Great Bus Journeys of the World No 21 Mike Roden travels from Putney to Warren Street on the no 14 bus

The bus starts at the excellent Green ferryman’s refusal to budge from the 1905. The ground opened in 1877 Man pub which has stood on the pub on the far side and fetch him. and for a quarter of a century was edge of Putney Heath since around Furious, he began the campaign used for athletics rather than football. 1700. This area was notorious for the which resulted in the bridge being A couple of minutes more and activity of highwaymen who preyed built. we stop outside Chelsea and on those staggering home from the Apparently is the Hospital which recently pub, and a rather improbable legend only bridge in Britain to have an celebrated the 25th anniversary of its recalls that Dick Turpin stored his ancient church at both ends. Apart move to this site. Until 1989 the site guns upstairs. from the fifteenth century tower was home to St Stephens Hospital. There was apparently a local dominating the church of All Saints At the junction with Beaufort saying “pistols for two and breakfast Fulham, most of the present building Street is the Cineworld cinema which for one”, recalling the duels fought was rebuilt in 1880 – 1 by Sir Arthur opened in December 1930 as the on the Heath. In May 1798, the Blomfield. short-lived Forum theatre. Closing as then Prime Minister, William Pitt the The 1976 horror movie The Omen a theatre it became an ABC cinema. Younger fought a duel with William starring Gregory Peck begins in Over the years it has increased the Tierney, the MP for Southwark. nearby Bishop’s Park, and ends with number of screens and gone through Each fired twice but all the shots a bizarre accident where a priest is several changes of ownership missed. Sounds more exciting than a impaled by a lightning conductor on Commons debate! the church tower that is dislodged Medicine when it is hit by lightning. The far end of Fulham Road is Copperfield The bus heads up Fulham High dominated by medicine. The Royal The bus makes short work of the trip Street, passing a pub with the unlikely Brompton Hospital started life in the down the hill, arriving at the station name of the Temperance. This grade 1840 as the Hospital for Consumption which has been serving Putney since II listed building was built in 1910 and Diseases of the Chest and is still 1846. The railway began a housing for a company called Temperance the UK’s the largest specialist heart boom in what had been a quiet Billiard Halls Ltd. They had several and lung medical centre. Its next- riverside community and city gents such halls in . Hard to think door neighbour is the Royal Marsden and their families flocked there. now of billiards being associated with founded in 1851 by Dr William Parts of St Mary’s Church near non-alcoholic beverages. Marsden as the Free Cancer Hospital, Putney Bridge date from the fifteenth The bus turns onto Fulham Road, which was the world’s first hospital century. The church was substantially dominated here by residential dedicated to the study and treatment rebuilt in 1836 with more extensive property ranging from Victorian villas of cancer. work finally completed in 1982 to modern apartment blocks. This part of London was dubbed following a 1973 arson attack that Fulham Library was built in 1908 Albertopolis after Prince Albert gutted the building. In 1647 it hosted by Yorkshire born architect Henry encouraged the Royal Commission the Putney Debates on the English Hare who included an etching or for the Great Exhibition in 1851 to constitution, and much later Dickens carving of a hare in all his buildings. use the exhibition proceeds to buy set the ill-advised wedding between Couldn’t spot it, I fear, as we whisked land to create a cultural and scientific David Copperfield and Dora Spenlow past on our way to Chelsea. area. Turning up Cromwell Place the here. We pass the Fulham Broadway Natural History Museum is ahead of Until 1729 the ferry was the only shopping complex which includes the us, and a right turn takes us past the way to cross the river. The nearest underground station which until 1952 Victoria and Albert Museum. bridges then were at Kingston and was called Walham Green. The site across the road from the . It’s said that in And now we get a good view of museum was once owned by the 1720 Sir Robert Walpole’s plan to Stamford Bridge the home of Chelsea Shakespeare Memorial National go to Fulham was frustrated by the FC since the club was founded in Theatre Committee. Plans to build the

8 Left to right: William Pitt the Younger; Note: All of the Great Bus Originally in the centre of the circus, Bishop’s Park, Fulham; the Royal Journeys have been cleverly in the 1980s it was moved to the Brompton Hospital; the Ismaili Centre, extracted from Battersea southwestern corner. Commonly Kensington; Matters and can be downloaded from referred to as Eros the famous statue www.batterseabus.co.uk is in fact his brother Anteros, who apparently symbolises Shaftesbury’s selfless love and concern for the poor. We’re now on the last leg of our journey heading up . The road was built between 1877 and 1886 by the architect George Vulliamy and the engineer Sir Joseph Bazalgette to provide a north-south traffic artery through the crowded districts of St. Giles and . long-awaited National Theatre there Florida and the company HQ is now This of course is the heart of were dropped because the site was in Orlando. Strange but true! theatreland, with the Lyric, Apollo, felt to be too small. Sometimes the traffic along Gielgud and Queen’s theatres Instead we have the Ismaili Centre makes it quicker to walk, clustered together on the west side – a religious, cultural and social space but the bus moves fairly swiftly of the road before we reach Charing specifically designed for the Ismaili alongside – said to have Cross Road where we find the Palace Muslim community in Europe. This originally been swampy burial ground Theatre, noted for its long-running elegant building is often open to the for lepers from the nearby hospital shows. And true to form the award- public during Open House weekend at St James’s – past the Athenaeum winning Harry Potter and the Cursed and is worth a visit – especially the Hotel with its gorgeous planted green Child is still showing. wonderful roof garden. wall and the Japanese Embassy. J K Rowling is also responsible for On Brompton Road we pass the The Ritz, that emblem of luxury or a surge of interest in Denmark Street Church of the Immaculate Heart of decadence (depending on your point further along. Her Robert Galbraith Mary (aka Brompton Oratory) which of view) opened in 1906. It became novels star Cormoran Strike, the dates from the mid-1870s. We move popular at the end of the first world private eye with a prosthetic leg from God to Mammon as we pass war, and was the place to stay for who lives and works in an office , currently owned by the politicians, socialites, writers and above one of the shops there. Fans state of Qatar. The store’s motto is actors. Noël Coward was a notable of the books and now the recent TV Omnia Omnibus Ubique (all things fan. serialisation regard it as a place of for all people, everywhere). It should pilgrimage! probably continue Si Potes Praestare Livelier I realise that I’ve have been here (if you can afford it). The Royal Academy is celebrating on your behalf quite recently. I’m now At the end of we stop at 250 years since its foundation and its retracing part of the journey I took on station. The nearby anniversary summer exhibition has the 24 to Hampstead. (For a detailed Wellington Arch is worth a visit. Go up been curated by Grayson Perry. As account see Battersea Matters to the top and gaze across at Apsley you might expect it’s a little livelier Summer 2017 which you’ll find at the House, the home of the Iron Duke than usual. The Times called it ‘an newsletters section on our website). for many years. This once had the enthusiastically democratic spectacle Thanks to years of building work, address No 1 London. These days that breathes a gust of new life into the road taking us past Tottenham you should write to 149 Piccadilly longstanding tradition’. Court Road station is not in great W1J 7NT, though it’s rumoured that Nearing now, we condition, and the bus bumps letters to the original address will still see St James Piccadilly. Designed and lurches along. We cross the be delivered. Give it a try and let me by Christopher Wren this was notoriously polluted , know how you get on. consecrated in July 1684. The church which Westminster Council has The bus safely negotiates the was severely damaged in the Blitz. decreed will never be pedestrianised. traffic hell that is Hyde Park Corner Luckily many of the precious interior (Never say never!) and we arrive at the Hard Rock Café. fittings had been protected prior to A few more minutes and we arrive This international business which the raid and survived, including the at Warren Street station – journey’s includes cafes, hotels, and casinos marble font where both William Blake end. I make my way down to the started here back in 1971, the and William Pitt the Elder (father of Victoria Line and am home in just brainchild of two young Americans. the duellist we met on Putney Heath) over half an hour. In 1979, the cafe began covering its were baptised. For anyone planning to try this trip walls with rock and roll memorabilia, Piccadilly Circus was created in I’d recommend starting here, finishing a tradition which expanded to others 1819. It was not until 1893 that the at the Green Man for a well-deserved in the chain. In 2007 Hard Rock was Shaftesbury Memorial Fountain was drink. I assure you nobody’s seen a sold to the Seminole Indian Tribe of erected in honour of Lord Shaftesbury. highwayman for ages…

9