100 years ago, in 1908, London's streets were served by several bus companies. Some of these used numbers to designate their services, some used letters and some just listed the destination and hoped their passengers would cope. In July of that year the largest bus operator, the London GeneralOmnibus Company, gobbled up its two largest rivals to create a virtual monopoly. Rationalisation ensued, and on Monday 2nd November 1908 the routes of all three companies were consolidated and numbered. The basis of the new numbering system was that already in use by the Vanguard Motorbus Company, itself inspired by a system one of their managers had seen used on trams in Berlin.
Initially only route numbers up to 20 were used, with 5 and 12 omitted, creating a new bus network which criss-crossed the capital. Some of these eighteen routes were rapidly withdrawn, but others proved considerably more resilient and are still recognisable today. Here's a list of the LGOC's original bus routes, launched exactly a century ago, along with an indication of how much of each survives.
1: Cricklewood - Elephant & Castle [northwest half cut, southeast half extended] 2: Child's Hill - Ebury Bridge [has slid substantially south over the years] 3: Camden Town - Brixton [north end cut, south end extended] 4: Shepherd's Bush - Herne Hill [withdrawn 1909] 6: Kensal Rise Station - Liverpool Street [City service withdrawn 1992] 7: Wormwood Scrubs - Liverpool Street [City service withdrawn 1970] 8: Shepherd's Bush - Seven Kings [switched eastern end with route 25 in 1912] 9: Kew Green - Shoreditch Church [cut back at both ends to current route in 1993] 10: Leytonstone - Elephant & Castle [withdrawn 1988] 11: Liverpool Street - Barnes [cut back a bit, but still damned similar] 13: Shoreditch Church - Hammersmith [withdrawn 1909] 14: Stratford Broadway - Putney Station [Stratford end withdrawn 1911, Putney end remains] 15: Shepherd's Bush - East Ham [withdrawn 1909] 16: Victoria Station - Cricklewood [still going strong] 17: Ealing - Plaistow [withdrawn 1958] 18: Leyton - Oxford Circus [withdrawn 1909] 19: Highbury Barn - Clapham Junction [tweaked at each end, still pretty much identical in the middle] 20: Hammersmith - Tulse Hill [withdrawn 1917]
London's bus numbering system is now considerably more complex, including route numbers running up into the 600s and a variety of almost-logical lettered prefixes. You can read more about the system's evolution at some of the links below. And tomorrow I'm going to take you on a centenary journey along the longest surviving numbered London bus route, just to see how much has changed since 2nd November 1908.
100 years of London bus routes
