RFI: London Bus Routes

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Was just wondering, is there a bus that goes form say Oxford Street to Wood Green, it's just that I feel like a bus ride, and I know the tube would be quicker.

― jel -- (jel), Friday, 17 January 2003 09:39 (twenty-three years ago)

It's a long old way, the 73 goes up to Tottenham which is a short hop away from Wood Green really. Other than that, no idea. Wood green is a part of London that is completely alien to me.

― chris (chris), Friday, 17 January 2003 09:46 (twenty-three years ago)

― gareth (gareth), Friday, 17 January 2003 09:48 (twenty-three years ago)

and http://journeyplanner.tfl.gov.uk/index.htm journey planner should always help with that sort of thing

― Alan (Alan), Friday, 17 January 2003 09:55 (twenty-three years ago)

cool! Thanks alot guys.

― jel -- (jel), Friday, 17 January 2003 10:12 (twenty-three years ago)

Yep, the 29 is exactly the bus you are looking for here. It goes via the salubrious neighbourhoods of Finsbury Park and Camden too!

― Pete (Pete), Friday, 17 January 2003 10:20 (twenty-three years ago)

I could turn into "my great bus trek" if I start from Ealing!

― jel -- (jel), Friday, 17 January 2003 10:23 (twenty-three years ago)

jel, my great bus trek when i first moved to london was:

finchely-north finchely-trunpike lane-walthamstwo-leton-stratford-blackwall-lewisham-peckham-camberwell-battersea-hammersmith-sherpherds bush-neasden-cricklewood-hendon-finchley

BEAT THAT!

― gareth (gareth), Friday, 17 January 2003 10:27 (twenty-three years ago)

I can't! You rule bus treking!

― jel -- (jel), Friday, 17 January 2003 10:29 (twenty-three years ago)

I've always wanted to do a circle of London on buses, as far out as possible but still within the 6 zones, obv the Thames makes this tricky in the East.

Gareth, how did you do Turnpike Lane to Walthamstow?

― chris (chris), Friday, 17 January 2003 10:57 (twenty-three years ago)

Turnpike Lane to Walthamstow is the 123 if you want Upper Walthamstow (the Beacontree Avenue area). If you want the Crooked Billet area (for the Greyhound stadium) get a 444.

― MarkH (MarkH), Friday, 17 January 2003 11:02 (twenty-three years ago)

I knew about the 123 as that's the one I get to Blackhorse road station on every morning. I think Gareth may have done some walking, unless of course he got the bus (can't be arsed to look it up) from the Billet to Cebntral.

I predict it took around 15 hours

― chris (chris), Friday, 17 January 2003 11:09 (twenty-three years ago)

Chris, don't you live next to Wood Green? I went there once, it didn't seem too nice.

I got the N10 last night rom Archway to OUTSIDE MY FRONT DOOR in Putney. That kinda rocks.

― Mark C (Mark C), Friday, 17 January 2003 11:17 (twenty-three years ago)

wood green is okay, cinema is cheap!

― jel -- (jel), Friday, 17 January 2003 11:18 (twenty-three years ago)

Wood Green is funny. I went up there on the 341 once just to have a look. It has an HMV!

― N. (nickdastoor), Friday, 17 January 2003 11:20 (twenty-three years ago)

nah, Wood Green is the other side of Tottenham.

― chris (chris), Friday, 17 January 2003 11:21 (twenty-three years ago)

Yeah, the cinema is cheap, but Nick is spot on when he says Wood Green is funny. When I live din Turnpike Lane it was one of those places you could buy everything you needed, but you didn't really want to go.

But a great place to see lousy films cheap.

― Pete (Pete), Friday, 17 January 2003 11:22 (twenty-three years ago)

aha! so it's the Stratford of North London?

― chris (chris), Friday, 17 January 2003 11:27 (twenty-three years ago)

Wood Green is funny. I went up there on the 341 once just to have a look

The 341 doesn't go to Wood Green. You mean the 141. But you're right it is funny and Pete is spot on - I never enjoy going there (except the charity shop near TL stn. is ok and my son likes the Burger King so I enjoy going there with him).

― David (David), Friday, 17 January 2003 11:31 (twenty-three years ago)

How soon I forget. Yes, I couldn't remember if it was the 141 or 341 that went there. I tried to check on that Transport for London website but it is completely rub! I challenge anyone to find bus info on there. I resorted to downloading the enormous NE London PDF map but that takes for ever to zoom in on with my work PC and I'm not very sure I'm zooming on the right bit anyway.

― N. (nickdastoor), Friday, 17 January 2003 11:34 (twenty-three years ago)

Before the Shopping City (which my friends' Dad designed, bless him) was built circa 1980 Wood Green was a very different place, as there were far more big name stores on the High Road between Wood Green and Turnpike Lane tube stations. Boots was there for example, just a couple of doors up from BHS, which I beleive it still there. It got very, very crowded (I remember writing in my News at primary school, describing our Saturday shop, that "it was so crowded that my dad had to walk in the road"). When the Shopping City opened, the big stores either moved into it or couldn't compete with the new shops which opened there --> lots of short term bargain type places with a life about as long as Drosophila and shops with odd names selling dubious "fashion" items, which is pretty much how it's continued to this day.

I miss the flat capped accordion player who used to busk outside that old Boots y'know....

― MarkH (MarkH), Friday, 17 January 2003 11:38 (twenty-three years ago)

The 341 goes to 'Northumberland Park, Tesco' which is somewhere I've never been.

― David (David), Friday, 17 January 2003 11:39 (twenty-three years ago)

BHS is still there and Marks & Spencer.

― David (David), Friday, 17 January 2003 11:40 (twenty-three years ago)

Wood Green is like a combination of Ealing, West Ealing and Hounslow, that's why I think it is okay. Oh, and I might not get to the FAP 'til about 8 tomorrow.

― jel -- (jel), Friday, 17 January 2003 11:43 (twenty-three years ago)

Yeah David, do you think Tesco has to pay Arriva to have their name on all those buses? I have never even heard of Northumberland Park outside of the 341 context. Is it some bus driver scam?

― N. (nickdastoor), Friday, 17 January 2003 11:44 (twenty-three years ago)

there used to be a Woolies a bit further up, which was replaced by InShops and then possibly a supermarket? Back from the road behind a pedestrianised area.

― MarkH (MarkH), Friday, 17 January 2003 11:45 (twenty-three years ago)

the bus route that's always perplexed me is the 232: Wood Green to St Raphael's Estate, Neasden! Are there really that many ppl who want to make this journey? It's like when you look at a 1950s bus route and find it was possible to go from Knockholt Pound to Walthamstow on the 47.

St. Raphael = great name, tho. Wonder if there are other estates in Neasden called Michael, Gabriel ect ect....

― MarkH (MarkH), Friday, 17 January 2003 11:48 (twenty-three years ago)

I had to do jury service not so long ago and there was a case that involved people saying they'd been at Northumberland Park, Tesco so it does exist!

― David (David), Friday, 17 January 2003 11:48 (twenty-three years ago)

There is a Kwik Save and a Sainsburys - both set back from the main road on the east side. What a fount of knowledge I am on the shopping facilities at Wood Green!

― David (David), Friday, 17 January 2003 11:50 (twenty-three years ago)

St Raphs (as it is known in the area) is a real hole, truly horrible and right next to the notorious Church end estate. There's another bus that terminates there though, the 92 iirc. Although I could be wrong here. I used to catch it to Brent Park tesco to pick up the 106 to Willesden which was a rterrible service.

― chris (chris), Friday, 17 January 2003 11:56 (twenty-three years ago)

Is 'Northumberland Park, Tesco' the official postal address or something?

― N. (nickdastoor), Friday, 17 January 2003 11:57 (twenty-three years ago)

No that would be 'Tesco, Northumberland Park'

― David (David), Friday, 17 January 2003 12:00 (twenty-three years ago)

The W5 terminates at Harringey, Sainsbury's. Its advertising more how useful the route is. How many people going to Clapton Pond are actually going for the pond?

― Pete (Pete), Friday, 17 January 2003 12:02 (twenty-three years ago)

I love that pond!

― N. (nickdastoor), Friday, 17 January 2003 12:02 (twenty-three years ago)

The W5 terminates at Harringey, Sainsbury's.

I keep meaning to try that route for a trip round the charity shops at Crouch End. I hate single deckers though.

― David (David), Friday, 17 January 2003 12:05 (twenty-three years ago)

I had to do jury service not so long ago and there was a case that involved people saying they'd been at Northumberland Park, Tesco so it does exist!

Did they say that under oath, though? Did the case hinge on this?

Simon Pegg and Jessica Stevenson muse on the strangeness of Wood Green on the Spaced DVD commentary. All of North London has the same wintry, bleak oddness to me.

The king of SE London bus routes remains the 122: Crystal Palace to Plumstead via Lewisham and Woolwich in under four hours.

― Michael Jones (MichaelJ), Friday, 17 January 2003 15:30 (twenty-three years ago)

The 3 (Crystal Palace-Oxford Circus) still looks like the longest bus route in the world to me, but its not that different I guess to the 113 (Edgware Station to Oxford Circus via Mill Hill)

― Pete (Pete), Friday, 17 January 2003 15:39 (twenty-three years ago)

The Picadilly Line is 70 miles long! Sorry - rogue tube fact.

― N. (nickdastoor), Friday, 17 January 2003 15:42 (twenty-three years ago)

The 3 (Crystal Palace-Oxford Circus) still looks like the longest bus route in the world to me

When I couldn't afford anything more than a bus pass (i.e. most of last year), it could certainly feel like it in rush-hour. But the N3 (which carries on as far as Bromley) has been known to cover the route in about 30 hair-raising minutes.

We're really not that far out in CP - London's just a funny shape.

― Michael Jones (MichaelJ), Friday, 17 January 2003 15:47 (twenty-three years ago)

The longest bus route in London used to be the 107 from Queensbury to Brimsdown.

― MarkH (MarkH), Friday, 17 January 2003 15:59 (twenty-three years ago)

Piccadilly.

― N. (nickdastoor), Friday, 17 January 2003 16:01 (twenty-three years ago)

When was that, cos the 107 of my youth went from Colindale to Ponders End (via Borehamwood). Not it restricts itself to Edgware to New Barnet.

― Pete (Pete), Friday, 17 January 2003 16:29 (twenty-three years ago)

I never knew the 107 went anywhere near Colindale, Pete. In the mid-80s when they were deregulating the buses they chopped into two coz they thought nobody would bid for such a long route. The eastern section (Brimsdown-New Barnet) was re-numbered 307 and passed to Eastern National (using Bristol VRs, which looked grebt in their yellow & green livery) and the western section (Queensbury-Barnet) stayed with London Buses,as was. In 1993 the Edgware-Queensbury section became part of the 288.

― MarkH (MarkH), Friday, 17 January 2003 16:34 (twenty-three years ago)

...but yeah, it was the bit through Borehamwood and Elstree that made it so long.

― MarkH (MarkH), Friday, 17 January 2003 16:35 (twenty-three years ago)

Caught up on this thread just before hometime. All this talk of Wood Green makes me feel funny as I am sitting in an office just off Green Lanes at this moment. It's a good place to be searching for cheap tasty lunch on a rainy Friday. Less interesting to spend a weekend in. There are TWO cheap cinemas, and for those supermercaderos amongst us, a Safeways as well as the aforementioned.

But back to buses. Recently moved to London, love them to bits, especially night buses that bring me home from wherever I am, pretty much. The W3 (which I get to work) has to have one of the prettiest routes, through Crouch End/Hornsey and past the glorious folly that is Alexandra Palace. Ends at Northumberland Park at the other end, and I have a sneaking desire to skip work one day to find out what that Tesco is really like.

― Liz :x (Liz :x), Friday, 17 January 2003 16:52 (twenty-three years ago)

The 3 (Crystal Palace-Oxford Circus) still looks like the longest bus route in the world to me

I liked it when buses covered much longer routes. For example the 3 now ends at Oxford Circus but I think it used to carry on to Camden Town or even further. And the 137 (used to be Crystal Palace to Archway - now ends at Oxford Circus). Similarly the 88 used to go all the way from 'Mitcham, Cricketers' to Acton Green (now just Clapham Common -> [diversion] Camden Town). The best one is the 38 which pre 1962 (I think) you could take all the way from Victoria to High Beach (Epping Forest).

― David (David), Friday, 17 January 2003 18:56 (twenty-three years ago)

i bet even in 1962 it only said "high beach" on the front of the bus and actually stopped at hackney central SAME AS ALL THE OTHER POXY 38s WHICH PROMISE YOU LEYTON but DELIVER the bus stop outside where gibbons toys used to be!!

grrr

― mark s (mark s), Friday, 17 January 2003 19:01 (twenty-three years ago)

Quite possibly. The history of the route (probably typical of LT policy) shows a gradual reduction in length from a peak somewhere around the 1940s-50s (from what I remember reading somewhere). The High Beach terminus became a Sundays only service at some point. I think Leyton (or perhaps Whipps Cross or Bakers Arms) became the standard end of route around that time (whereas even Leyton is a Sundays only extension now).

― David (David), Friday, 17 January 2003 19:12 (twenty-three years ago)

longest bus routes i have taken would probably be:

114 - ruislip to mill hill broadway

183 - golders green to ealing

and my god do they both suck, never again!

― stevem (blueski), Friday, 17 January 2003 19:19 (twenty-three years ago)

chris, it took me 7 hours

― gareth (gareth), Friday, 17 January 2003 19:29 (twenty-three years ago)

In the pub for Chris's birthday there was an old sign for a bus that had eight destinations listed, of which Croydon was only #5. One of the others was somewhere apparently called Whyteleafe, or something like that.

― Martin Skidmore (Martin Skidmore), Friday, 17 January 2003 19:59 (twenty-three years ago)

Could have been a 109. Used to go from Westminster to beyond Croydon at one time, I think.

― David (David), Friday, 17 January 2003 20:02 (twenty-three years ago)

You lot are just really obsessed with proving every stereotype about Londoners, aren't you?

― kate, Friday, 17 January 2003 21:03 (twenty-three years ago)

Whyteleafe?! thats near Sutton i think

― stevem (blueski), Friday, 17 January 2003 22:03 (twenty-three years ago)

109 was Victoria Embankment to Purley when I used it to visit my aunt in Thornton Heath in the eighties.

The 102 used to go to High Beach on bank holidays and summer Sundays, stopping at Chingford the rest of the time. Of course now it goes to Edmonton Green, which is *really* Lower Edmonton.

― MarkH (MarkH), Friday, 17 January 2003 23:30 (twenty-three years ago)

i think they're just proving stereotypes about obsessives on the interweb...

― CarsmileSteve (CarsmileSteve), Saturday, 18 January 2003 11:40 (twenty-three years ago)

busted! Although I will say in my defence that I know more abt London bus routes than most, having grown up there with non car-owning parents.

― MarkH (MarkH), Saturday, 18 January 2003 11:44 (twenty-three years ago)

TFL busses still go beyond croyden to chaldon common and purley

― Ed (dali), Saturday, 18 January 2003 11:49 (twenty-three years ago)

71 miles long, N. London buses seem like a romantic idea but, in my limited experience, aren't really that pleasant. (In common with lots of things about London, after a while).

Short journeys on the 106 were usually a pain in the arse, and I always seemed to be late on the 73. Perhaps Colliers Wood to Battersea High Street wasn't too awful. But it's pretty short. And it was warm.

― Ally C (Ally C), Saturday, 18 January 2003 14:42 (twenty-three years ago)

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