Bus Route Of The Day 177: Peckham to Thamesmead Quadrant: London southeast Length of journey: 12 miles, 75 minutes
Because it's 17th July I've been out riding the 177, because that's the Bus Route Of The Day. There are more glamorous ways to travel.
On the off chance you ever want to go from Peckham to Thamesmead the 177 is your friend, and regularly so, if on the painfully slow side. It passes sequentially through New Cross, Greenwich and Woolwich, hence the snail's pace. The 177 emerges every 10 minutes from Peckham bus station, which always looks like it might one day be replaced by flats, and aims for the police station rather than on-trend Rye Lane. Chunky council housing dominates on Queen's Road, ploughing through what used to be Hatcham to join what's effectively the foot of the Old Kent Road near the launderette and the bus garage.
"Are you going to Greenwich?" asks the lady who hasn't checked the timetable, then gets on because we are. She comes up top but doesn't risk the front seat because someone's left a can of Red Bull and something fruity on the seat. A bus lane is our saviour through much of the maelstrom of New Cross, but sadly not all the way because squeezing the A2 through a Victorian town centre isn't ideal. A young lad boards with a trumpet, thankfully secure in its case. As New Cross Road becomes Deptford Broadway the pubs are plentiful and the takeaway offer is bolstered by the solidarity of The Communist Kebab. After crossing the Ravensbourne our job is to be the only bus serving Greenwich High Road, a historic street now dominated by blocky newbuilds. At number 62 is The Golden Chippy, a local favourite whose owner recently got into trouble for displaying an oversized patriotic sign above the door (and who's also diversified nextdoor into The Golden Vineyard off-license and The Golden Cafe). Someone's busy Flymo-ing the lawn in front of the Jubilee almshouses, the bus now passing Greenwich station, then two other routes merge in and the 177's brief exclusive link is complete.
Onwards round Greenwich's markets and World Heritage Site, onwards through the constricted artery of Trafalgar Road and onwards under the concrete legs of the Blackwall Tunnel Approach Road. Charlton's superstores now generate an increasing number of passengers, though Woolwich town centre still dominates for lower value items. Eastbound the routing is slow but busy, eventually permitting escape onto Plumstead Road where that annoying change of drivers always happens. Plumstead proper delays things too before the bus bears off across the railway to serve the Abbey Wood estate which mouldered here pre-Crossrail. The route skips the station but still insists on doing an almost entire circuit of Thamesmead before finally terminating by the library, the lake and the lack of shops. There is, I'd suggest, a lot to be said for cramming a 12 mile bus route into three paragraphs.
