please empty your brain below
Happy Birthday!

Really enjoyed this post today (possibly because I'm so desperate to see new things it felt like a trip out somewhere).

Peter of London | 10.03.21 - 7:22 a.m. | #

When I was a London Buses inmate, the service changes which brought about the present route happened. One manager asked as I lived close to the planned route (coded '55N') what it ought to be numbered. I missed the obvious '38A', which disappeared a long time earlier; '55N' paralleled most of it between Whipps Cross and Angel. I instead plumped for the next available route number, 56 which had been vacant for some time.

It's a recurring pleasure to see 'my' route number having lasted (which was more than happened to 'my' route 510 extension); had I said 38A, that would have vanished in the early 2000s when Mayor Ken decreed that no London bus route should carry a suffix letter as they confused passengers.

Joel | 10.03.21 - 7:35 a.m. | #

Welcome to my manor!

Opposite the Cadet Force HQ is the locally famous Lamb's Cafe, where in normal times many a builder etc will take their breakfast and locals their lunch. When the new cycle lane was installed the bus stop outside the army ground was removed, meaning a longer walk if I want to catch a bus south or am arriving from the other way, to or from the Phyppe Way stop (in TFL parlance "Whipps Cross Bus Stand").

Thanks for a great post as ever - there's even something for cat lovers which would probably not have been the case if you rode the bus!

Tim | 10.03.21 - 8:41 a.m. | #

Thanks Joel! I’d wondered how this pair of bus routes got their consecutive numbers!

Dan | 10.03.21 - 8:41 a.m. | #

As Navarino Mansions was built during the Edwardian period, the would make it Art Nouveau and not Deco.

KenF | 10.03.21 - 9:09 a.m. | #

Genuinely impressed that there is a 56 bus on every photo.

R2 | 10.03.21 - 9:26 a.m. | #

Thanks also Joel; long time no see. I'd not realised the lack of suffixes was Ken's doing. I find suffixes less confusing and more helpful than two routes covering much the same roads that now have completely unrelated numbers to remember.

Andrew S | 10.03.21 - 9:31 a.m. | #

Nice reference to 'Tales From the Turnpike House'. A very enjoyable journey to read, good effort.

Johnny Topaz | 10.03.21 - 9:39 a.m. | #

I am glad you would have been able to get your preferred seat, and at least you did not have to deal with any ill-mannered fellow passengers this year.

TomH | 10.03.21 - 9:51 a.m. | #

Thanks DG, I really enjoyed that outing today.

Dave | 10.03.21 - 9:59 a.m. | #

Get Stuffed on Essex Road is self-described as the premier Taxidermy company in the UK, and always worth a peak through the shuttered windows to see what is currently in stock.

TomH | Homepage | 10.03.21 - 10:03 a.m. | #

38A/56 - during the strike by London Forest back in 1991, LRT issued a temporary contract to Kentish Bus to operate the 56 between Whipps Cross and Clapton Pond, according to the London Bus Reveiw for 1991, these operated as the 56A in its last week of operation 21st-28th July.

Still Anon | 10.03.21 - 10:19 a.m. | #

Over the years i have been referred to both hospitals and live about half way along route 56 so especially enjoyed this morning's insights, none more than that shedding light on Margetts Corner which has puzzled me for decades.

the other eric | 10.03.21 - 10:26 a.m. | #

Thank you,DG,for a really interesting non-essential pretend birthday bus ride.
Looking forward to not going out somewhere else. 😉

Jo W | 10.03.21 - 10:26 a.m. | #

The 56 is the only bus route that connects my home (where I have spent the last 51 weeks) to my place of work (where I haven’t been for 51 weeks). So, some of this journey is now extraordinarily familiar, while some of it provoked a surprisingly powerful pang of nostalgia.

The passing reference to Cliffords barbers - where I sometimes dropped in for a haircut in the before times - almost brought a tear to my eye !

CJS | 10.03.21 - 10:30 a.m. | #

Yay, the tradition has been upheld - sort of!

Cornish Cockney | 10.03.21 - 10:57 a.m. | #

I really enjoy these interesting posts, thank you.

Lorraine | 10.03.21 - 11:06 a.m. | #

Navarino Mansions, though Edwardian, was built in the Arts and Crafts style, according to this link.

dg writes: Updated, thanks.

Bob L-S | 10.03.21 - 11:36 a.m. | #

My old manor as well, although I used the part of the route then covered by the 48. Also, I had a friend whose parents lived in Navarino Mansions, where I called once or twice.
It's a tribute to the essential reading-status of the DG blog that it is frequented by those whose claim to fame is that they were responsible for a bus route getting its number.
Happy birthday DG!

Charles | Homepage | 10.03.21 - 11:49 a.m. | #

I would certainly agree that pedestrians should be very careful not to accidentally stand in the River Lea.

Klepsie | 10.03.21 - 1:54 p.m. | #

If you really go old school the Pembury Road routing would suggest a route 38 (the 38A went via Graham Road), though the Baker’s Arms to Whipps Cross section does indeed suggest a 38A number - the 38 went to Chingford from Baker’s Arms.

Robert Butlin | 10.03.21 - 2:03 p.m. | #

Route 38A was diverted via Graham Road in 1959 to replace trolleybus route 581 - prior to that it ran, like the 38 via Cricketfield / Pembury Roads and Dalston Lane.

Separately, I hope the numbering of route 56 isn't my sole claim to 'fame'!

Joel | 10.03.21 - 2:19 p.m. | #

I had patently failed to notice previously in the Government roadmap that the restrictions on non-essential bus-related grandstanding were to be relaxed today.

Frank F | 10.03.21 - 2:24 p.m. | #

A bus I take frequently - the 155 - has recently become numerically significant because it is the route whose number is equal to the fare in pence. Users of the 150 may be disappointed but they’ve had years in the spotlight now!

Chris D | 10.03.21 - 2:27 p.m. | #

Congratulations! How many steps for the journey?

Leuconoe | 10.03.21 - 3:13 p.m. | #

A very interesting, long birthday post. And I admire the determination needed to write it without breaking the rules, not even in a very specific and limited way.

Malcolm of Kent | 10.03.21 - 3:24 p.m. | #

Epic post, thanks DG!

Kevin | 10.03.21 - 6:41 p.m. | #

Fun fact: The 56 was one of only two* bus routes I used all of last year. I used it to go between Essex Road and Lea Bridge stations way back on 15th February 2020.

(*The other was a short hop on the 37 between Clapham Junction and Clapham Common the same day.)

X-Plaistow | 10.03.21 - 9:44 p.m. | #

A really enjoyable classic DG post, thank you.

I'm surprised no-one's commented on the fake bus stop. Is this the first time we know what's going to feature in tomorrow's blog?

dg writes: very much no

Hadders | 10.03.21 - 11:29 p.m. | #

Happy birthday and thanks for the cat post!

Debster | 11.03.21 - 7:53 a.m. | #

Essex Road, St Etienne's second best album, and the Barbican all in one post. Really outdid yourself on this one dg

barbicanman | 11.03.21 - 3:42 p.m. | #

Belated happy birthday DG

What is astonishing for me is how quiet it is in London, even the outer bits like Lea Bridge Road. I'm now exiled to the provinces and I would guess there is at least 50% of normal road and pedestrian traffic here now, it's nothing like as dead as it was during Lockdown I. Sometimes it seems pretty much normal here, just some shops are shut

Herned | 13.03.21 - 12:16 a.m. | #

Those cycle lane divider posts shown in the Balls Pond Road photo have also been used at various locations, including around the Borough of Greenwich.
Unfortunately there seems to have been a complete failure to understand that, for the reflective sleeves to remain visible after dark, they need to be kept clean. I'd go so far as to call them dangerous.

RogerW | 13.03.21 - 3:37 p.m. | #











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