Open top. "...Worth waiting for?" (2017)

Another hot day and another chance to jump onto the open top bus at about 3.40pm. Top deck was already full but eventually got a seat in the front covered section. This recording starts in Westcliff, I wasn’t going to bother but the man across the way was so full of comments and I didn’t have to worry about the wind making a noise I changed my mind.

It breaks down into 14 excerpts, thus;

1. Westcliff, worth waiting for.
2. The tide was coming in and they were referring to the sandy beaches that stay uncovered, which you start to see a little bit before The Crowstone.
3. Expensive houses, on the front before Crowstone Avenue, some have been remodelled, others are small apartment blocks put up where there had been a single house.
4. Announcement for the rail bridge, the driver is Polish. Southend is twinned with the Polish resort of Sopot, but just a coincidence this time.
5. On The Ridgeway, the comment is that it’s Westcliff, which they’d seen on a road sign but I’d say it was Chalkwell, where does it begin and end, does it even exist?
6. Chalkwell station futher along The Ridgeway, the footbridge across the tracks here takes you straight onto the beach or esplanade.
7. Climbing the hill, going quite high up, halfway along The Ridgeway becomes Cliff Gardens and you pass from Chalkwell to Leigh-on-Sea.
8. Very nice, and it is along Grand Parade, to the south is Undercliff Gardens with its own private road. You only see the backs of the houses, they all overlook the river.
9. Nannie’s House is in Cliff Parade as the hill goes down to Leigh. These all have unobstructed sea views, I wouldn’t say it was countryside but you do see over Leigh Creek, Two Tree Island and Canvey. The people would be on Bell Wharf Beach.
10. Coming down Leigh Hill with a single lane of traffic they mention the footbridge to Old Leigh at the bottom of the hill which goes over the railway.
11. New Road, this runs alongside the railway which was driven through Leigh when it was built. A tree branch hits the top of the bus, a train passes. Ye Olde Smack and The Boatyard are in The High Street, and they’d be very pleased to hear it described as villagey.
12. Leigh-on-Sea station where the bus turns ’round.
13. Coming up Belton Way East, I think you can use your concessions.
14. Rectory Grove, and once again the town council would be very pleased to hear Carol describe it as a shopping centre, Elm Road, Broadway West, The Broadway and Leigh Road all have shops, quite a few independents, and all those roads have Essex sounds of some kind or another in them.

The woman looking for nannie’s house sounded local, the man on the bus, I reckon Nottinghamshire, based on no great specialist knowledge, but happy to be corrected. I don’t know who was doing the humming, a content passenger.

(Image taken on a previous bus journey.)