Random Route: 252

One of London's slightly less interesting routes is the 252, running between Collier Row and Hornchurch Town Centre at a 10 minute frequency. It takes a fairly indirect route between the two termini, serving Romford and Elm Park in the process. Describing it as residential can almost be seen as an understatement, with no real break at all apart from Romford Town Centre. Thankfully, there are occasional changes of scenery to complement the housing, and if you do love routes that constantly travel through suburban residential areas, then I would definitely recommend the 252. It runs from Stagecoach London's Rainham (RM) garage with a mixed allocation consisting of ADL E400s and Scania OmniCity vehicles, which are some of the nicest examples in London.

An ADL E400 is seen at Romford Station on the 252 to Collier Row.

The 252 starts at the very end of Collier Row High Street, a smaller equivalent of the thriving Romford Town Centre. This modest suburban development is located in the London Borough Of Havering (which the 252 doesn't leave throughout its journey) just North of Romford and contains lots of surrounding housing areas where several bus routes terminate. Most of them take the direct route to Romford, via Hainault Road, but there is a substantial amount of homes along White Hart Lane and Mawney Road, which the 252 serves to start off. My bus left on time, in the form of a Scania OmniCity, at the start of a fairly lengthy journey to Hornchurch. After loading up at the first stop, my bus skipped past a few semi-detached houses before approaching a much smaller parade of shops, mostly consisting of independent places and an average-sized Aldi, which was seemingly popular for a Wednesday afternoon.

My bus suddenly turned left onto White Hart Lane (no we didn't teleport to Tottenham) which was much less exciting than the North London equivalent, containing a mixture of low-rise flats and some average housing which was beginning to look like Essex. My bus encountered a small green space, which was part of a primary school, before stopping for the first time after the small parade of half-decent shops, providing essentials and takeaway meals for the local community. The road suddenly became much narrower and this was where White Hart Lane morphed into Mawney Road, which had a few bungalows but was mostly made up of housing similar to the previous street. Despite the large number of cars parked in front of houses, a decent number of people boarded the bus to head to Romford Town Centre, with some of the passengers from Collier Row alighting from this point. Unusually, my bus contained two different door alarms for the front and rear, so I spent the next couple of minutes listening to the difference in pitch as there wasn't anything noteworthy happening outside.

When I saw the fairly lengthy traffic queue I was concerned at first, but then the A12 dual carriageway revealed itself and I realised that this wouldn't continue until Romford. I managed to catch sight of a single decker on the 296 speeding off towards Ilford, which was quite the opposite to the sedate pace of my Scania OmniCity, although that was probably due to the loose scheduling on this section rather than an underwhelming bus. The sign for parking indicated that Romford Town Centre was nearby and the first residential chunk of the 252 was almost over. Hardly any passengers boarded after this point, as all the shops are probably within walking distance, but I was quite relieved that some louder external surroundings were approaching.

Stagecoach London 15007, my refurbished Scania OmniCity, stands under a threatening sky at Hornchurch Town Centre.

A much busier road revealed itself and then my 252 was speeding around the outskirts of Romford Town Centre, racing a much busier Enviro 400 on the 86. The overflowing Romford Market stand was certainly an amusing sight, as a flurry of number 5 buses had just arrived and a couple of 248's were taking their break too. As the bus navigated another huge roundabout, the familiar "Mercury Gardens" announcement played and a sizeable number of passengers alighted here and at the next stop, on the lively Western Road, which contains no less than 23 bus routes. Due to an inconvenient one way system, my 252 was forced to literally head round the back of the shops, which was much less appealing and quite derelict compared to the bustling town centre. However, civilisation re-emerged shortly and my bus passed the rather hectic Romford Station, which is a considerable distance away from the 252 stop! The majority of routes heading towards Roneo Corner serve Queen's Hospital, but there is a small residential area on South Street, which is the route the 252 takes. The fairly mundane stretch of houses was occasionally interrupted by a public house or warehouse, and there was little demand for the bus along this stretch, which suggests that the recent re-routing of the 5 away from this area can definitely be justified, as the 252 and 248 are comfortable with taking the rest of the passengers.

As the road started to twist a little, the 252 had arrived at Roneo Corner, a fairly substantial junction and interchange point for buses heading in various directions but mostly ending up in Romford eventually. The 252 turned left onto the busy main road, with most of the traffic heading for Tesco Extra, but the noisy and congested road was clearly too much for my bus, which started to head into even more housing after almost circling the biggest roundabout so far. For the next couple of minutes the bus went through solid housing, but a driving school with an impressive number of parked cars provided something else to stare at for a few seconds. The housing was reduced to the left hand side only, as the trees and bushes of Eastbrookend Country Park dominated my other view. Shortly after this point, my 252 started to pick up the pace as the scenery became much more rural as Harrow Lodge Park replaced the residential homes on the left, which was filled with children and parents despite the threatening clouds.

An interesting coincidence meant that I was on the 252 bus at 2:52 PM, demonstrated by the iBus screen upstairs.

Unfortunately, the 252 didn't continue into the depths of the countryside, with even more homes to serve. Elm Park Avenue was a tight squeeze, although nobody wanted the bus here and the eventuality of ending up at the tube station is probably the only reason why this road boasts a frequent bus service. In general, I noticed that the 252 is a lone wolf in terms of routeing, with the majority of bus stops it serves having no other routes present. This trend was muted briefly at Elm Park Station, with the addition of three more bus routes that form the popular Hornchurch-Rainham corridor. The unpretentious parade of independent retail units complemented the busy District Line station, found near the end of the line at Upminster. However, after one bus stop of sharing the 252 had had enough and dived down Coronation Drive, which appeared to be pretty similar to the roads served previously. South End Road was surprisingly busy and the random patches of grass alongside the street livened things up a little. The 252 then passed another school (this route must be horrible during term time), before the road widened up considerably, enabling some high-speed running past the houses that were partially hidden behind a wooden fence.

My bus then turned left again (a popular manoeuvre in the Hornchurch direction) onto Airfield Way, with the corresponding Airfield Estate and large wilderness named after the former RAF Hornchurch base, which has typically been turned into residential homes. This section contained some dense housing and was the most popular part of the 252 on my journey, with lots of people wanting to travel to Hornchurch Town Centre. The Tesco Superstore car park was unusually quiet and the bus started to pick up the pace once again despite the twists and turns. The overgrown Hornchurch Country Park was the last green space I saw on the trip, although the end was near and I surprisingly wasn't too fed up at this point, as the amount of housing this bus serves can feel relentless at times. 

Suttons Lane is bungalow territory, but it's also home to the termination point of the 256 and the former St George's Hospital, which will be become a residential development site (surprise surprise). The sudden influx of tudor houses was brief and a modest parade of shops revealed itself, presumably because the appearance of Hornchurch District Line station was imminent. All the retail units that weren't considered good enough to appear in the town centre seem to have been dumped here, a location that's a little too far from the more substantial shopping street to be appealing. Due to the close proximity to the tube and high street, the houses were much more expensive and the appearance of another small chain of shops and Hornchurch Police Station indicated that my journey was almost over. The 252 terminates at the edge of Hornchurch Town Centre on a roundabout, so the bus can turn around and head back on its indirect routeing to Collier Row, but the shops are only a short walk away.

In general, I can say that the 252 certainly wasn't one of the best routes I've done, being a bit too residential for my liking. However, I've definitely been on routes that have been much worse and the excellent Scania OmniCity kept me entertained throughout the journey. There are also some rural elements and speedy sections, so there is some balance after all. I rate the 252 6/10 and if you like going through residential areas, then I think you'll enjoy it a lot! Thanks for reading and stay safe!