please empty your brain below
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Such self restraint DG - I wouldn't have been able to bear the temptation and would have treated the Americans to an impromptu guided tour!
Marc | 09.03.17 - 7:22 a.m. | #
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HAPPY BIRTHDAY DG!!
| 09.03.17 - 7:29 a.m. | #
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Happy birthday!
Michael | 09.03.17 - 7:33 a.m. | #
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Many happy returns DG.
John DLC | 09.03.17 - 7:34 a.m. | #
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Happy Birthday DG. Looking forward to tomorrow's post about how you spent your day
Sara | 09.03.17 - 7:38 a.m. | #
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Potentially you won't be back in this area until you're 70 - you'll probably have to present ID to be allowed off the bus in rich areas by then.
Still anon | 09.03.17 - 7:39 a.m. | #
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I know you are not much of a cinema goer and it is a long way from Bow but you should see a film at the Lexi. It is a quirky cinema that has sofas for seats in some places you can drink whilst watching the film (not sure if Becks available but a fine selection of other drinks on offer) and just occasionally just like the cinema of the old days it's equipment breaks down and the audience have a sing along instead (yes that really happened!)
peewit | 09.03.17 - 7:43 a.m. | #
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Another most interesting bus ride. Happy Birthday,DG! 🎂🎉
(Some years,me and 'im indoors do bus rides like this to mark our anniversary. Must look up the route of the forty six!)
Jo W | 09.03.17 - 7:46 a.m. | #
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Happy birthday DG! you're only slightly older than me :)
Long may you continue blogging!
red cardinal | 09.03.17 - 7:49 a.m. | #
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Congratulations on making it to the full deck. You only have the Joker to do now!
B | 09.03.17 - 7:53 a.m. | #
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Happy Birthday DG.
That pub is a very nice pub, the Churchill Arms - and the landlord is a hoot!
Don't know if they have Becks in bottles, been a while.
Kevin | 09.03.17 - 8:04 a.m. | #
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Happy Birthday to you,
it's also my wife's too!
Happy Birthday dear DG
on route 52
Ken | 09.03.17 - 8:12 a.m. | #
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Have travelled that bus route many times in the past. Once had relatives living in Chamberlain Road, still have friends in North Kensington, and I lived for a short while near Portobello Road.
Enjoy your birthday.
John | 09.03.17 - 8:45 a.m. | #
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Happy birthday. How do you remember all this stuff. Do you make notes? Or what?
dg writes: I make notes. A smartphone makes this much easier than on my first journey, and I look much less like a stalker.
Bryn Davies | 09.03.17 - 8:48 a.m. | #
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Happy Happy Birthday.
I've a friend who claimed to have only other Pisceans as friends. I think he just about managed it too.
I've a pretty good idea where all those routes go, except perhaps the 50. Only got a vague idea where the 53 might go and I'm loathe to look it up in case I spend all morning looking at designs for Abbey Wood station. As for the 54 I've no idea.
Cheers.
Lorenzo | 09.03.17 - 8:48 a.m. | #
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Cometh the hour
Cometh the (birth) day
But no need to worry
It's only five two.
Have a great day.
popartist | 09.03.17 - 8:50 a.m. | #
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Happy Birthday DG🎉🎂🍻
My mother used to live on Kensal Rise in the late 1940’s.
Michael | 09.03.17 - 9:01 a.m. | #
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Happy birthday!
louise | 09.03.17 - 9:10 a.m. | #
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I like the 52; I used to work in Willesden (and occasionally drank in The Crown before it closed) and I now work in Kensington so I've got on that bus many times in rather different areas.
As others have said, The Chruchill Arms is fun; massive Christmas displays every year and a fine collection of gazunders hanging from the ceiling!
Steve Rochford | 09.03.17 - 9:12 a.m. | #
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Route 53 next year. Grim! Still you can look forward to the 55 & 56 in a few years.
scrumpy | 09.03.17 - 9:18 a.m. | #
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My house number is 52, just saying like!
Agent Z | 09.03.17 - 9:39 a.m. | #
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Many happy returns DG!
The Portobello steamroller - technically of course it's not a steamroller as it'll run on diesel or petrol. But everyone calls them steamrollers anyway. Is there a way of describing an old word being used to describe a new thing that does the same job (it's not quite a proprietary eponym, as Hoover is to vacuum cleaner)?
Matt | 09.03.17 - 9:42 a.m. | #
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Happy birthday, DG!
Nico | 09.03.17 - 10:03 a.m. | #
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Many happy returns! Another lovely post crafted out a mundane bus route. I had to look up route 53 after the comment above. It looks interesting with some nice spots - Blackheath, Greenwich Park and ending at Horseguards. DG might bump into some Americans again.
Martin | 09.03.17 - 10:04 a.m. | #
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Happy birthday! Obviously you had a good route on it which is more than one should dare to hope for at 52.
Milo Bell | 09.03.17 - 10:14 a.m. | #
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Happy birthday DG!
Cornish monkey | 09.03.17 - 10:21 a.m. | #
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Happy birthday dg.
I'm looking forward to your 54th and a random journey round south east London.
ap | 09.03.17 - 11:21 a.m. | #
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When first introduced, the 52 ventured past Victoria, across the Thames into South London. It shadowed the original Route 46, which expired in 1969. http://www.londonbuses.co.uk/routes/046-1.html
Victoria has been the southern terminus for a hundred years.
Alles Gute zum Geburtstag DG.
IsarSteve | 09.03.17 - 11:46 a.m. | #
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Happy Birthday DG. I remember back in the 60's when the 52 went up to Mill Hill and terminated in Borehamwood. Blimey, I'm getting old!
Bernie | 09.03.17 - 12:04 p.m. | #
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Many Happy Returns, and thanks.
Bob L-S | 09.03.17 - 12:10 p.m. | #
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A very happy birthday to you Mr Geezer!
Kirk Northrop | 09.03.17 - 12:23 p.m. | #
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happy birthday DG
Caz | 09.03.17 - 1:01 p.m. | #
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I have been waiting for this post for a few days. Happy birthday!
Patrickov | 09.03.17 - 1:13 p.m. | #
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IsarSteve
According to the LHRG books the 52 'only' dates back to March 1923 when it was introduced between Raynes Park and Ladbroke Grove.
In February 1924 it was rerouted to Tooting, then withdrawn south of Victoria in April.
The extension to Mill Hill was introduced in October 1932.
The 52 before the current version was introduced May 1922 between Finsbury Park and Thornton Heath, it was withdrawn in August.
Athol Street | 09.03.17 - 2:07 p.m. | #
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I often used the 52 when I lived in Ladbroke Grove (very close to Elgin Crescent, which you mention). That was in the early 60s, long before gentrification, many houses were split into bedsitters. My room was difficult to heat, in winter it cost little more to go to the cinema for the evening than to heat the room via the shilling-in-the slot meter. Now that house and all the others are smart family homes.
amber | 09.03.17 - 2:17 p.m. | #
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I used to get the 52 from Mill Hill to my nan's house in Kingsbury in the 1980s. And of course it was a wonderful Routemaster back then!! I think it stopped running that far soon after that.
I always thought it such a grand bus, travelling all the way into Central London from the sticks!
Happy Birthday DG. Hope you have a fab day.
Cornish Cockney | 09.03.17 - 2:47 p.m. | #
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Happy Birthday dg, 🎂🎉
Lynn | 09.03.17 - 3:21 p.m. | #
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Happy Birthday, thanks for your interesting posts all the time with the amount of effort you put in. I might even start doing your birthday tradition myself.
neyagness | 09.03.17 - 3:30 p.m. | #
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You finally made it to WG!
Dominic Self | Homepage | 09.03.17 - 3:30 p.m. | #
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another changed part of the 52 route is Victoria. I worked there about 20 years ago, and knew the Victoria St area very well. A few weeks ago I walked from Westminster back to Victoria station, and it was unrecognisable, so many new office blocks and shops.
amber | 09.03.17 - 4:15 p.m. | #
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Happy birthday, DG, and all the best for the year ahead.
To me, the recorded announcement "52 to Willesden, Bus Garage" always sounded exceptionally cheerful, as if it was a destination to look forward to. Now that I've read your report, I'm no longer sure about that.
Joachim | 09.03.17 - 4:52 p.m. | #
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Happy Birthday DG.
Mike K | 09.03.17 - 5:02 p.m. | #
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Happy Birthday
Chris Milton | 09.03.17 - 5:13 p.m. | #
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Happy Birthday! The 52 would have passed my door before the route was split between the 52 and 302.
Helen D Vecht | 09.03.17 - 6:00 p.m. | #
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Happy Birthday DG
C xx
Chris | 09.03.17 - 9:16 p.m. | #
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Happy birthday, DG. Hope you had a great day. Thank you again for all you do - it is much appreciated.
Andrew | 09.03.17 - 9:33 p.m. | #
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Happy Birthday DG!
Jackal | 09.03.17 - 10:05 p.m. | #
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Another excellent post dg. Many happy returns. I remember the account of your helicopter flight to celebrate your fiftieth.
Rob Healy | 09.03.17 - 10:41 p.m. | #
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Happy Birthday DG and thanks again for the daily blog.
Dave | 09.03.17 - 10:47 p.m. | #
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Happy Birthday! ... thanks for all your blogs. Hope you had a good day.
Tony
Tony | 09.03.17 - 11:23 p.m. | #
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Happy Birthday old chap, never driven a 52 but I used to drive the 52B whilst I was based at Victoria Garage in Gillingham Street ( GM), sadly demolished now.
Fishislandskin | 10.03.17 - 12:09 a.m. | #
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Happy Birthday DG!
Thanks for all the daily blogs, I always look forward to reading them and am seldom disappointed.
Hopefully this makes 52 comments.
Ray | 10.03.17 - 1:09 a.m. | #
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>> I used to drive the 52B
The 52B? Where did that travel to?
In the Victoria of my 1960s the 52 was one of the rare routes which didn't venture, one way or another, into the West End despite heading off in that general northerly direction.
The other route was the 10 which had the temerity to appear bound for the bright lights via Victoria Street, only to head off to the darkness of Southwark and London Bridge. I seem to recall that this was the bus for us Pimlico kids to catch for the Imperial War Musuem. It remained an RT type for aeons. Well that's the fixed view in my head anyway; could be wrong after all this time.
More importantly: any birthday chocs still left there, DG?
Pimlico Pete | 11.03.17 - 3:14 p.m. | #
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@ Pimlico Pete, I hope you realise that you've now ruined this post, which had stayed at 52 comments (the most suitable number)for some time.
amber | 11.03.17 - 4:27 p.m. | #
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@amber: I feel your pain. I had to be very firm with myself to refrain from wishing DG a Happy Birthday, as it would have been comment no.53 at the time. (Happy Birthday, DG!) Perhaps Pimlico Pete is not as number-aware as some of DG’s readers, or perhaps he was unable to fight off the urge to comment.
Great Aunt Annie | 11.03.17 - 9:55 p.m. | #
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Happy Birthday. Look forward to the 53 to Plumstead next year 😀
Rick | 14.03.17 - 9:15 p.m. | #
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