Celebrating a British icon 55
beginning to think of the diesel-
only vehicles as sounding rather
noisily ‘industrial’ both inside
and out. Upstairs, I preferred the
Enviro’s rectangular front upper-
deck window to the Gemini’s,
whose tall, arching shape had the
odd effect of making the interior
seem narrower than the Enviro’s
when I was sitting towards the
back, though of course it wasn’t.
At its northern end, the 36
starts in the centre of Queen’s
Park, a quiet suburb of smart
Victorian terraced housing. It
was once home to Queen’s Park
Rangers football club – which
quit the area for Shepherd’s Bush
more than 100 years ago. Now
the main feature is the park itself.
From here we thread our way
through the quiet terraced
streets of West Kilburn, passing
the Victorian Chippenham pub
and hotel, which has sometimes
served as the 36’s northern
terminus. We turn briefly south-
west on Elgin Avenue, then
make a sharp turn east on to the
Harrow Road.
Not far beyond Regent’s Canal
the road converges with the
Westway flyover, which we pass
under at Royal Oak. The rustic
name of this district belies its
character; its main feature seems
to be the swathe of railway tracks
heading west out of Paddington.
Crossing the railway on
a modest girder bridge, we
find ourselves among the
elegant white terraced villas of
Westbourne Park and Porchester
Square. Writer Thomas Hardy
lived in this area for a while, but
reportedly was not happy here,
and eventually returned to his
native West Country to write his
famous novels.
Now we turn east along
Bishop’s Bridge Road, then south
towards Paddington station and
central London. From here it’s
a short hop to Edgware Road,
a busy thoroughfare featuring
offices, multi-ethnic shops and
blocks of flats. Then after half a
mile we’ve arrived at the intensely
busy one-way system of Marble
Arch. Oxford Street stretches
away to the east, but we turn
right on to Park Lane on our way
to Hyde Park Corner and Victoria.Rounding the one-way system
at Victoria among extravagantly
elaborate modern office and retail
developments, we bypass the bus
station itself, continuing south-
west along Vauxhall Bridge
Road. It’s a mile to the River
Thames, and progress past theoffices, flats and embassies and
can be slow, especially at the
approach to the junction with the
multi-lane Grosvenor Road, just
before Vauxhall Bridge. Even the
bus lane cannot entirely mitigate
the delays caused by the long red
traffic light phases here.London by Bus
TOP: An ornate
gatehouse on a
corner of Queen’s
Park close to the
36 terminus.MIDDLE: Pollarded
trees in Queen’s
Park.BOTTOM: The
apparently
abandoned
Chippenham Hotel
in Shirland Road,
West Kilburn.