2011 - Day Out 8: London

Date: Saturday 23 April 2011

It's the Easter weekend, and Mr UK Buses and myself decide a visit to London is in order. Preparations have been made in the weeks running up to today's visit to the big city, with myself booking the rail tickets in advance which gives us big savings and reserved seats, and Mr UK Buses using his Good Friday to get the travel cards needed for our transport in London.

It is an early start and I catch National Express West Midlands Service 276 from Wollaston, which is already waiting for its 0706 departure, I let Mr UK Buses know that I'm on the bus and send him a text, at which he panics that the bus is leaving early and phones me. To make sure that he catches this bus, I text him again to say that the bus has left Wollaston when we depart. Mr UK buses joins me when he gets on the bus at Norton, and it is a quick journey through Stourbridge to Stourbridge Junction where we catch our first train to Birmingham.

We catch the 0735 London Midland train which gets us into Birmingham Snow Hill for 0810, and after a quick walk through Birmingham, we have our bacon roll breakfast from McDonald's, and we make our way to New Street Station. There is no platform for our Virgin Train to London yet, so we go outside so that I can have a cigarette, and as all the smokers are outside, a lady comes to have one herself and as she is bending down to get something out of her case, we see the moon in the glorious sunshine, but out of all the men in the smoking area, Mr UK Buses is the one who gets caught looking! Cigarette break over, we go back inside to look at which platform our 0850 Virgin train is departing from, only to find out our journey has been cancelled, so we have to wait an extra 20 minutes on Platform 4b and get onto the 0910 journey, and due to the extra passengers expected on board we make a dash to find seats.

After a journey time of just over 1 hour and 20 minutes, we arrive in London just over twenty minutes later than expected, so we head out of Euston and onto onto the main Euston Road, to get our first London bus of the day, Service 73 operated by Arriva London, and this journey takes us from London Euston to Victoria Bus Station. Upon arrival a few photographs are taken and we wait for our next bus, Service 211, operated by Abellio London, which will take us to Westminster, but we decide to get the tube for the short journey which will enable us to get back on track with our plan, and we get onto the Circle and District Line where we pass St. James Park Station before we arrive at Westminster Station, and we come back out of the underground to a splendid view of Big Ben in the glorious sunny weather. We walk past Parliament, and head to Westminster Abbey, ahead of the Royal Wedding, which Mr UK Buses takes a few photographs but before I get chance to, I'm stopped and have some "Lucky Heather" thrust upon me, which I have to pay for, "For the kids" I'm told. 

After this, we head up Whitehall and after a walk of about 10 minutes, we arrive at JD Wetherspoons "Lord Moon of The Mall", which we stop off at for a refreshing drink and a bite to eat. Table found, Mr UK Buses gets the drinks, and we peruse the menu for our dinner, and the menu is not needed as we opt for the regular lunch, with Mr UK Buses opting for his Chicken Tikka Masala, and the Beer and Burger for myself, so it is time to pop to the bar to order, and get the condiments. I return to our table and for some reason Mr UK Buses tells me to put the horseradish sauce back, so I do, and after a wait of about 10 minutes our food arrives. We tuck in but I'm sure that I've been given "Chester Portions" with my chips, so I finish before Mr UK Buses. We let our dinner settle and time for a "Cheers" photo, right, and we make our way to the next destination, so we head out onto Whitehall and a short walk past Trafalgar Square, we arrive at Charring Cross where we get onto the Northern line to Waterloo.

We make our way from the tube and into the main Waterloo railway station, where we have a discussion about whether this was where Del met Raquel in Only Fools and Horses. We think it is, and as of writing this, I've found out that it is infact correct. We make our way across the platforms looking for our train, and we arrive at Platform 3 where our South West Trains service is in the station ready to take us to Wimbledon Station. On the way we pass Battersea Power Station, where Mr UK Buses states that is where Helen Skelton did a tightrope walk across there for Blue Peter, he knew this even though he does not watch Blue Peter, or does he? We also pass through Clapham Junction, Britain's busiest railway station. We arrive at Wimbledon and make our way across the station so that we can catch the Croydon Tram Link from Wimbledon to the Morden Road Stop, which is only a couple of stops away from the Wimbledon Terminus. We arrive at Morden Road, and a short walk is made from the tram stop and walk up Lombard Road and onto Deer Park Road, where we are at South Wimbledon Studios, which was where ITV's The Bill was filmed. We walk to the front of the studios into Windsor Avenue and we are surprised to see that "Sun Hill" is still standing, see left, nearly a year after filming had stopped on the series. We make our way back towards the Morden Road Tram Stop, but instead of catching the Croydon Tramlink, we decide to catch service 93 to Putney Bridge Station, which is operated by Go-Ahead London, whilst on journey we pass through scenic parts of London with Wimbledon Common acting as the backdrop. We saw no Wombles though!

We arrive at Putney Bridge, and it turns out to be a good location for a few photographs, with the bus drivers being a friendly bunch whilst doing so. It is time to get to our next destination, so we head onto the underground again (even though you have to climb up stairs to get to Putney Bridge tube station) and onto the District Line where we head towards Whitechapel. On the way we pass through quite a few tube stations including Earls Court, Embankment, Monument and Tower Hill. We arrive at Whitechapel and make our way onto the main street and we notice that since our last visit to this station, the Overground has been opened, even though the station is still undergoing decoration works. A quick walk up Whitechapel Road, where we make our way to our London regular, The Blind Beggar, and we both opt for a refreshing Coke to whet our thirsts. The pub seems to be quiet since our last visit, with a patron asleep in the corner, even though the barman wakes him up, he does seems to walk up the main street with a bit of a wobble. 

We are ahead of schedule and we decide to catch a bus, and we opt for service 25 from Whitechapel, and we arrive at Oxford Circus. It is busy so we decide to head onto the underground for a short trip to St Paul's, where back outside the tube station, where we wait for our next bus service 100, which is on diversion, so have to make a quick walk to get onto Service 15, which takes us to Tower Hill.

We have a bit of time to spend at Tower Hill for our Heritage Routemaster on Service 15, so we decide to have a drink from the ice cream mean outside the Tower of London. Whilst waiting there is another Routemaster at the stop, a pink one, and after a few minutes the passengers disembark and it seems that it is a hen party, so despite the view of the Tower of London, we are treated to some more views, of which Mr UK Buses is closest to and he tries to get into the view of the photograph being taken of the party. After a few more minutes, the hen party makes it way back onto the pink bus after a little help from a "passing" fireman, which must have been the stripper as the pink bus makes its way and he is still on the top deck amidst the sounds of screams and laughter! It is a few minutes and our Heritage Routemaster on Service 15, operated by Stagecoach East London, turns up taking us from Tower Hill through London and ends up at Charing Cross.

Upon arrival at Charing Cross, we make our way back onto the tube for our last underground journey of the day, and in the nick of time to as rain starts to come down with a bit of thunder and lighting added in, and so we go onto the Northern Line for our short ride back to London Euston. As we make our way to the railway station we are passed by a few West Bromwich Albion fans, who have made their journey to the capital to see their team against Tottenham Hotspur, so we make a dash to "The Britannia" at the station for our final drink of the day. After a cigarette before our train journey back, we check for our train and discover that the trains aren't working in our favour today as ours is late, but once the platform is announced, a mad dash is made to the train to enable us to beat the WBA fans to our reserved seats. We get our seats and we relax for our journey back, that is after we have our sandwiches to re-energise ourselves.

We arrive back in Birmingham, but due to the train being late, we are held up whilst a spot becomes free at New Street, but finally we get into the station where we make our way to Snow Hill. We have a bit of time to kill before our train is due to Stourbridge Junction, so we try out a pub which is located down the side of Snow Hill, The Old Contemptibles, a place which I have spotted a couple of times from the train and now I have visited this establishment, which seems to be a real ale pub hidden away, but there are a few people who know where this place is and looks quite used with the company in the pub being friendly. Drink over, we head to Snow Hill and catch our train into Stourbridge Junction, where upon arrival, we swap platforms before getting onto to the Parry's People Mover back into Stourbridge Town.

A final journey of the day, and it is Black Diamond's Service 276 giving us the honours, taking us back home after a brilliant day out at the Capital. The weather was fantastic, sunny all day apart from the thunder just before we left Euston, and it also a day in which Mr UK Buses has to walk around carrying his coat, yes hard to believe! I cannot wait for our next visit to London, which will be in November for the Lord Mayor's Parade.