Great Bus Journeys of the World No 13 Mike Roden Goes from Clapham Junction to Shoreditch the Long Way Round

Great Bus Journeys of the World No 13 Mike Roden goes from Clapham Junction to Shoreditch the long way round It’s two minutes past ten as I board After a long wait the bus joins the towards the giant roundabout known the 35 bus on St John’s Road on bustle of Brixton. At the stop opposite as Elephant and Castle. Major a drizzly, grey February morning the underground station the bus fills redevelopment plans for this area and we’re off up Battersea Rise, up, but there are also large numbers don’t all meet with approval, and which quickly merges into Clapham of commuters heading for the Victoria a local group is campaigning for Common Northside. The church of Line. The station – with very high ‘a regeneration that benefits local St Barnabas has a medieval look to usage for an inner suburban station – people’. Nonetheless the tall buildings it, though it was actually opened in was opened on 23 July 1971. are arriving. The 485ft Strata SE1 1898. A blue plaque on the wall of tower with its non-functioning wind 47 Northside records that composer Bookie turbines was completed in 2010, Edvard Grieg often stayed here We’re soon turning into Coldharbour and those waiting on the starting line between 1888 and 1906 as the guest Lane. A ‘cold harbour’ was an include One the Elephant, 360 Tower of his publisher who would sometimes uninhabited shelter, with a roof, door and Eileen House all well over 400ft fly the Norwegian flag when the great and possibly a simple hearth. In 1955, high. More usefully for local people man was in residence. when John Major was 12, his family 2015 should see the opening of a Into Clapham and past Clapham moved to a dingy tworoom rented new leisure centre, to replace the old Common underground station, flat on this road. Thus a future British Castle centre. opened in 1900. Apart from a small prime minister is on record earning domed entrance building the station is pocket money by delivering bets to Atmospheric entirely underground. The 31ft Clock an unlicensed bookie operating under We turn up Newington Causeway Tower next to the station entrance the arches at nearby Loughborough which becomes Borough High was unveiled in July 1906. Almost Junction railway station. Street, once the main road from the immediately we turn right down We pass Camberwell Green, south. The only one remaining of its Clapham Park Road, an uninspiring a sliver of ancient common land numerous galleried coaching inns is mixture of small shops, hairdressers bought by the local parish in the the George Inn, now in the shadow of and takeaways. late 19th century to protect it from the Shard. Mentioned by Dickens in development. Burgess Park named Little Dorrit it is currently owned and ritzy after Jessie Burgess, Camberwell’s leased by the National Trust. Such At the junction with Brixton Road first woman mayor, opened in 1971. inns may have been the inspiration there’s a good view of the Ritzy Unusually for a London park it was for the original theatres, with players Picturehouse. Opened in 1911 it was created out of a brownfield site which acting on a stage in the courtyard one of England’s earliest purpose- had been occupied by industry and surrounded by the standing audience built cinemas, which finally closed housing. with the more expensive ‘posh seats’ in 1976. Its revival was supported Newington Library and the up in the galleries. The George is by Lambeth council and the London associated Cuming Museum – both certainly still very atmospheric, and Cinema Collective, but the cinema’s opened in 1906 – have remained well worth a visit. somewhat ‘alternative’ agenda, closed for two years since a As is of course Borough Market. didn’t always sell tickets. A desperate disastrous fire. On the other side of From the eleventh century, London manager once advertised in the local the road is the former Labour Party Bridge held stalls selling grain, paper to reassure locals that not HQ renamed John Smith House, in fish, vegetables and livestock. In every film screened was ‘left-wing memory of the party’s leader who the thirteenth century traders were or gay’. Those headily independent died suddenly in 1994 after only two relocated to Borough High Street and days are gone and today the cinema years at the helm. It’s now a council a market has existed there ever since. (owned by Picturehouse Cinemas) is a hostel. To our left is Southwark Cathedral, multi-screen complex. The bus heads on inexorably or more correctly The Cathedral 8 Sights to see: The ritzy cinema (photo:oxfordian Kissuth); John Smith House, Southwark; The George inn, London Bridge; the ‘Walkie-Talkie Building’; punk band Superheaven at the old Blue Last; Shoreditch Town Hall and Collegiate Church of St Saviour the Salesforce Tower, after major to return to Liverpool Street Station and St Mary Overie. There’s been tenant Salesforce.com, was recently and make my way home via Victoria a church here since 606AD, and quashed by the City of London and the trusty 170 bus. The whole probably a Roman temple before that. Corporation which voted in favour of journey took almost an hour and a The present building retains much of calling the property 110 Bishopsgate. half, which is why TfL’s thoughtful its medieval fabric though the nave is We stop briefly at Liverpool Street Journey Planner refused to give me a late 19th-century reconstruction. It station. There are few passengers details of this journey, but insisted I became a cathedral in 1905 when the left on the bus now. A little further on took the Overground from Clapham Diocese of Southwark was created. Folgate Street is the site of Dennis Junction which would have only taken The current London Bridge Severs’ House. It’s named after the 45 minutes. The choice is yours. opened in 1973, replacing a Victorian American owner who from 1979 stone-arched bridge, which in turn until his death in 1999 transformed The Battersea Society superseded a 600-year-old medieval it into an atmospheric time capsule structure. There’s evidence of timber recreating domestic life in the Chair Sara Milne bridges here since Roman times. eighteenth century. Well worth going [email protected] Ahead of us is the much changed, to see on a candlelit winter’s evening. sometimes maligned city skyline, with vice-chair Sue Marshall the Cheesegrater, the Walkie-Talkie Shakespeare [email protected] and the Gherkin all seeming to nestle On Great Eastern Street, there’s a close together for company. pub called the Old Blue Last. In 1576 Secretary Harvey Heath Along King William IV Street it was the site of James Burbage’s [email protected] I catch sight of the Monument playhouse The Theatre. Shakespeare commemorating the Great Fire, was almost certainly a member of the Membership Sec Maureen Larkin then we pass Leadenhall Market company. After a few years Burbage [email protected] whose origins date from the pulled it down, went south and built Committee Chairs fourteenth century. The bus stops the Globe. A pub called ‘The Last’ – at Threadneedle Street, home to as in shoemaker – is first recorded Community Harvey Heath the Bank of England. The street’s here in the eighteenth century. Over [email protected] name may refer to the threads and the next couple of centuries, the pub’s needles used by the members of the fortunes wavered, until – by now Planning Liz Walton Worshipful Company of Merchant renamed The Old Blue Last – by the [email protected] Taylors, whose hall has been located 1980s it was notorious for hosting a here since 1347. brothel on its upper floor. Shoreditch, open Spaces and the pub have cleaned up their act [email protected] Bomb since then, and it’s now very popular events Wendy Deakins Outside 99 Bishopsgate there’s a little with the area’s young people, famous huddle of damply dejected smokers. for its live music and lively crowd. [email protected] The building was extensively The bus takes various detours General enquiries damaged in 1993 by a Provisional caused by building work and road IRA bomb which also damaged works, and eventually ends up [email protected] Tower 42 behind it. Opposite at 110 at the Grade II listed Shoreditch Website Bishopsgate is the Heron Tower, Town Hall built in 1865. It’s now an batterseasociety.org.uk at 755ft the third tallest building independent arts and events venue, in London. A move by the owners and is apparently very successful Registered charity no.1103560 Heron International, to rename it which is good to know. Time for me 9.

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