Some London bus routes are straightish, some wiggle and some go all round the houses. But only a few go fully back on themselves, setting off round a big loop before returning to where they were a few minutes ago. So what are London's loopiest bus routes, those where you look out of the window and sigh "oh look, we're back here again"?
Note 1: The route has to return to exactly where it was. Note 2: I'm not including circular routes, because obviously they end up where they started. Note 3: I'm not especially interested in loops that only serve one stop. Note 4: I'm not especially interested in loops of less than 500m. Note 5: I hope I haven't missed anything important.
What precisely counts as the loopiest route depends on definitions, so here are several possibilities.
The loopiest route by distance
Route 463: Pollards Hill to Coulsdon South Loop: 4.1 km (2.6 miles)
The 463 is one of London's lower tier bus routes, added in 1998 to connect a disparate collection of outer London backstreets. It runs every 20 minutes through council estates, across commons, round industrial estates and down to almost the very southern edge of the capital. Its maximal loopiness is to serve the Clock House estate, an exclave of Sutton, hemmed inbetween a railway line and various uncrossed forms of greenspace. The 463 thus gets very nearly to Coulsdon town centre then bears off in the general direction of Woodmansterne station to do a giant loop of the backstreets.
The first 300m are done both ways, then comes a circuit 10 times longer which passes Sutton's southernmost pub, some very lowly shops and a lone Methodist Church. The most convoluted part occurs when the bus deliberately veers down a desperately fortunate avenue of white-fronted semis whose back fences mark the Surrey border, then runs shy and heads back past the station. The whole circumnavigation takes about ten minutes, and if you live in Coulsdon you soon learn that if you skip it by alighting early you can be in Waitrose before the 463's even doubled back.
Also with loops over 1km: U10, 326, R3, 224, 491, 265, G1, W9, 473, 474, 303, B14, 384, 248
BUT there's only one actual bus stop on the 463's 4km circuit (at The Mount), all the rest being Hail and Ride. So if we define 'loopiest' by number of stops we get a different answer.
The loopiest route by number of bus stops
Route 359: Purley to Addington Village Loop: 11 stops
The 359 is another of London's lower tier bus routes, added in 1998 to bring a bus service to Monks Hill for the first time. This outlier estate in Selsdon was built on sloping downland in the late 1940s and is impenetrable on three sides except on foot. The top of the estate was over 600m from existing bus services on Selsdon Park Road and TfL don't like leaving residents floundering beyond 400m, hence the introduction of the 359 as a rare kindness. It's also one of London's least frequent buses, reduced in 2022 from every 30 minutes to every 45, an economy which allowed TfL to use one less vehicle on the route. As mystery tours go, it feels interminable.
If it were possible to manoeuvre a bus directly into Tedder Road this wouldn't need to be a loop at all, the 359 could execute a lengthy wiggle without ever repeating a street. But someone must have decreed there's only one safe way in and out, this via Farnborough Avenue, hence the ridiculous 11-stop loop becomes forced. It weaves between semis, then up the side of a pleasant green before following the edge of a school playing field (seriously, the Quest Academy?). At the top of Broadcoombe are fine views, a path into woodland and a very postwar church, then the 359 heads back down past everyday scenes and out the way it came. I timed it yesterday and it took nine minutes, which is why only those who live in Monks Hill catch this single decker and everyone else catches the 64 direct instead.
8 stops:404: Tollers Lane estate (2.5 km/1.5 miles) 8 stops:W9: Highlands Village, Winchmore Hill (1.6 km/1.0 miles) 7 stops:491: Enfield Island Village (1.7 km/1.1 miles) 7 stops:265: Roehampton Estate (1.7 km/1.1 miles)
The W9's detour round Highlands Village is forced because the estate was built on the site of the former Highlands Hospital, hence has no road connection into any of the adjacent estates. The 491 has to retrace its steps because there's only one bridge over the River Lea into Enfield Island Village. And I curse every time the westbound 265 deviates into the Roehampton Estate, then again when it's not allowed to turn right on leaving and has to negotiate excruciatingly round the drinking fountain instead.
The loopiest route by total bus stops
Route 404: Cane Hill to Caterham-on-the-Hill Loops: 12 stops
The 404 wins here because it has two looping sections, one round Coulsdon town centre and one at the top of Happy Valley. Neither loop existed before 2020 when TfL conjured up an even wiggler route than before to serve some impressively remote streets on the Green Belt fringe. The 404 is thus the only route to follow the Coulsdon bypass, this so it can serve the high street southbound in both directions, which contributes 4 looped stops to the total. Later in its convolutions it squeezes off Coulsdon Road to do a circuit of the Tollers Lane estate, a drab tongue of 300 council homes nestled in idyllic settings, where alighting at The Admirals Walk brings you to the verdant brim of the Surrey Hills AONB. This section has 8 stops, two of them essentially unnecessary because buses go past both ways, hence with 12 stops altogether the 404 is arguably London's loopiest bus.
The loopiest routes by total distance
Routes R5/R10: Orpington to Knockholt Loops: 4.4 km (2.7 miles)
I know I said I wasn't including circular routes, but even if you only go halfway these exceptionally rural routes deliver two decent loops. One is the double run from Knockholt to Halstead and back which is two miles altogether, and the other is the double run into Orpington town centre which adds the 0.7. The alternating R5 and R10 are TfL's least frequent bus routes, each running every 150 minutes, and no Londoner has true bus geek credentials until they've ridden at least one all the way round.
Route 224 looks like it was drawn by a madman, a sinuous scribble that weaves ridiculously round Neasden, Harlesden and Park Royal. Its first loop is needed to access Neasden's IKEA and Tesco, which takes either one or one-and-a-half large circuits depending on direction. Within the Park Royal estate is a 1-stop loop to reach Central Middlesex Hospital and then immediately a separate 3-stop route round Asda. Finally the 224 does an insanely generous double run to serve a few houses in Twyford, negotiating awkwardly round Iveagh Avenue.
Until 2019 there was a fifth loop to tick off Alperton Sainsburys but thankfully that's vanished. Then in 2024 TfL launched a prudent consultation to remove three more of these loops, a change which they intended to introduce last year but hasn't happened yet. When it does the G1 will become London's loopiest bus with three agonising deviations in the vicinity of Tooting Hospital, but until then the 224 takes the quadruple crown.
Note 5: I hope I haven't missed anything important.
