Favourite London Bus Route?

[RubyFakeLips]

I appreciate this is niche.

Reminiscing about when I had no money and a baby that loved being on the bus. Could take the 38 from almost outside my hackney flat, with him in the carrier. Sit on the top deck and go to the west end all the way to Victoria and back.

More recently I've been a fan of the 15.

29 feels much more civilised these days- or maybe it's because I don't take it at night very often. When it was a bendy bus aka a free bus it was like the Wild West on there.

393 is a good north London bus, Clapton, Clissold Park, Holloway Rd, Kentish Town, Chalk Farm

I don't think I've ever been on a bus in London, but another vote for Sandi Toksvigs part autobiographical, part historical book about her frequent travels on a London bus:

www.amazon.co.uk/Between-Stops-Autobiography-Sandi-Toksvig-ebook/dp/B010PDP3Z8/ref=sr_1_1?dchild=1&s=books&tag=mumsnetforu03-21&qid=1627367854&refinements=p_27%3ASandi+Toksvig&sr=1-1

The companion to the N29 for part of the route is the N253. Also an experience!

The mention of travelling home from the National Theatre reminds me that the bus stop at the bottom of Waterloo Road is one of my least favourite bus stops. Windy, cold and has about 8000 buses stopping there. You spent the time after a night out peering down the road for your bus and then scampering along the pavement when yours (and about ten others) arrived at the same time.

I haven't lived in London for years but this thread is making me so nostalgic for it 😊

Having lived in London all my life, it’s so funny how different routes evoke such strong feelings! I just got so excited seeing the W3 mentioned, as if it were a mutual friend.

I think all night buses go to Trafalgar Square (?), so in the days before announcements and smart phones if I was drunk and lost I would get the bus there and recalibrate my journey.

Don't think the 47 has been mentioned. Shoreditch to Catford - covers a lot of contrasting bits of London. Much used by people who work in the City/London Bridge area and live Rotherhithe/Deptford.

I was on it once having not travelled through Deptford for many years and was shocked at how much 19th century housing had been swept away.

Has anyone mentioned the 108, only bus that goes through the Blackwall Tunnel. Goes to Westfield Stratford, but when I was last there they had changed the stop and the route from Westfield towards the tunnel.

I used to get the 73 a lot as well as the 19, 4 and 38 when I lived in central London. Just googled the 73 route and was amazed to see how long it used to be - all the way from Stoke Newington to Richmond up until the 1960s! Today's route is a shadow of that.

A very old aunt used to tell me that (during the war when the beaches were covered in barbed wire) a popular summer day trip from where she lived in SE London was to get the 37 bus to Richmond for a stroll by the river. The 37 sadly doesn't go that far either these days.

a popular summer day trip from where she lived in SE London was to get the 37 bus to Richmond for a stroll by the river.

If anyone remembers the Green Line buses, there used to be one that ran from Victoria to Gravesend. People used to take the Green Line to Gravesend for a day out.

These are the best bus routes:

13
328
24
15
31
6
and a special mention to the 414, which would whisk me away from practically my doorstep, up Edgware Road, down Park Lane, along Knightsbridge and deposit me at the bliss of the V&A.

@DameAlyson

a popular summer day trip from where she lived in SE London was to get the 37 bus to Richmond for a stroll by the river.

If anyone remembers the Green Line buses, there used to be one that ran from Victoria to Gravesend. People used to take the Green Line to Gravesend for a day out.

I used to get the Greenline bus from Victoria to Sussex, inland of Brighton, to my grandparents' house. The driver told me where to get off, except once he told me the wrong place (Handcross instead of Hassocks). Fortunately I was on the ball enough to realise before the bus drove away!

There is not way I'd be sending my 9 year old on a 40 mile bus journey by herself these days!

Does anyone remember the singing bus conductor on the 38? Duke Baysee IIRC. He had a harmonica and used to make up songs about the passengers. He was brilliant. I reckon lots of people must have missed their stops, too caught up in the entertainment to get off.

This is a good article about the conductors. It has Duke Baysee in it, and others including a married couple who used to row while working on the same bus as a driver and conductor!

I don't remember them, does anyone?

www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/routemasters-trundle-into-retirement-5349308.html

@TableNiner

W3 gives a pretty special view over London from Alexandra Palace.

So many of the old routes have changed. I used to get a Routemaster (22) to school and jump off it whilst it waited to turn right when I wanted to go left.

I did this too! I wonder if we lived near each other or at opposite ends of the 22 bus route 🤔

@PrincessMaryaBolkonskaya

Oh I love this thread. I see someone else has mentioned the 14. I’ll add the 74 for pure nostalgia. So many happy memories of lugging baby DS1 around on those. If you were lucky on the 14 there’d be someone helpful to drag the buggy on.

Weirdly I’m now drawn to I think the 139? Runs from Waterloo to Trafalgar Square, how life has changed. But my recent happy memories are chatting teen DS’s and DP, planning our routes around the gallery.

I loved the 74. Used to get it most weekends from my dad's to my mum's!

Without a doubt, my favourite London bus is the single deck 210 bus route! In the 1980s I lived and worked as a nanny in Highgate. The 210 bus stop near the entrance to Waterlow Park was my gateway for exploring the world! Along Hampstead Lane to Kenwood and Hampstead Heath, Jack Straws Castle stop for Hampstead Village, Golders Green for Lindys coffee shop and all the interesting grocery stores, the shopping utopia of Brent Cross where the bus turned around! Fantastic memories of those carefree days, the friends I made and the characters I met and chatted to on the 210 bus!

Ah, the 210 is THE bus of my childhood. I still can't get over the fact it's a double-decker these days.

I still miss Lindy's, especially the Brent Cross branch.

Yes the 210, down the big hill to camden!

I left school around the time the 24 became driver-only. It was the bus of my childhood and stopped right outside school. One of my very good friends did A level Graphic Design and drew me a 1/14th scale no. 24 Routemaster on the back of some wallpaper, which he coloured in by hand. It drove round my university bedroom walls for years. I still have it tucked away in a tube, wrapped up in memories of Sixth Form, London and unrequited teenage love (😊❤️🤦).

The 24 was the bus of my student days -- South End Green, down through Camden Town and I'd hop off at Euston juuust in time for my first lecture of the day. Siiigh.

The 210 is a lovely bus in the autumn, sweeping through Highgate and along to Kenwood and Hampstead Heath, through arches of trees down to Golders Green. Waterlow Park is also a hidden gem of London's parks, in my opinion.

I liked the 31 too (Kilburn High Road, from memory?)

@SomethingNastyInTheBallPool, you were at the exotic north end! I’m a Pimlico girl, only ever went N of Tottenham Court Rd for Camden Market or Hampstead Ponds.

Loved the 134, got on at Muswell Hill, to Tottenham Court Road, going 'up West' as we used to call it. Or we'd get off at Camden Market and hang out there for the day.
Me and a friend did the whole journey in bath robes and slippers once, in winter, 'for a laugh.' Got quite a few comments.

Ended many a night coming home after raving on the N29. Mayhem! Like a continuation of the party.

I will always have a soft spot for the C1 past Victoria coach station, down Sloane street up to Earls Court way