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| Blurry picture outside Euston Station V McGarvey cc-by |
It is an early evening in late October and I am staying in London for the night in a hotel off Tavistock square because I will be chairing a seminar at Woburn House Conference Centre the next day. And the following memory has just come back to me.
My parents moved to from Stoke-on-Trent to London in 1989 for 6 years, I was in the first year of my degree at Staffordshire University then Poly. I had left home moved back and had to find a new place pretty quickly before my parents left for London which I had managed to achieve. I visited my parents new home in Camberwell adjacent to Kings College and hospital and Ruskin Park (named after John Ruskin) for the first time at the end of October 1989. My dad met me off the train at Euston Station. I had been to London many times I had never stayed over. I remembered it was a dark Thursday night a proper London pea-souper as we embarked on the 68 bus, outside Euston. For those who know the 68 bus route, you will know it goes all the way to Norwood in South London past some familiar places and sights.
It was the first time I had ventured on a bus going out of the centre, of London it was not a Routemaster, just a normal red doubledecker. My dad suggested the top deck to get the best view. The initial part of the journey went past Russell Square, down Kingsway past the LSE onto the Strand and then over Waterloo Bridge. I remember the breathtaking view of the Thames at night as we travelled over the bridge, almost impressionistic as the lights shone through the river mist. You could also see the outline of well known landmarks such as St Paul's and the Houses of Parliament, as well as the Southbank Centre. After passing Waterloo Station the bus progressed on to the Elephant and Castle the name at the time was more impressive than the bland shopping centre, then up Walworth Road the home of the Labour Party at the time before moving to Millbank, and then the bus passed Camberwell Green.
We alighted the 68 after the Maudsley psychiatric hospital and Kings College Hospital, on Denmark Hill by the Fox on the Hill, the first Wetherspoons pub I ever went into. Ruskin park was closed so we had to take the long walk to my parents' new home around the park. However, our route had one last delight, at the top of Ruskin Park on Ferndene Road you could see London's skyline like a charcoal drawing panoramically stretched before us with Big Ben taking pride of place.
I travelled on the 68 many times after that and sadly you take many of the sites for granted as they become a familiar backdrop. But I will never forget that first journey and never tired of travelling the route with unfamiliar visitors and pointing out the sites like my dad had done on that October night in 1989.