My London?
It was launched by Reach plc in 2018 to provide news from across London. Our website aims to offer something a little bit different to your typical news sites.
You love London right? And you love your local news?
So we will be sharing with you what it's like to live, love, play, commute, eat, drink and party in what we can all agree is the Best. City. Ever.
Some of you live in Hounslow or Uxbridge but work in central London. Or perhaps you live in Croydon but work in Bromley. Maybe you live in Enfield but love going out in Shoreditch.
You get the picture!
A London-wide site allows us to cater for an ever-growing audience from all parts of the city.
We want to create a website that promotes all the positive aspects of living in what we think is the best city in the world.
London can be an amazing place and an awful place to live at the same time.
It is of interest to fbb because it delves reguarly into London's much admired but increasingly flawed public transport network. As well as tube strikes ...
... and other transport nasties, you will often find general interest stories about the history and operation of London's network. So it was that eagle-eyed Sheffield correspondent Roy spotted this headline.
The route is the W7.
The above picture is captioned for "London service 43" and the vehicle stands at London Bridge bus station; nothing to do with the W7, although the correct destination for the W7 is shown. Odd?!
As usual, fbb is indebted to his two heroes of London Buses information. Robert Munster does the timetables and Ian Armstrong has created a route history from 1934 onwards; both excellent resources. The third of his two heroes must be Mike Harris - the man who still produces the London network bus map and seels it and lots of back numbers at a ludicrously small price.
So here is Ian Armstrong's adaptation of Mike Harris map, adapted just to show the W7.
The route starts at the back door of Finsbury Park station ...
... where we see a W7 waiting to pull onto its stand to collect a reasonable gaggle of eager passengers. The bus will exit the bus station and hang a left, setting off along Stroud Green Road, not marked as such on the Harris cartographic extravaganza.
It is a fairly typical and uninspiring suburban london road, which we follow until we reach a five way junction at The Stapleton Tavern.
We veer a little left, soon passing Crouch Hill station (London Overground) ...
... where the former North London line station building is now ...
... a coffee shop and tapas bar! Crouch Hill is, surprise, surprise, a hill, long and a slow drag up.
Part way up, we cross a former railway line, now a footpath and cycleway.
This not very helpful picture is gazing towards the site of Stroud Green station which sits almost on top of the North London line tracks but on a viaduct.
At the top of Crouch Hill the road levels off for a piece (look there's a W7 going down the hill towards Finsbury Park) ...
... and we come to the road junction that marks the "centre" of Crouch End.
Since the closure of the station once situated on that footpath and cycleway, Crouch End is some distance from all Underground and National Rail lines ...
... being upper centre of the block of white space on the London Rail Map diagram. After passing the clock at the northern end of Crouch End Broadway ...
... we keep to the A1201 - now named Park Road - passing another W7 (there a lot of them about) ...
... before beginning another steep climb (and another W7) ...
... which will eventually deposit us at the terminus at Muswell Hill. Muswell Hill IS steep!
Musewell Hill has a mini bus station (NOT a minibus station!) just for the W7 ...
... which terminates, and other services which terminate or wait.
The terminus has been there for some time ...
... but showing bus 212 rather than W7. Maybe one day, long, long ago, that building in the middle provided public toilets and a shelter. No passengers are not allowed anywhere near the buses in their little bus station; boarding and alighting is at stops on the road.
More research needed. And something doesn't look quite right with the official "Spider" map.
Where is Muswell Hill is a question that is not easy to answer.
This topic will continue of Monday 7th March.
Frantic Friday?
Our duplicate Christian monthly meetings are happening as usual on Sunday and Monday with hymns/songs, visual aids and a quiz all about Miracles in the Bible.
Publicity leaflets went out at the beginning of last week, including yet another quiz also based on the same theme. What words can you make using the letters of the work MIRACLES?
Then next week it is a return visit to the Methodist "ladies" (old! - even older than fbb!) in which your esteemed blogger will attempt to undo the disaster of his last visit. All this has to be fitted round domestic duties, writing blogs and looking after Mrs fbb.
Railway modelling does not happen at the moment.
But, so far, all is going well domestically despite challenging circumstances; Praise the Lord!
Next Variety blog : Saturday 5th March
Gosh, that brings back memories of when I lived in Crouch End! In fact the W7 goes back further than 1934 as before then it was the General's route 111, commencing in April 1914.
ReplyDeleteWhat you may not know is that there was another bridge over the same disused railway line, about half-way up Muswell Hill. This restricted the route to single-deckers until 1960.
Crouch Hill is not on the North London line, but on the Tottenham & Hampstead Joint (it's marked LMSR & LNER On the map extract) better known these days as the Barking-Gospel Oak line.
ReplyDeleteOne for the future, FBB. It seems Rhys Hand has left HCT and has set up Transpora which seems to include a number of bus companies and FoxStar is shown on the website at the bottom: http://www.transporagroup.co.uk/
ReplyDeleteWorth a feature soon maybe to find out whether it's legit or legend? Companies House doesn't show anything...
Anonymous - And Altonian, but not located in Alton, but Southampton and Bristol !
ReplyDelete