Gipsy Hill - A P.S.

The Useful Spider?

A very youthful fbb was wholly ignorant of the origins of a little ditty sung to him by his mother as part of his happy childhood. The narrative involved a spider climbing up a spout and, tragically, being washed therefrom by meteorological precipitation. But the denouement was more encouraging for any passing arachnid. The sun came out, shining brightly, and the spider was able to re-ascend the drainage device with renewed and repetitive enthusiasm.

Little did fbb realise that the delightful ditty was originally penned by Frank Pick, chief executive and publicity guru in the early days of London Transport 《1933 to 1940).

Thanks to an anonymous donor, fbb has obtained Frank's original words.

Sadly it would be many years until London Buses was able to turn Frank's powerful verse unto a highly practical contribution to bus travel in the Metropolis. The first "Spider" maps appeared in 2002 and were greeted with a certain amount of acclaim by bus passengers.

Sadly, London Buses' enthusiasm for the genre has waned in recent years with the number of locations infested by "Spiders" now dramatically reduced. There is now no "Spider" for Gipsy Hill.

Shame!

Amazingly, fbb was eventually able to find a piece of ancient arachnid cartography for Gipsy Hill station.

It is posted on-line by Swansea University! Who else would be interested in this fascinating backwater of rail and bus transport in the Capital?

For his readers' education and excitement, fbb will publish it in two complementary sections; north eastbound from Gipsy Hill ...

... and Westbound via Crystal Palace.

You would have to admit than neither map is overburdening the potential user with too much information! But there are not a lot of buses at Gipsy Hill and only one that stops at the station.

Service 322, two stops to Crystal Palace, is reached by hanging a left as you exit the uncluttered station building.

For more entertaining treks towards Clapham Common, you cross Gipsy Hill (the road that gives its name to the station) and aim for the petrol station.

On the way, you will pass an understated and subtle reminder of where you are and where you might go.

With huge team effort from Friends of Gipsy Hill, artist Lionel Stanhope, Southern Rail and epic supporters Network Rail, SE19 got a bright and joyful mural on the station bridge on Gipsy Hill in the summer of 2020. This was a community project at all stages, from concept, to wording and colour schemes and even funding.

Trained as a sign writer, Lionel Stanhope lives in nearby Brockley and paints murals on the railway across London, working with Network Rail. His first vintage railway-style sign appeared in Herne Hill, and since then community groups like Friends of Gipsy Hill have crowd-funded to bring similar signs to communities across the capital.

The nearest current "Spider" to include Gipsy Hill is that for Crystal Palace from which fbb includes an extract.

It is fair to say that fbb has never been an expert in the design and philosophy of "Spider" maps. But on the full size version of the above, fbb spotted a new icon.

It looks like a demented, short sighted, black haired chicken. It goes with a London Underground roundel.

Can you guess what it means? fbb could not guess!

Here us what it we are told:-

What's wrong with a white on black roundel clasped by a stylised moon?

A bus passing Gipsy Hill station did not exist until 1992. That year the long-standing and long running-time route 2 from Golders Green to Crystal Palace ...

... was withdrawn. Its "replacement" was the current 322 which followed a more wiggly itinerary. To add to the fun, there was also a 2A and a 2B providing a complicated and frequent group of services.

Tomorrow, fbb will look at the 322.

Meanwhile, this block of flats is not far from Gipsy Hill station ...

... which, within its curtilage, hides a scary secret. More tomorrow.

Definitely not a secret are the next two pictures.

As you can see ...

... they both lay claim to being Gipsy Hill. As the lower picture us clearly a postcard of Southall station we can be sure that neither is our good friend close to Crystal Palace.

Neither is this ...

... unless Southern is testing a secret train design!

Isn't the internet wonderfully (un)helpful?

 Next Gipsy Hill bus blog : Thurs 23 July