August is LocalHistoryMonth at diamond geezer, which generally means a major psychogeographical challenge. Today I'm launching a transport-related series tracking all of London's numbered bus routes in alphabetical order. Numerical order is usually the norm, obviously, but I'm going to add an extra frisson by tracking through the route numbers from A to Z.
That means seven comes before six, twelve comes before two, three hundred comes before two hundred and ninety-nine and ninety-two comes immediately before one. Perhaps more intriguingly, while we're near the start of the alphabet, is that 18 beats 11 beats 15 beats 50 beats 5 beats 40 beats 4 beats 400 beats 14.
I'm not planning to ride each of the routes because that would involve a fair amount of repetition, but instead to visit one of its termini - again the one that comes first in alphabetical order.
I can tell you now that my quest is due to end with the 202, because nothing comes later than two hundred and two, which means a final trip to Blackheath, Royal Standard. But I'm pleased to say that the start of the challenge has deposited me somewhere considerably more random and ordinary, and all because no numbers start with an A, B, C or D.
London's Bus Routes in Alphabetical Order EIGHT: Bow Church
This is Bus Stop M at Bow Church, the unlikely starting point of London's first bus route in alphabetical order. For those who aren't familiar it's just west of the Bow Roundabout (and the River Lea) at the very edge of Tower Hamlets. Although it's called Bow Church it should not be confused with the bus stop outside Bow Church station, which is called Bow Church Station. Instead this is the bus stop opposite St Mary's church, the medieval place of worship on an island in the middle of the A11, after which Bow Church station is named.
Eight different bus routes serve the stop, which is well above average. One is the mighty 25, until recently London's busiest bus route, plus its slightly longer overnight version. Most buses are going to Stratford. Three, inexplicably, have come from Homerton Hospital. The 108 has already been through the Blackwall Tunnel. The 488 is only going one more stop to Tesco. The 205 annoyingly terminated one stop earlier, whereas the N205 ploughs straight through. And of course the 8 begins here, which is what makes this the first stop on the first London bus route in alphabetical order.
Let's dispense with the technicalities. The bus stop number on the underside of the flag is 348. The SMS number, for anyone old school enough to need it, is 55457. But nobody should need the SMS number because Bus Stop M has its very own countdown display, a luxury afforded when nearby Bus Stop E was removed in 2015. It's a very useful display, what with six bus routes potentially on their way to diverse locations including Westfield, Ilford and Very-Central London. Bus stop J on the opposite side of Bow Church is alas not similarly blessed.
The bus shelter is numbered 0130 1045. It's a 3-bay Insignia shelter fully compliant with BSI structural standards and regulations, although that doesn't mean the benches are especially comfortable. There are no adverts at either end of the shelter which is good because that means you can see your bus arriving while still sitting down. Before the pandemic the two poster spaces inside the shelter were occupied by a nightbus map and a spider map, but these were inexplicably removed last spring and have only recently been replaced by a map of the local area (copyright 2015) and a generic 'how to pay' poster. The current spider map would be considerably more useful than the latter, but rational thought is not in play here.
All necessary timetables are present. They appear in numerical order (rather than alphabetical order) on the first two panels of the timetable cluster, with both nightbuses on the third. The oldest timetable is for the 108 (published 13th May 2017) and the most recent is for the 25 (published 8th August 2020). One corner of the 276 timetable has been folded over so it looks like the timetable is for the '6'. During the day as many as 40 buses per hour are timetabled to stop here, on each occasion reducing the width of the carriageway from two lanes to one. Here's a 488 in front of an 8 in front of a 276 in front of a 25.
For this reason it's just as well that the bus stop is very very long. It's so long that it crosses the driveway of one of the residential buildings behind which results in the bus stop island being awkwardly divided into two parts. This is annoying if you arrive in the second bus and have mobility issues because it's a big step down from the middle doors, so best hope you arrive on the first or third bus instead because they never face this intractable design fault.
Perhaps the bus stop's most significant feature is the blue bus stop bypass that cuts behind it, a safety feature introduced by the last Mayor after it turned out a blue stripe painted on the road was fatally inadequate. The raised hump with the tactile paving and zebra stripes was added at a later date after it turned out dawdling pedestrians and whizzy cyclists shouldn't mix. The blue channel now only occasionally floods. A more present danger is from Uber Eats riders with a backpack of Big Macs heading the wrong way up the cycle lane because the official westbound cycle lane is inconveniently sited on the far side of the church.
Immediately behind the bus stop, somewhat unexpectedly, is a Grade II listed building. This is 199 Bow Road, a late 17th century three-storey redbrick house with sash windows, radial fanlight and part-original staircase. Workmen recently blasted the graffiti off the replica 18th century shopfront and it's all scrubbed up nicely. But it's not the only listed building adjacent to the bus stop. St Mary's Church is literally the other side of the road, but behind listed railings so you can only access the 14th century interior by diverting up the road past the listed urinals beneath the listed statue of William Gladstone beside the listed bollards.
Also overlooking the bus stop is the Metropolitan Police's Grove Hall Garage, whose shutters go up and down on a regular basis releasing branded and very much unbranded vehicles. Look out for their bags of rubbish dumped on the pavement first thing in the morning, close to the metal stump that marks where the bendy bus ticket machine used to be. Or if it's coffee you seek try the cafe up the alley on the original Bow Arts campus, which is where the bus stop's closest tourist attraction can be found. The Nunnery Gallery is open daily (except Mondays), often with a fascinating exhibition within, although the latest empathy-based show hasn't exactly been packing them in.
So there you have it, the first bus stop on the first London bus route in alphabetical order is a very ordinary bus stop, potentially with an extraordinary backstory but I don't have time to go into that here. I hope you're looking forward to my next report which'll be from Euston station on route 18, which sounds almost as ordinary as Bow Church, and after that the similarly un-noteworthy Downview and Highdown Prisons on route 80.
Also I should point out that yes, I know the first London Bus Route in Alphabetical Order is really the A10. London has lots of lettered bus routes, several of which come before eight, which is why I included the caveat about only visiting numbered bus routes in my introduction. Officially the A10, B11, B14, B13, B12, C11, C1, C10, C3, D8, D7, D6, D3, E8, E11 and E5 all precede eight in the alphabetical stakes, but that list kicks off with Heathrow Airport and a lot of Bexleyheaths and I didn't want to subject you to that. I will not apologise for the massive alphabetical coincidence which meant I got to subject you to Bus Stop M instead.
