couldn’t get my paper.
outside of the station, the forecourt was equally dead with no buses or taxis. Eventually, I found a helpful Coventrian, who pointed me to a rather scruffy underpass and bridge that led towards the city centre. It wasn’t the best marked walk, but I got there passing perhaps half-a-dozen people on the way. Comparing this to the busy Upper Street, the bus had taken me through on the way to Euston, just reinforced my fears that Coventry was in fact shut and I should make my way home as soon as possible to watch other football on Sky.
There was few people about, as I walked up past a few smark banks and endless dreary stores, which seemed to be mainly amusement arcades or pawn shops.
The cathedral is surrounded by a few mediaeval steeets and I did find a Pizza Express, where I decided to have a salad Nicoise for lunch, as time was now running short and I hadn’t seen an Indian restaurant, let alone one that looked to be decent. The salad was acceptable, but the waitress got it delivered with bread sticks, so I sent it back. Although she talked and behaved like one of Catherine Tate‘s creations, I put it all down to bad training, so it wasn’t her fault.
I then walked to the cathedrals and like the rest of the city they were deserted. Perhaps, not a bad thing really, as I was able to pay my respects to both my wife and son and those who died in Coventry’s Blitz in almost absolute silence.
After the visit I walked towards the bus station and found a Sainsburys, where I was finally able to buy my copy of The Times. But was Sainsbury’s busy? No! Of course not. Perhaps, evrybody was sleeping off last night’s excesses, but it was now after two.
It was now getting to be like one of those series, where everybody has died from some sort of bug and there is no-one left. Now that I’d got the paper, I actually checked that Ipswich were playing in the city, but couldn’t find the fixture list.
The bus station was totally deserted except for a few Coventry fans looking for transport to the Ricoh. But there was none, until two kind Coventry fans suggested they give me a lift.
Surely, Coventry City shouldn’t have been selling tickets, as they did to these fans, without making sure that the transport was in place.
Travelling to the Ricoh at Coventry
Radio 5 this morning, is headlining a story that there is a bug in the iPhone. What do they think? I’ve been writing software for nearly 50 years and if you show me a man, who says he’s got a bug-free program, I’ll show you a liar.
To tell my story of yesterday, I send an e-mail entitled “Fix the iPhone, How About Fixing Coventry First”
I went to Coventry to see Ipswich play. As I can’t drive because of my strokes, I took the excellent train from Euston. However, there were no buses running from the city centre to the Ricoh Arena. Coventry was like a morgue too, with few restaurants and shops busy. In the end two kind Coventry fans took me to the stadium, but the taxi back cost more than my lunch and almost as much as a one way ticket on the train. No wonder a only a small crowd turned up to the match.
Surely, if cities like Coventry want to attract visitors, they should put in public transport that works. I suspect though that they’re all still in bed, as the Christmas iPhones don’t work.
I tweeted the whole journey on my elderly Nokia 6310i, that has no bugs and an alarm that works.
After I’ve posted this, I’ll be sending copies to disinterested parties, who don’t care. I don’t anymore, as I won’t go to Coventry again to see football, without a cast-iron guarantee that buses are running to the Arena from the Station.
New Year in the South
Last night, I went to a New Year’s party in South London. Because of the various transport options and the fact that I can’t drive, I decided to take two buses; a 21 to Lewisham and then a 75 onwards towards Croydon. If it hadn’t been New Year, but say a Sunday lunch, I’d have taken the East London Line and walked to and from the stations at both ends. But in a way, I wanted to prove that someone who has had a stroke can cope with the same problems everybody else has to deal with.
So how did I cope?
The outward run was pretty easy, as I’d done most of the journey on the 21 before. I had thought of taking the East London Line, but I wanted to be sure of the interchange for the return. I did have to wait about fifteen minutes for the 75 at Lewisham and the wait would have been improved if the bus stop had had a proper display announcing the arrival of the buses. I also got off at the wrong stop and had to walk back, but that was my mistake.
Coming home was slightly more difficult and this was mainly due to having to take the N47 to London Bridge from Lewisham rather than my intended 21. But as there was no information of any sort at Lewisham, I felt that keeping going was a better option than waiting. From London Bridge, northbound buses were thin on the ground and everything was rather crowded, so in the end I got a 43 to just past the Angel and walked home. It wasn’t the best option, but I quite like walking cities at night and always have. The trip didn’t appear to be too dangerous, with the biggest obvious danger seeming to come from police cars rushing up and down everywhere and some fairly frightening characters on the bus. But no-one bothered me in the least way at all.
So would I do the trip again on a New Year’s Eve? A lot depends if I get invited to a party again.
But I wouldn’t chose to stay as late again and would probably prefer a train or tube back most of the way.
On the other hand, why miss a good party!
So thanks to all who entertained me last night.
The Anonymous Widower 