The Zed Bus

Or at least that's what the temporary roadworks yesterday evening in the East Dulwich Road turned the 484 into.  Caused by a gas leak apparently, it meant that EDR became one-way westwards.  Hence the 484 I jumped onto at East Dulwich station had to divert.

And what a diversion it was.  We went all the way up Lordship Lane to Dulwich Library / The Plough, and then down Barry Rd.  And at each bus stop the driver stopped and explained to all and sundry what he was doing and how his new route worked.

Back at the Rye end of Barry Road, we went down the Rye to Nigel Rd, which was the first point where a right turn was legal.  And then back up the other side of the Rye. So it became the first bus to serve both sides of the Rye. Marvellous.

So I call it the Z-Bus.  If you squint at the new route it looks a bit like a backwards Z.

Like this:

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So finally we have a route that connects The Vale, Bishop, Plough, Clock House, Rye Hotel and Brockley Barge.  Just what the area needed, really. 

And it was making request stops at those places - or at least, when someone rang the bell it pulled up just outside the Rye Hotel, where there is no stop.  So it must be.

The 484 has a strange enough route anyway - at least near the Lewisham end. So I think they should stick with this.

Evening on the Rye

So I wandered out on to the Rye a few evenings ago.  The church spire is St John's by Goose Green.

This tree sits lonely in the middle of this part of the Rye.

The bark is interesting, close up.

Although the automatic flash rather ruined the textures in this shot - I didn't have a tripod with me.:

Getting darker.  The white building on the far right is the converted King's on the Rye pub.

And darker still.

This path cuts diagonally across the Rye, from broadly the Clock House to Nunhead Lane.

But by then it was so dark that a 343 bus on the East side just appeared as faint lights to the camera (on a normal setting).

The Pubs around Nunhead: 5

He got back into the little Fiat and drove away along the Grove and up to the Common where he parked outside the Rye... and entered the saloon bar...

He walked across to the White Horse and drank one bitter. Next he visited the Morning Star and the Heaton Arms.  He finished up at the Harbinger.

               (From the first page of The Ballad of Peckham Rye, Muriel Spark, (1960))            

As noted elsewhere, the Heaton Arms is now demolished, the Morning Star is now the Nag's Head, the Rye Hotel is now simply the Rye and the Harbinger is probably a composite.

 

(Note however that  this reference is wrong on other details.  The Clock House also overlooks the Rye and - re note [4] - Kings on the Rye/The King's Arms was demolished around 10 years ago, so it would have been around in Muriel Spark's time).

Nighttime on Peckham Rye

Last weekend I went out onto the Rye to take these images. It was ten o'clock or so at night, and it felt a little lonely. You can see across the whole Rye from where I was standing, but I still kept looking around to see if I was being crept up upon.
For me this has a slightly Edward Hopper-ish feel to it, especially as in Nighthawks.
This nex one didn't turn out as intended, but I still like the messy lines of light on the bus going past Kings on the Rye.
This is what I had intended.
I also wanted to try to capture a sense of movement with the long exposures, but I think I only achieved it to any real extent with the next two - and particularly the first. The cars and people passing on the near side of the road have disappeared, and left streaks of light around the bus and cars waiting for the traffic lights.

And one final experiment - which shows why you need to use a tripod!