Today has decided to be mostly rainy. Not that I am grumbling about it because, apart from a few light showers, it has not rained, properly speaking, for quite a while and there must be a need for it. As a bonus, too, it lowers the temperature.

Despite the rain, we went out for a little expedition. We caught a number 30 bus to Baker Street.

Baker Street in the rain

Why Baker Street? Well, why not? It’s as good a place for an urban stroll as any other street. The photo shows a typical view of Baker Street in the rain. Sorry if that disappoints fans of Sherlock Holmes expecting to see Hansom cabs plying fir hire!

Stopping off for coffee

We stopped for coffee at a coffee shop called Pure. We sat on chairs outside under the shop awning, not realising that they had an indoor seating area downstairs. Not that it mattered really, because the awning kept most of the rain off and we had the benefit of the fresh air.

Metal screen

I photographed this façade because of the unusual metal screen across the front. This creates an open air atrium in front of the main building. In a city where space is at a premium this seems a strange waste. Aesthetically, it is quite pleasant, I suppose.

Repeating the pattern

Further along, the pattern of the screen is repeated though here it doesn’t seem to serve any specific purpose other than decoration.

Shop selling games

I didn’t pay any attention to this shop specialising in games (games are not an interest of mine) until Tigger pointed out a particular item displayed prominently in the window.

Fancy playing Pandemic?

Well, why not? As the old saying puts it, “It’s an ill wind that blows nobody any good“. Personally, I have enough trouble with the real pandemic to not wish to play games about it as well. But that’s just sourpuss me.

Handsome building

I admired this building on the corner of Portman Street and Bryanston Street. I would guess that it is late Victorian but I could of course be wrong. I imagine it was originally an apartment block though today it is a DoubleTree hotel.

Curiously bulbous building

Compare it with this curiously bulbous building on another corner. It somehow reminds me of the rounded gun turrets in World War 2 bomber aircraft (see here, for example). In its defence, I suppose it’s better looking than some modern horrors.

Aboard the number 30

Nearby was a bus stop where we boarded a number 30 bus to take us back to the Angel. Outside of rush hours, many buses carry few passengers and often don’t need to halt at bus stops as there is no one wishing to get on or off. Bus travel has become pleasant again, at least for now.

Some years ago, Transport for London installed displays at bus stops. These show which buses will call at the stop in the next few minutes. These were (and are) very useful. Unfortunately, many of these displays malfunctioned and instead of replacing them, TfL simply removed the defective ones. Tough luck if you found yourself at a stop that had no display.

This used to bother me as I often needed to know which buses would arrive at a stop and how soon. In recent years, this problem has found a solution, though no thanks to TfL. If you own a smart phone, you can now install an app that, depending in your location, shows on a map the positions of all nearby bus stops, the buses that stop at them and the expected arrival times of the next few buses to reach that stop.

There are several of these that all perform well and have individual points in their favour and it is perhaps unfair to single out just one. I will, however, say that the one we use is UK Bus Checker. This works both for London and for other towns whose bus information is available for capture by apps.

As more and more displays break down and are removed from London’s bus stops, the app becomes ever more useful!