Lost London bus routes

London bus routes, part one

I was thinking about bus routes that are no longer. This is a contentious topic as most London routes remain in some truncated form of their erstwhile numbersakes. Nor am I using this as some misty-eyed reminiscence for the golden days of transport, as for a disabled person these are the golden days of bus travel. But nostalgia is another country and the bus is a good way to get there.

2b or...

Coming from Golders Green my life was circumscribed by the bus station and its former occupants. My favourite departed route was the marathon 2b from Golders Green to Crystal Palace, serving far off reaches of South London. It was always the fast route along the Finchley Road with its crews hailing from distant Stockwell and Norwood. It did not outlast the GLC.

...244

A very different phenomenon was the rush hour only 244 from Golders Green to Southgate via East Finchley and Muswell Hill. This route caused massive consternation being a one-person operated single decker with a bizarrely complicated ticketing system involving a turnstile. This route's rarity was enhanced by the vehicles' remarkable ability to break down limiting the service futher. I think this route ceased in the early 80s. Do correct me if I'm wrong.

Green Line coaches

A final transport recollection were the two sets of Green Line Coaches that served the station. These were to 712/3 from Dorking to St Albans or Dunstable and the 716/a from Chertsey and Woking to Hitchin via Stevenage. The former were single deckers but the latter were conductor operated. They always had a certain suburban glamour in the days before cheap air travel. I will return to this theme.

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Message:	7/7
Date and time:	06/09/2011 at 02:34:18
Sender:	michael

Route 274 was a very nice route,i drove it when it was crew and opo from Southall garage with RTs and DMSs. When i drove the route it run between Hayes Station and Ealing Broadway via Yeading,Greenford and West Ealing. When the 274 first started in 1968 it was worked by Southall and Hanwell,it run Mon-Sats between Hayes Bourne Avenue and Ealing Broadway Station,or Sundays Hayes Bourne Avenue and Greenford Red Lion.It is a very missed route along with sister route 273.

Message:	6/7
Date and time:	24/11/2010 at 15:20:11
Sender:	bust curios

just been watching an old british b & w flim, well not that old, not even as old as I am. 1964, with 'dickie' staring. any way the film shows the west end filmed around leister square and picacilly circus. it showed him jumping onto a no.25 route master terminating at victoria. today the 25 runs between tottenham court rd and hainault in essex.. so when did this change occur and what was the route of the 25 ran in 1964? does any body out there in bus land know? and is there a publication that list all the defunct routes maybe even the trolley buses and trames? in anticipation russ.

Message:	5/7
Date and time:	19/10/2010 at 22:39:20
Sender:	Tia-Anna The Drag Queen

Interesting what the OP says about the no. 244 bus being operated by single-deckers with a turnstile machine. When I travelled from Sidcup to school in Bromley in the 1970's, I had to take the 227 from Chislehurst Gordon Arms to Bromley and the OPO singledeckers on this route too were fitted with a coin-operated turnstile (which was a fantastic waste of passenger space), to help speed up passenger boarding. There was even a colour leaflet issued to instruct people how to use the machine -I wish i had held on to a few copies, they would be priceless! After a few years the turnstiles were taken out due to lack of use; another thing I remember about these buses was that they DID break down at times: I was also on board one when it skidded on ice one winter at Chislehurst War Memorial traffic lights, although thankfully no one was hurt... The old OPO buses on the 227 were eventually replaced by Leyland Nationals in 1977, some years later the 227 was cut back from its original Eltham-Beckenham/Crystal Palace route to just Bromley-Crystal Palace. Probably my favourite bus route was the 229, from Green Street Green to Erith at its longest extent; it was a wierd and wonderful winding route combining main high-streets such as Sidcup and Orpington, and 'crosstown' sections of route along little residential roads such as through St. Pauls Cray and Bridgen/Blendon in Bexley.

Message:	4/7
Date and time:	05/09/2010 at 14:34:22
Sender:	M Geoff Warner

I remember when i was at school back in the 1970s the bus route 39 run mondays to fridays with the 39a on a saturday from putney to south kensington using DMS double deckers The good ole days, and how bout another route the 85a as i recall went from putney bridge to roehampton via the telegraph public house which is now served by the 424 route. the bus routes in the 1970s where so different from to day, the drivers and conductors where so friendly they had the proper uniform on including the hat, what have we got today?, we most of the drivers were t-shirts and jeans and multi colored hair. id love to bring back the full London Transport uniform and someone in TFL to train the drivers of today to be more friendly and helpfull.

Message:	3/7
Date and time:	21/10/2009 at 00:43:28
Sender:	northernman

used to take the number 86 stratford to romford dogs for a �1 5 years ago a �1! the 23 charing cross to ladbroke grove �1! different journeys different cultures,happy days!

Message:	2/7
Date and time:	10/01/2009 at 17:20:01
Sender:	Paul Davey

As a young teenager, I was fascinated by buses and how much access they could give of my city. Most weekends I would buy a Red Bus Rover ticket from the ticket office at Hounslow Bus Garage and go exploring. Although I never rode it end to end I was always fascinated by the route 73 which ran limited service from Hounslow to Stoke Newington. If truth be known I was actually petrified of going somewhere like Stoke Newington alone at 13! My fondest memories are taking the AEC Regal single deckers on route 237 from outside Tesco's in Feltham High Street to school in Isleworth. These buses seemed so cramped but homely and familiar with the burgundy and yellow check cloth. The advent of the Leyland National was also an exciting one 'out west' as after their initial introduction from Clapton garage, Hounslow got the first large batch and for their time they were so modern. They were happy days for me.

Message:	1/7
Date and time:	29/12/2008 at 12:53:55
Sender:	Biff

I'm afraid that Green Lines coaches and longer distance bus routes (such as the 2b) are victims of the chronic traffic congestion that grips London. It's no longer practical to have a bus stuck in a jam in north London when the driver is due to be finishing his shift in south London - and vice-versa. At least services don't change much nowadays. Once many routes used to change with bewildering frequency in accordance with operating convenience or short-term financial necessity. My favourites were the routes which slavishly used to follow the old tram or trolleybus routes that they had replaced. Thus they would follow daft routeings like going along the Victoria Embankment rather than Whitehall and the Strand - or they would terminate at silly places like Moorgate or Warren Street - simply because that is what the former tram or trolleybus route used to do because of LCC restrictions on where lines and wires could be placed. The oldest route in London is generally reckoned to be the 9, even if nowadays it only runs Hammersmith to Aldwych rather than Mortlake to Liverpool Street.