please empty your brain below
Looks like 51, 53 and 54 are somewhat of the same batch of new routes serving one area. This actually resembles Hong Kong, where bus routes are numbered according to the district they serve.

I certainly would read DG if I found another bargain of London-bound air ticket and have to decide where to go.

Patrickov | 10.03.18 - 5:42 a.m. | #

Love reading your bus journeys. Thank you!

Sarah | Homepage | 10.03.18 - 6:14 a.m. | #

Shame about that cafe

Tom | 10.03.18 - 6:33 a.m. | #

DG linking to Vice, how hip, DG.

Also, ghostsigns! There's actually a technical term for them! I still have fond memories of the Bile Beans ghostsign I saw everytime we had a jaunt to York during my childhood.

TheLupineOne | 10.03.18 - 7:25 a.m. | #

The Bile Beans sign has been repainted!

RogerB | 10.03.18 - 8:09 a.m. | #

I enjoyed that birthday bus ride with you,DG. This is probably because after New Cross it went through the areas of my long ago youth. I went back on a 53 the other year and was so disappointed at the changes. It's right what they say,never go back.

Next year when you ride the 54 you'll be heading through Beckenham to finish at Elmers End (appropriately) and passing the end of my road. A mug of strong birthday tea will be waiting! 😉 🎉

Jo W | 10.03.18 - 8:30 a.m. | #

I wonder what the second half of the route will look like in 2418.

dg writes: That's like comparing 1618 to now. I wouldn't bother wondering.

Bob L | 10.03.18 - 9:04 a.m. | #

>>Boulangerie Jade, an "artisan French patisserie"

Boulangeries (even faux ones) aren't patisseries so that's a comnplete fail there straight away :P

Agent X | 10.03.18 - 9:49 a.m. | #

There has been a route 53 along the Old Kent Road much further back than 1952.
http://londonbusroutes.net/photos/053.htm

timbo again | Homepage | 10.03.18 - 10:17 a.m. | #

Lovely article. At North Greenwich (which this bus doesn't go past), the hoardings round the overpriced flats being built tell new residents that traditions are important so why not invent some? Sigh...

Andrew S | 10.03.18 - 10:44 a.m. | #

Being a plumstodian you were literally 2 mins from my house. In fact you went past it :)

Rachel | 10.03.18 - 11:27 a.m. | #

The secret with the mighty 53 is to ride it in the opposite direction. There's nothing quite like seeing Blackheath open out in front of you as you reach the top of the hill after crawling along the Old Kent Road.

And as you say, from next week, you have the illicit thrill of using the Bricklayers Arms flyover.

Ned | 10.03.18 - 1:35 p.m. | #

Loved the bit about encountering the 54. Happy belated birthday dg.

HoosierSands | Homepage | 10.03.18 - 1:35 p.m. | #

Impressed by your writing, as always. I would be interested to learn if you write from recall, or record your experiences en route in some way. Wishing you many happy returns of your birthday.

dg writes: Bus route posts always involve note-taking.

Lorraine | 10.03.18 - 1:56 p.m. | #

I do enjoy these birthday bus rides.

Made even better now they seem to have turned off the "Please hold on while the bus is moving" announcements again!

Cornish Cockney | 10.03.18 - 4:23 p.m. | #

Here Here, Cornish Cockney. That message was driving us mad.

Neesy | 10.03.18 - 7:10 p.m. | #

At a guess the Union Jack toilet seats you spotted were in the window of Kenon plumbers' merchants. I've long wondered how that place survives given it opens onto railings and a Red Route, so depriving the passing builder of easy access. And there are plenty of the well-known chains nearby that have their own parking.

Matt | 10.03.18 - 10:54 p.m. | #

Lovely read again DG. Cheers. Recently went back to my old manor (OKR and Elephant) on a 53 and you describe the journey with honesty, freshness and a great turn of phrase. Reading it felt as if I was sat next to you. Thanks again.

Gary | 11.03.18 - 9:26 a.m. | #

Yes, you may know that the 53 ran to Camden Town (& Parliament Hill Fields), but did you know it was the traditional (1900-1940s) route to West Hampstead? And that the (58) 59, 159 originally ran to Camden Town.

The 53 and the 59 group of routes exchanged northern termini in November 1947, with the 59 & 159 then running to West Hampstead and the 53 to Camden Town. The Sunday 153 continued to run to West Hampstead for nearly another twenty years and was withdrawn in 1966. [link]

Steve | 11.03.18 - 10:36 a.m. | #

Gambardella is where my wife and occasionally I, if she was working that day took our daughters in between ballet lessons that were run by Miss Louise in St John's church hall just round the corner. Those days are long over, though: they're both postgrad scientists: pink leotards were long, long ago.

Boulangerie Jade isn't a bad alternative. It's based in Dulwich and seems to be spreading through SE London. Glad they've rethought their Twitter handle, though: it used to begin @bj ...

AlanBG | 11.03.18 - 8:07 p.m. | #

Lovely bus-alogue. It always feels a bit odd waiting at the Orchard Road terminus in Plumstead for a bus with 'Whitehall Horse Guards' on the front to swing round the corner - it is hard to imagine that any London bus route has *quite* so divergent a pair of termini! The whole Plumstead-Woolwich wandering-around-the-backstreets stretch feels like an odd contrast to the near straight-as-a-die route after Woolwich Common to central London.

You took the 53 almost exactly a year after I caught it up the hill from Deptford Bridge to Charlton House to get married. It was a rare experience for me to be the best-dressed person on a bus...

Political Animal | Homepage | 12.03.18 - 11:43 a.m. | #

I'm surprised to see the destination blind refer to Horseguards as HORSE GUARDS.

Mark Boulton | Homepage | 12.03.18 - 1:26 p.m. | #

A shoal of cars. You've invented a new collective term there

SJM | 12.03.18 - 9:01 p.m. | #

Ah, you're in my neck of the woods at last. Woolwich is cram-full of closed pubs, especially at the dockyard end; the reason for this is left as an exercise for the reader.

Klepsie | Homepage | 13.03.18 - 1:21 a.m. | #

The 53 in my opinion is the best route in London, and is still one of the few that traverses from zone one out into zone 4, I think the route between Plumstead and Woolwich should use the direct A206 road, since it is a trunk route.

I remember the X53, which started at Thamesmead and used to go fast from Blackheath to Elephant, they've made the eastbound journey a semi express now that it uses the Bricklayers Arms flyover

Nick | 04.05.19 - 8:34 a.m. | #











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