Bus Route Of The Day 167: Ilford to Loughton Quadrant: London northeast Length of journey: 8 miles, 50 minutes
Because it's 16th July I've been out riding the 167, because that's the Bus Route Of The Day. Let's hit the Home Counties.
A sheaf of buses fans out north from Ilford but only the 167 extends far enough to properly enter Essex. It joins the throng of traffic passing the pound shops and the pawnbrokers before Cranbrook Road suddenly opens out to reveal the glories of Valentines Park. The nicest bit with the mansion and the canal grotto is three stops further on at the foot of Beehive Lane, then it's time to circle Gants Hill station where The Vortex spins in the middle of the roundabout. Take the third turning for Barkingside, past the excruciatingly 1930s library, to the leafy corner with the Magistrates Court and the whopping Tesco. The High Street still feels substantial rather than a vacated shell and eventually ends at Fulwell Cross by the gloriously 1950s library. Fencepiece Road continues the break for the border, which occurs almost invisibly just past the Hainault turn as the road climbs to a proper summit at Grange Hill.
You can't see Chigwell's golf course because it's hidden behind a row of houses, but the clue is right there in a bus stop named Linkside. And what houses these are, proper nouveau riche Towie mansions competing to see who can build the showiest frontage on a compact plot. Many are firmly gated to keep the riffraff out, and I think the maximum number of cars I saw crammed out front was eight. Chigwell station is an unlikely zone 4 outpost and many locals aren't pleased it's proved a magnet for development, the Volkswagen showroom having recently succumbed to rebirth as 35 'stylish' apartments. Longstanding fashion mecca Debra is already a stack of less stylish flats, but thankfully moved into alternative premises on Brook Parade in 2014 so Tracey and Dorien need not miss out. Beyond the village green and village sign the 167 passes umpteen more flashy castles on Chigwell Rise, before leaping over the thundering M11 on a high bridge which affords fine views across the Roding Valley.
The route's dalliance with Buckhurst Hill is a quick twiddle round the station forecourt, before veering off to serve a stripe of suburbia east of the railway line which would otherwise be served by shonky infrequent Essex bus services. Loughton station has been the route's terminus since 2017 when the council stopped paying for it to go all the way to Debden, allowing me to end this reportage prematurely rather than droning on for four more miles.
