1. Start of route

Near the start of the route at King George Hospital is another hospital, Goodmayes. At one time, it was the West Ham Borough Asylum. Once West Ham became a County Borough in 1889, the councillors decided that the new Borough should have its own asylum for mentally ill paupers. The foundation stone was laid on 3rd August 1898 and work began on the building of the Asylum, which was to accommodate 800 patients. It officially opened on 1st August 1901. It included a chapel and a working farm. During WWII, the estate was hit by dozens of bombs, as it was located beneath heavily bombed flight paths. In the 1990s, parts of the site were sold to build King George Hospital. One building that’s still standing is now the Trust HQ – you have to hunt pretty far and wide to find the actual sites of the chapel and morgue.

When you head to the bus stop to get on the 173, you can take a quick walk around a small green that’s known as King George’s Healthy Hike – as this is within sight of King George Hospital, it is obviously there to encourage patients and visitors alike to get fit. It’s a cute idea!

2. Chadwell Heath bus stop

When you get off the bus, you’ll see a pub called The Eva Hart – an unusual name for a pub but there is of course history behind it. Eva Hart was a Titanic survivor and one of the disaster’s most outspoken critics. At just seven years old, she lost her father in the sinking. In her later decades, she became a fiercely vocal advocate for maritime safety and fiercely opposed the salvage of artifacts from the Titanic wreck. Eva died in 1996, aged 91. Today, her legacy is honoured by naming the pub after her, in her long-time hometown of Chadwell Heath.

Now go round the corner to Atomic Comics, a small and unprepossessing – but enticing – shop selling all manner of comics, from Superman to Captain America and Marvel. Nigel, the owner of this establishment, fulfilled his early passion for these comics by opening the shop around 1990. He sells merchandise too – T-shirts, models etc. It’s packed with all sorts of goodies to delight your nostalgic self.

3. Dagenham Heathway bus stop

Along from the stop is Dagenham Library. It’s an award-winning place and in fact is a popular location for filming owing to its brightness and spaciousness. There is usually an exhibition or two either by or about local people and places. Currently (June 2026) there are some lovely photographs along one wall, depicting Dagenham and area in days gone by. A second exhibition is “Chaos & Love” and is a collaboration between the artist and parents who attend the Early Years play group at the library. Basically, it’s an art project about what it’s really like to be a parent – the struggles, the chaos and of course the overwhelming love you feel.

4. Morrison Road bus stop

This is one of the quirkier sights to see in London. At the Dagenham Roundabout are two cone-shaped constructions that are commonly known as Witches’ Hats (for obvious reasons, when you see them). The two constructions each rise to a sharp elevated point, curved and conical, created from a skin of black tarmac. Officially they’re named Scylla and Charybdis, after the Greek mystical sea monsters, but their shape has earned the nickname Witches’ Hats – and occasionally Madonna’s Bra!

As a piece of art, the Hats were commissioned by the LB of Barking & Dagenham. Apart from wondering what is their purpose and why there, it seems the two are used by local lads and lasses as sheer slopes for their enjoyment. As do all Witches Hats, these are no exception – both hats hide a secret ….

5. Beckton bus station bus stop

This is arguably the best stop on the 173 route, with a number of things to see, especially if you’ve the energy to do quite a bit of walking. The bus stops opposite Beckton Corridor, so-called due to the 600m long straight path. You enter under a yellow arch and follow along the path, making sure you take note of the various yellow posts on the wildlife trail, along the way. Each is numbered and tells you what to look out for as you walk. There’s one for the urban fox, an orange-tip butterfly and one for the carrion crow and many others.

At the end of the corridor is Itchycoo Park, famously sung about by the Small Faces in the ’60s. It’s believed that the lead singer of the band, Steve Marriott, grew up in Ilford and would probably have played in the park in his youth. The park itself gets its name from the stinging nettles which grew there. At one time, it was an overgrown, swampy, no-go area, until local volunteers transformed it into the delightful area that today is home to a large variety of wildlife, including ducks, terrapins, fish, bees, butterflies and other insects, the occasional fox and heron. You can also see a number of timber sculptures created by a local resident.

Keep walking past the park and you’ll find Beckton Meadows. These were opened in July 2024 and feature a large area of resident-planted wildflowers and grasses, a Butterfly Garden and the new Queen Elizabeth Memorial Pathway that provides a new accessible path through the park. Much of this was done by volunteers who in turn were aided by pupils of a nearby primary school.

Having passed through the meadows, you’ll arrive at Royal Albert Dock where there is a grade II listed building that’s the Dock Manager’s Offices, aka Custom House. It was built in 1883 and has sadly seen better days. At one time it served as the central administration and record-keeping hub for the Royal Docks, and remains a protected local landmark. It was designed in the style of Norman Shaw, who was a fashionable late-Victorian architect, who liked his industrial buildings to look like a country house, which is what this building looks like. Custom House sits alone at Royal Albert Dock and its isolation tells a story in itself – at one time, Albert Dock was one of three thriving docks in the Royal Group of Docks in East London. As dry docks, they were used for ship repair but gradually experienced a steady decline, in particular in the late 20thC owing to containerisation – moving traffic downstream to Tilbury.

Further along the dock, regeneration of the area included a campus for the University of East London Docklands and on the other side of the river is City Airport. So if you walk along the dock on the north side of the Thames, you can get a perfect view of planes taking off and landing at the airport.

Walk slightly inland and there’s another landmark building along the quay. Built in 1914, the Compressor House is another listed, historic building. The warehouse was originally designed as a cold storage facility for perishable cargo shipped through the Royal Docks. It is one of the few surviving structures from the area’s era as a major global shipping hub. The interior has kept many of its original character and features, including winching machinery that was used to move and lift heavy cargo. It has very recently been restored as a multifunctional community and cultural hub, with exhibition rooms and a café, and hosts performance and arts events. It also serves as the permanent home for Arrivals + Departures, an interactive public art installation.

So ends the number 173. Certainly the end of the route is the more interesting place to discover but there are still a few other places worth stopping off to see. The Witches Hats have to be among my top things that were weirdly delightful and in a strange sort of way, so was Atomic Comics, that felt as if I’d gone back in time to an era when online games didn’t exist and boys and girls couldn’t wait to read the next Superman or Batman comic.

I have a feeling I’m going to be challenged with the next 2 routes – 174 and 175 – because large parts of each are along the same route as each other and the 173. It should make for an interesting research project and will definitely be a challenge – but I’m always up for that.

Toilets that are open to the public and free of charge:

• Possibly the Eva Hart pub and Compressor House
• Dagenham Library