Hurrah, it's that time of year again when TfL silently updates its spreadsheet of annual passenger entry/exit totals at every tube station. It's really early this year.
As usual passenger numbers are surveyed for a typical week in autumn then multiplied up to a full year.
The data also includes DLR, Overground and Crossrail stations, but we'll get to those later.
London's ten busiest tube stations (2025)(with changes since 2024) 1) ↑1 King's Cross St Pancras (73m) 2) ↓1 Waterloo (70m) 3) ↑1 Tottenham Court Road (60m) 4) ↓1 Victoria (59.3m) 5) Liverpool Street (59.2m) 6) ↑1 Paddington (57m) 7) ↓1 London Bridge (55m) 8) Stratford (52m) 9) Oxford Circus (51m) 10) ↑1 Bond Street (42m)
King's Cross returns to the top of the table after Waterloo nipped in for a year. Several other small swaps take place lower down with Tottenham Court Road overtaking Victoria and Paddington leapfrogging London Bridge. Liverpool Street may be Britain's busiest National Rail station but it's only the fifth busiest tube station. All ten stations have lower passenger totals than last year. Half of the tube's Top 10 are also on the Elizabeth line. The spreadsheet confirms that this is gateline data, i.e. passengers entering or exiting the station, so interchanges are not counted and no distinction is being made regarding mode of travel. Oxford Circus remains the busiest tube-only station and Stratford is still the busiest tube station outside zone 1.
The next 10: Farringdon, Bank/Monument, Euston, Canary Wharf, Green Park, South Kensington, Moorgate, Leicester Square, Piccadilly Circus, North Greenwich
24 tube stations had more than 20 million passengers last year and 60 exceeded 10 million. For comparison, 22 National Rail stations had more than 20 million passengers and 50 exceeded 10 million... so pretty similar.
London's ten busiest tube stations outside Zone 2 (2025) 1) Barking (17.2m) 2) ↑1 Ealing Broadway (17.0m) 3) ↓1 Wimbledon (16.7m) 4) Wembley Park (15.3m) 5) Tottenham Hale (13.8m) 6) Walthamstow Central (12.8m) 7) ↑2 Richmond (12.3m) 8) ↓1 Tooting Broadway (11.7m) 9) ↓1 Seven Sisters (11.6m) 10) Upton Park (11.1m)
Barking remains in the top spot while Ealing Broadway nudges ahead of Wimbledon. The top three here all have gatelines shared by tube and rail services so Wembley Park's total is more reliably tubular. Northeast London has a particularly strong showing including three stations on the Victoria line. If the list were to continue then Harrow-on-the-Hill (8.4m) would be the highest performing tube station in Zone 5 and Heathrow Terminals 2&3 (5.3m) the busiest in Zone 6.
London's ten busiest tube stations that are only on one line
Canary Wharf, North Greenwich, Vauxhall, Brixton, Camden Town, Wimbledon, Old Street, Tottenham Hale, Knightsbridge, Walthamstow Central
Tube stations with over 10% more passengers in 2025 than 2024
Roding Valley, Kew Gardens, Upminster Bridge
Tube stations with over 10% fewer passengers in 2025 than 2024
Tufnell Park, Burnt Oak, Hendon Central, Park Royal, Sudbury Town, Alperton, North Ealing, Piccadilly Circus, Sudbury Hill, South Harrow. Covent Garden. Kingsbury, Hyde Park Corner
Last year Colindale and Kentish Town were both closed during the period of the survey. Their neighbouring stations were thus busier than usual but are now back to normal, hence Tufnell Park, Burnt Oak and Hendon Central show the biggest decline in passenger numbers.
London's 10 least busy tube stations (2025) 1) Roding Valley (201000) 2) Chigwell (304000) 3) Grange Hill (367000) 4) North Ealing (510000) 5) Theydon Bois (699000) 6) ↑1 Moor Park (795000) 7) ↑2 Ickenham (805000) 8) Ruislip Gardens (813469) 9) ↓3 Upminster Bridge (813470) 10) Croxley (865000)
As usual the top three consists of the three stops on the Hainault shuttle. Roding Valley remains the least used station on the Underground but its passenger numbers are up 22% since 2024, the greatest increase of any tube station. North Ealing is unusually lightly used for a zone 3 station because Ealing Broadway and West Acton are close by and more useful. It haemorrhaged 18% of its passengers in 2025. Upminster Bridge had one more passenger than Ruislip Gardens! Only four of these ten stations lie within the Greater London boundary.
n.b. In this particular set of data Kensington (Olympia) counts as an Overground station, recording 2.5m passengers last year, whereas if you were only to count District line passengers it'd easily beat Roding Valley and be the tube's least used station.
The next 10: Fairlop, South Kenton, Chesham, West Acton, Barkingside, West Harrow, Boston Manor, Hillingdon, Park Royal, Sudbury Town
The least busy tube station in each zone (2025) zone 1) Regent's Park (2.1m) zone 2) Goldhawk Road (1.8m) zone 3) North Ealing (0.5m) zone 4) Roding Valley (0.2m) zone 5) Ruislip Gardens (0.8m) zone 6) Theydon Bois (0.7m) zone 7) Moor Park (0.8m) zone 8) Chalfont & Latimer (1.5m) zone 9) Chesham (1.0m)
And while we're here...
DLR Top 10: Greenwich (12m), Canary Wharf, Limehouse, Lewisham, Woolwich Arsenal, Shadwell, Heron Quays, East India, Westferry, South Quay
DLR Bottom 10: Beckton Park (0.4m), Stratford High Street, Prince Regent, Royal Albert, Elverson Road, Abbey Road, Blackwall, Star Lane, Poplar, King George V
n.b. Tube stations with DLR services don't count, otherwise Bank, Stratford and Canning Town would all be in the Top 5.
Canary Wharf would normally be the busiest DLR station but Greenwich beat it last year because Cutty Sark was closed. Beckton Park remains Tumbleweed Central after the neighbouring office development stalled. Pudding Mill Lane spent two decades in the Bottom 5 but thanks to ABBA it's no longer even in the Bottom 20.
Crossrail Top 10: Canary Wharf (19m), Abbey Wood, Hayes & Harlington, Woolwich, Heathrow T2&3, Ilford, Romford, Custom House, Heathrow T5, Southall
Crossrail Bottom 10: Iver (405000), Taplow, Langley, Twyford, Burnham, Hanwell, West Ealing, Gidea Park, Shenfield, Acton Main Line
n.b. Tube stations with Crossrail services don't count, otherwise every station from Paddington to Whitechapel would beat everything here.
Overground Top 10: Liverpool Street (16m), Clapham Junction, Shepherd's Bush, Hackney Central, Watford Junction, Peckham Rye, Shoreditch High Street, Denmark Hill, Dalston Junction, Dalston Kingsland Overground Bottom 10: Emerson Park (0.3m), South Hampstead, Headstone Lane, Theobalds Grove, Hatch End, Penge West, Wandsworth Road, Cheshunt, Kilburn High Road, South Acton
n.b. Tube stations with Overground services don't count.
Liverpool Street and Clapham Junction are a very long way ahead of Shepherd's Bush. South Hampstead is the least used of all zone 2 stations. Barking Riverside has crept out of the bottom 10 (it's number 12) as the amount of housing nearby grows. Of the six Overground lines, the Suffragette line no longer appears in the Bottom 10 and the Liberty line takes the 'least used' crown.
Taken overall, TfL's ten least used stations are Roding Valley, Chigwell, Emerson Park, Grange Hill, Iver, Beckton Park, North Ealing, Taplow, South Hampstead and Theydon Bois. That's five tube stations, two Overground stations, two Elizabeth line stations and a DLR station.
As a final statistic, Roding Valley may be TfL's least used station by a country mile, but it's still busier than 45% of National Rail stations. We barely know what 'least used' means here in London.
This is Hampstead Green, a wildflower meadow just up the hill from Belsize Park station. It's fenced off to prevent public access but with low railings so all who pass by can admire. It looks fabulous at the moment with its carpet of spring bluebells, but is also very much under long-term threat from a variety of existential hazards.
Hampstead Green is the name given to a triangular patch of land at the top of Haverstock Hill. Go back far enough and this was part of a large area of manorial waste, later preserved as greenspace when the area started to be residentialised. Grand villas were built and also St Stephen's Church, designed by Samuel Teulon and consecrated in 1869. It hasn't always looked this good, for many years it was neglected and overgrown, but the local community cleared the area and transformed it into a natural open space. It's now planted with nine trees including cherry, sycamore and poplar and is principally cultivated as a wild flower meadow to encourage butterflies. But for how long?
Hampstead Green is managed by the Parks & Open Spaces team at Camden council. They aren't in dire financial straits at present but that could change, indeed every UK council has been under increasing strain since the austerity squeeze by the Coalition government. In Camden's latest budget document the allocation for Green Space management has thankfully risen to £3.85m but this has to cover a large number of sites, also it's only a 2.5% increase on last year and inflationary pressures instead suggest further tightening of belts. It's not inconceivable that the tending of a wildflower meadow could come to be seen as a discretionary extra, particularly when there are legal responsibilities to cover key services like bin collections and adult social care instead.
No such cutbacks are planned at present but the entire council's up for re-election next month, and indeed every four years hence, plus who's to say a future government won't squeeze council funding further. Imagine Eric Pickles on steroids taking up the post of Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government in a Reform government and cutting budgets to a rump 'to protect local taxpayers'. No space then for a namby pamby bio-diverse maintenance regime ("one third to be left uncut in rotation to allow later flowering species to seed"), far easier to just turf the whole thing and run a lawnmower over the lot occasionally. In a hypothetically brutal financial future, today's gorgeous bluebells could one day be history.
Hampstead Green is overlooked by the latest addition to the Royal Free Hospital, the Pears Building. This lowrise facility opened a few years ago and contains a world class Immunity and Transplantation institute with the capacity to accommodate 200 researchers, also the offices of the Royal Free Charity, also a 35-bed hotel for patients. It's a fine building but go back just 15 years ago and its footprint was instead grassland and an access road, because open space is always first to go when a hospital needs to expand. If the Royal Free needed to expand again then Hampstead Green is the last patch of open land locally and who's to say it wouldn't make a really nice medical facility? Technically this triangular patch is protected by a historic covenant signed by the council which restricts its use to "an enclosed open space", but there's always a way round these things if NHS priorities take precedence.
Britain's bluebells are also under considerable threat from climate change. They're blooming earlier due to milder springs, also being outgunned by competitive plants which start their leaf growth earlier in the year. A further threat comes from invasive Spanish and hybrid bluebells, these increasingly prevalent, and if temperatures rise too much then the suitable zone for bluebell growth may edge further north. You can't just replant bluebells, they take several years to establish themselves and grow to maturity, so this is not a loss it'd be easy to turn around. It might take decades but Hampstead Green could easily lose its Hampstead blue, so best enjoy them while they last.
Climate change brings further risks, not least the risk of the collapse of the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation. The AMOC loops around the world's oceans, in particular speeding warm currents from the equator towards the poles and warming the climate of northwest Europe. This helps explains why Britain has much milder winters than central Canada, despite being on the same latitude, dodging the snowbound winters and iced-up oceans that 52°N would normally bring. If the Gulf Stream failed we'd face noticeably colder winters ourselves, notionally only a 0.5°C drop per decade but after a century that'd be 5°C and we could expect lengthier freezes and icebergs off the Hebrides. What's more the mostrecent research suggests we're likely to be approaching an irreversible tipping point far faster than previously assumed, vastly reducing the UK's agricultural capability and broadening our seasons. It might only be your grandchildren that suffer as a result, living in a country whose climate would be unrecognisable to us today, but Hampstead Green's long term destiny is potentially as Hampstead White.
One of the inexorable consequences of climate change is a rise in sea levels. It's only a few millimetres a year at present but if tipping points are reached it could rise much faster and a coastal city like London could be under serious threat. Bluebells in lower lying spots like Kew Gardens would be first to be threatened, while it would take 15m of sea level rise to smother the glories of Chalet Wood in Wanstead Park. Hampstead Green's flowers are relatively safe being 80m above sea level, which is approximately the maximum height if all the planet's ice melted. But Hampstead-on-Sea is unlikely to be a charming seaside resort, more a brackish marshland in an abandoned city, so no gorgeous spring meadow will survive. We're talking very long term here because geological time waits for no man, but our current inaction may already have condemned substantial portions of the UK to an underwater future.
The swiftest way to permanently damage Hampstead Green would be sudden impact by a thermonuclear device. Usually this is unthinkable but only this week the US Treasury Secretary pondered out loud "I wonder what the hit to global GDP would be if a nuclear weapon hit London", referring to the potential capabilities of Iranian missiles. The fireball from a single 5 megaton intercontinental ballistic missile targeted on central London would only reach Regents Park but Hampstead would be uncomfortably inside the zone of 'moderate damage' where most residential buildings would collapse, injuries were universal and fatalities were widespread. We might well expect fires to burn out of control, also horrendous levels of fallout, and were it April the loss of most local bluebells. It's likely London would need to be evacuated, also that millions would suffer from radiation poisoning and that councillors would have far more pressing concerns than the maintenance of a lightly-mown nature reserve. And that'd be the end of Hampstead Green.
Looking further ahead, in around 5.4 billion years time our Sun will have burned out and shrunk to the size of a white dwarf. Earth will have become uninhabitable long before that, maybe around 2 billion years hence, as our star's expansion boils away the oceans. All kinds of global calamities could have occurred in the meantime, from a giant asteroid impact to man-made Armageddon to a ultra-fatal pandemic, even alien conquest. Everything on our planet has a finite lifespan, indeed if you look around yourself right now everything you see will one day be destroyed by irresistible forces, be that civilisational collapse, oceanic immersion, tectonic action or universal decay. Hampstead Green is ultimately doomed, of that we can be absolutely certain, so best admire the lovely bluebells in the wildflower meadow while you can.
They didn't have blogs or the internet forty years ago, so here are 30 things I didn't digitally publish at the time. To help you get your bearings I was 21 and April meant the Easter holidays followed by my last term at university. I should perhaps have been studying a little harder than I was.
Tue 1: It's the day after Easter Monday and there is a lot of news. Hampton Court burned yesterday, the GLC has just been abolished and Charles and Diana are officially opening the tube extension to Heathrow T4. BBC Breakfast Time reports that French scientists have created yolkless eggs and you can identify them because they bounce. I've asked Dad to post two April Fools letters from Florida after he touches down there tonight on his work trip. Wed 2: Dad rings from America, annoyingly during a brief gap when my Mum is out shopping so she misses him. He's pleased to hear that Watford beat Arsenal yesterday. Thu 3: I am 21 and I have just let my Mum cut my hair. It could have been a lot worse. On TV: Top of the Pops has a new theme tune - The Wizard by Paul Hardcastle. Fri 4: I should be writing a job application letter. Instead displacement activities include a) going into Watford, b) replacing a Pet Shop Boys cassette, c) rereading a hardback, d) watching The Tube. Mum is not impressed. She missed another call from Dad earlier which didn't impress her either. Sat 5: 3rd time lucky with a phone call. Today's displacement activities include a) watching the Grand National, b) doing some revision questions, c) watching The Price is Right.
Sun 6: Dad returns with gifts - some local Florida newspapers and a bag of 1st class toiletries. Celebrate with roast turkey and apple strudel. On TV: I Claudius (the Governor of Syria is played by Grange Hill's caretaker). Mon 7: Last night Dad sat me down for a heart-to-heart chat so I do actually finish two job applications today, but it takes until 2am. Tue 8: Dad posts the letters on his way to work. On TV: On Eastenders Michelle proposes to Lofty. On Brookside Heather snogs the man from Picture Box. Wed 9: My brother and I have to make lunch. I microwave some fish fingers and he cooks too many peas. Thu 10: A letter arrives. It says the job I applied for has already gone. I am secretly pleased.
Fri 11: Labour beat the SDP in the Fulham byelection. It snows lightly on and off all day. Still revising a bit. On TV: Brand new on Channel 4, The Chart Show. It's gamechanging. Sat 12: Rather than watch Saturday evening TV Dad gets his slide projector out, closes the curtains and shows us photos of Miami... then my 21st birthday... then old holiday photos. Did our hair really used to look like that, eek. Sun 13: On TV: Spitting Image, also a programme about the space race because it's 25 years since Yuri Gagarin's first flight, also Jack Nicklaus wins the US Masters. Mon 14: I am behind on my revision schedule. There are episodes of Fireball XL5 to watch and 901 tiny squares of graph paper to colour in. Tue 15: Bad news - President Reagan sent bombers to Libya overnight and Margaret Thatcher let the F1-11s take off from here. Bad news - a second rejection letter arrives claiming that the post is already filled. This is particularly annoying because parental nudging to write more job applications starts up again.
Wed 16: Hunt in the garage for three old deckchairs I can take to university so I can sit out on my roof terrace with friends. Mum makes some biscuits I can take too. Thu 17: Draw £20 out of Watford Post Office. Use it to buy grey slippers from Marks & Spencer, this week's copy of Record Mirror, a cheap plastic cassette rack from Woolworths, a proper haircut from Headhunters and a 54p bus fare home. Fri 18: Inflation has dropped to 4.2%, the lowest for three years. On TV: The amazing video for Sledgehammer by Peter Gabriel on The Chart Show. Sat 19: The doorbell goes. "Don't answer it," says Mum, "it's the 7th Day Adventists." An hour later it goes again. It's a woman from the British Market Research Bureau desperately looking for an 18-25 year old to interview. I'll do it! It turns out to be on behalf of the DHSS and is about awareness of their AIDS advertising campaign. "Which of these diseases do you think poses the greatest threat to our society?" "Have you seen these adverts?" "What do you know about how AIDS can be spread?" "How many sexual partners have you had in the last year?" This is not what you expect to be chatting to a researcher about on your family sofa while your Mum makes tea nextdoor. Sun 20: A celebratory roast before my brother drives back to university. I'm going back tomorrow so do some packing. Yes Mum, I will try to apply for some more jobs.
Mon 21: Drive back during the Golden Hour on Radio 1. It takes eight goes to get all my boxes up to the third floor. It's Andrew's 21st birthday so lots of us head to Go Dutch for a celebratory meal, liberally doused in stroop. It's also the Queen's 60th birthday but she's busy elsewhere. Tue 22: Off to the ABC cinema to watch John Cleese in Clockwise. The ticket costs £2.20. The film is very funny. Wed 23: Exams are two months away. However I am mainly spending this week socialising because I've never had so many friends before and it's quite intoxicating. Thu 24: Confess that yes, the spoof letters from America were my doing. Wave at the King of Spain when his helicopter flies over. Finally make a start on some revision... by going to Ryman and buying five notepads. Fri 25: My balcony has become the go-to location for everyone to gather, especially the 2nd years because they don't have exams this year. While I nip off to hand in some holiday work everyone else moves my bed outside onto the balcony, and things go downhill from there.
Sat 26: Nah, revision starts tomorrow. In the meantime more deckchairing, several card games, Every Second Counts, and what with all these visitors I've run out of milk again. Sun 27: The problem with revision is that if you didn't understand it first time it doesn't make much sense second time either. Head to the University careers service and pick up some information on Emergency Career Two. On TV: The Antiques Roadshow comes from Watford. Mon 28: Today's milk carton has a use-by date of April 31. In the news, scientists in Sweden have detected increased radiation in the air. It seems there's been a bad accident at a Russian nuclear power plant... Tue 29: Half of my last student grant cheque has to go on paying for accommodation and food. Sneak off to go punting with the second-best-looking student in college. Wed 30: Time to stay awake for 25 hours because May Morning is a big thing round here. In the morning spend £65 on an Olympus Trip camera, just in time to record some of this jollity for posterity. For lunch a chicken and mushroom pie. In the afternoon a scary tutorial where thankfully Andy gets the harder questions. In the evening beers at the college bar and the purchase of two condoms (oh, they're for blowing up and floating down a corridor). Overnight a canal towpath walk and a succession of board games to fill the hours before dawn. And at 6am join the crowds on Magdalen Bridge while the choir sings inaudibly up the tower, then go watch the Morris dancing and take breakfast with the Sloanes at Sweeney Todd's. Roll into bed at 9am, a tradition finally ticked off, although maybe it would have been more sensible to do this in Year Two. And May's only going to get more sociable, which really isn't going to help June.
Here are four signs I saw yesterday. I have questions.
This sign is wrapped round a bollard outside Blackfriars station.
Save £300 here by not littering.
From April 2026 the fine for dropping litter in the City of London is increasing to £300.
Don't litter, it's a waste of money!
Q: What was my first thought?
£300's a lot for dropping a bit of litter! Sure litter's bad, but £300?
Q: Where has £300 come from?
I checked the City of London website but I can't find anything anywhere about £300 fines for littering. I can find news from April 2019 titled "New clampdown on City littering as fines rise" when the maximum fine went up from £80 to £150. To be specific, that's a Fixed Penalty Notice charge of £80 if paid within 10 days and a maximum of £150 if not paid. The maximum now seems to have doubled, but why?
Q: Has the government just changed something?
In April 2018 the Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs raised the maximum on-the-spot fine for littering from £80 to £150. Last month they increased the maximum to £500 (£500!) in statutory guidance. It sounds like the City of London decided to duck beneath the maximum but still doubled their fine from £150 to £300. So it could have been much worse?
Q: And what is litter anyway?
That's in the government guidance too, although it's not entirely specific. "Litter is most commonly assumed to include materials that are improperly discarded and left by members of the public, often associated with smoking, eating and drinking". That would include a discarded coffee cup, a stubbed cigarette or a scrap of silver paper torn from a packet of Polos, wouldn't it? For £300. So yes, be careful out there!
Q: Could councils solve their financial problems by employing more litter spotters?
I don't think it's as simple as that, otherwise there'd be loads more parking enforcement agents too?
Readers answer: Littering in Tower Hamlets and spitting in Lambeth both now come with a maximum fine of £500.
This sign is at a bus stop on the St Helier estate.
Excursion buses stop here
Q: What were excursion buses?
They'll have been some jolly outbound thing, maybe weekends and holidays, to places like stately homes, hills or the coast. Maybe London Transport ran them and they had special route numbers, or maybe they were private coaches the public could catch. I bet they haven't run for years, likely decades, yet this white tile somehow lingers on.
Q: Why is it here?
The St Helier estate is proper council housing, within London second only to Becontree. Catching an excursion bus is thus just the sort of thing local residents would have done, just as residents of Chelsea or Notting Hill wouldn't. A single gathering point by the Rose Hill roundabout thus perhaps makes sense?
Q: Are there any more of these tiles anywhere?
Using my search skills I've found another 'excursion buses' tile outside The London Cancer Hub in Belmont. It wouldn't have been The London Cancer Hub in those days, obviously. This suggests an excursion route heading south through Sutton, but to where?
Readers answer: Excursions were run by Go-Ahead London to a variety of destinations during the summer using vehicles that would have been used for school services during term time. As recently as 2015 route 773 ran on Sundays, Tuesdays and Thursdays from Kingston to Brighton and Eastbourne via Morden, St Helier, Sutton, Belmont and Banstead. Thanks Andrew!
This sign is at Wandle Park tram stop.
Q: That's the wrong typeface isn't it?
It's certainly not the modern TfL font, it's not quite chunky enough. More likely a leftover from the early days, perhaps circa 2000? Although the small green roundel says 'Tramlink' and that was only the design between 2008 and 2016. It's still over 10 years old though. If all the other tram stops have had their signs updated (have they?) then why not this one?
Readers answer: The sign was installed in 2012 when the park was renovated and they wanted to better advertise the tram stop. The font looks similar to other signs in the park. Thanks Jessica!
This sign is on the door of a block of flats in Croydon town centre.
Polite notice
I am but a fragile little door
Please wait until I go bleep bleep before pushing me
Please ensure the door is closed behind you when entering and exiting the building
Thankyou
Q: Does phrasing it like this actually help?
It's a bit twee isn't it? There again maybe this way of drawing attention is better than a dry instruction? I wonder if it's the delivery drivers rather than the residents causing the issue?
Q: Why has this block of flats got such a feeble door?
Yes that's the real question, There wouldn't be an issue if the design of the door was sturdier, it's the architects we should be blaming. Aha, the flats were built in 2022 by Brick by Brick, Croydon council's arms-length development company, and they went bust that year with stonking debts. Apparently they'd been loaned £200m, a significant contributor to the council being declared bankrupt with £1.5bn of debts, and never earned enough profit to pay any of the money back.
Q: What did peoplesayabout Brick by Brick?
» "Residents of three Brick by Brick developments finally met with the Mayor of Croydon this week to discuss the litany of problems they have experienced since purchasing their properties."
» "PwC reported that Brick By Brick had significantly underperformed against its business plan and that its financial governance arrangements were lacking."
» "Greater due diligence on the sites in terms of site information, utilities etc would have reduced the abortive design work and the number of design iterations."
» "One significant Brick by Brick development, Red Clover Gardens in Coulsdon, remains as yet unsold, its 157 flats still sitting vacant, in the middle of a housing crisis, close to two years since the build was finished."
Q: Isn't it amazing where spotting a sign can lead you?
In this case to a Council Housing Partner with debt issues, a reputation for inadequate construction and no way of holding them to account. It seems this 'fragile little door' is just a byproduct of an inadequate political system, and the wording is perhaps a despairing cry from the unfortunate residents saddled with Bleep Bleep ineptitude?
There are a heck of a lot of Hs in far southwest London. The best known are Hounslow and Heathrow, then come Hayes and Harlington, also Hatton (with its Cross), Heston (with its Services) and Hampton (with its Court). But for my next unsung suburb I've picked Hanworth, a historic neighbourhood with nods to royalty and aviation, alternatively a blur you drive past on the way to the M3.
Note to readers: Yes I have blogged about Hanworth before but only briefly, so if you prefer the quick version go read that instead.
Hanworth lies east of Feltham, west of Twickenham and nowhere near a station. Instead it's a road that defines and divides the place, an elevated motorway feeder built in the 1970s with occasional nods to the idea that local people might want to cross it. That means intermittent footbridges with ostentatious ramps, one of which took me two minutes to negotiate, also the occasional roundabout lodged underneath. From the highest vantage point you can see how lowrise the entire area is, most of it packed with undetached interwar houses, but there are a few older clusters here and there. This is one of the oldest.
This startling frontage on Castle Way is a Victorian reinterpretation of a Tudor stable block, the remainder of the manor house having been lost to fire. Henry VIII acquired the property in 1512, Hounslow Heath being one of his favoured royal hunting grounds, and later gifted it to his wife Anne Boleyn. Her tenure was however cut short, quite literally, and on Henry's death it passed to Catherine Parr instead. She lived here with her stepdaughter, at least for a few months, and when Elizabeth herself became Queen she returned to stay at Hanworth a few times to enjoy the local sport. These days it's called Tudor Court and has been divided up into well-to-do flats around a very private and well-tended quadrangle.
Round the back, where a large square moat used to be, the land has since been carved up to create the Tudor Estate. This is Hanworth's smartest neighbourhood, a mix of rustic brick and modern double garages each on a generous plot. This is the kind of place where the residents association organises fizz-fuelled quiz nights and Santa rides the streets at Christmas on his penny farthing. I weaved through to a cul-de-sac called Moat Side in the hope of seeing the remnants of Elizabeth's water feature, but the only visible edge is now a stripe of open garden repeatedly labelled 'Private Property' so I kept off.
Alongside is the oldest of Hanworth's three churches, St George's, which is fundamentally 14th century but much tweaked over the years. Approaching through the lych gate I wondered if it might be possible to look inside, but when I saw each window had two signs saying "CCTV Working Now" and "Alarmed To Police" I realised I'd have to make to with the churchyard alone. All Saints was added on the main road in 1935 after a jam factory* opened and the working population grew, then upgraded to a chunky brick building in the 1950s when a council estate replaced the orchards. St Richard's arrived shortly afterwards in chalet style, all wonky rooflines and wigwam belfry, providing Hanworth with what I suspect is now ecclesiastical oversupply.
Jam factory interlude William Whiteley, the original owner of Whiteley's in Queensway, bought 200 acres of farmland in Hanworth in 1891. He used it to supply fruit for his food court and transported it there daily by horse and cart. Alas William was shot dead by an illegitimate son in 1907, after which his legitimate offspring sold the farm to a jam manufacturer, Beach's of Brentford. In 1933 they sold up to Twickenham council for use as housing, and after WW2 it became the Butts FarmEstate. As place names go it's at the more embarrassing end of the spectrum. The King and Queen of Sweden visited in 1954 having requested to inspect a modern housing estate, dropping in at 33 Fountains Close, 27 Towfield Court and 44 Canterbury Road. I wasn't quite so awed when I rode the H25 bus to its terminus at the far end of the estate, and annoyingly the driver flipped the blind before I could take a hilarious photo of it saying 'Butts Farm'.
The hidden treasure locally is Hanworth Park House, a two-storey mansion built in the 1830s, one side of which is pretty much all balconies. The last owner died in 1911 which was perfect timing for the estate to be taken over for the manufacture of newfangled biplanes. These were parked and trialled out front, the local river having been culverted to create an unimpeded space for takeoff and landing. During WW1 the Royal Flying Corps were based here, then in 1929 the National Flying Services moved in and Hanworth became a glamorous private airfield, the kind of place where Amelia Earhart or a Graf Zeppelin might drop by. The next owners were General Aircraft Limited who built planes again, and the aerodrome eventually closed in 1949 after nearby Heathrow started to take off.
It's now a 150 acre recreational space called Hanworth Air Park, mostly a vast patch of grass but with a pleasant patch of riverside woodland up one end. The local rugby team's clubhouse is anchored in one corner while another edge is occupied by a modern multicoloured shed containing a big leisure centre and a small library, only one of which is open more than four days a week. And hidden somewhere in the middle, surrounded by far more trees than 100 years ago, is Hanworth Park House. I caught only veiled glimpses of the former hotel through budding branches, not that I suspect I'd have seen much more in the winter, and was warned off breaking in along the main drive by multiple signs on the gate warning that the guard dogs bite. Alas the great house is increasingly derelict, something local campaigners would love to reverse, but that would require money and some kind of long-term commercial future so continuing decay is the most likely outcome.
Six Hanworth postcards
✉ The river that flows through Hanworth wiggles fairly convincingly but is actually entirely artificial. The Longford River is 12 miles long and was dug in 1638 at the behest of Charles I, diverting water from the River Colne to feed ornamental features at Hampton Court. I joined the riverside path near the Apex Corner sliproad and found myself in a reedy strip hemmed between houses and industrial units, with no hope of exit for a good half mile but a lot of endearing ducks.
✉ The heart of the original village of Hanworth was a small triangular green surrounded by cottages and a pub called The Brown Bear Inn. Alas the A316 dual carriageway scored a direct hit and the junction is now straddled by the Bear Road flyover, a stilted concrete roar. To catch a 290 bus you have to climb some stark 1970s staircases, and for those walking underneath the planners only bothered to provide a pavement on one side. Perhaps more hurtfully, Hanworth's 24,000 residents no longer have a single pub.
✉ Job's Dairy opened alongside Snakey Lane in 1920s and until recently was one of Britain's largest glass milk-bottling plants. It was however bought out one too many times, first to Unigate in 1987, then to Dairy Crest 2000, then to Müller UK in 2014 and most recently to Freshways in 2024. They promptly shuttered the site with the loss of 162 jobs and no crates have since rattled behind the deteriorating frontage.
✉ South of the main road there's less of interest, this area now mostly residential infill with very few of the original cottages surviving the transformation. The village pond, for example, was filled in and replaced by a glaringly mundane office block called Swan House. The Swan pub with its distinctive weathervane became a dead Swan in 2015. Across the street is a minor shopping parade with a Tesco, a disturbingly cheap takeaway (Chicken Steak Burger £1.99) and a warning to Please Refrain From Sitting On The Rock Baskets.
✉ Church Road got decapitated when the dual carriageway arrived and still resembles a country lane wending between allotments and a somewhat scrappy equestrian centre. Close by is the entrance to Kempton Nature Reserve, a decommissioned reservoir that's now a 50 acre sunken wetland. It looks an appealing place to visit but is only unlockable if you apply to Thames Water and alas "Membership is currently unavailable", so the migrating birds must be enjoying some peace and quiet.
✉ Technically Kempton Steam Museum is in Hanworth, as is the Hampton & Kempton Waterworks Railway, even if both are very nearly in Surrey and neither mentions the place nominally. I have however told you about bothbefore (the triple-expansion steam engine is amazing) and both are open next weekend if you want to see Hanworth for yourself.
I've been all over London over the last few days, but only to places I've blogged about before.
On Tuesday I went to the station I wrote about in June 2021 and took the train I told you about in May 2022 to the town whose MP I told you about in January 2026. I alighted my next train opposite the department store I told you about in February 2018 and caught the bus I told you about in June 2016 to the park I told you about in February 2009. Then it was on to the roundabout I told you about in April 2008 via the arterial route I told you about in March 2024 to the restaurant I told you about in Unblogged November 2022. Here I crossed the evacuation route I told you about in January 2014 and the waymarked path I told you about in December 2021 before switching to the tube line I told you about in March 2013. One stop later I alighted near the greenspace I told you about in March 2009 before catching a rare bus I told you about in June 2023 to the section of the London Loop I told you about in October 2014. Here a bus I told you about in January 2020 took me to a statue I told you about in April 2008, and another took me to the level crossing I told you about in July 2023. I went one stop to the town I told you about in January 2008 and caught the bus I told you about in January 2019 past the trig point I told you about in October 2004. My next buses took me past the footballing sights I told you about in April 2009, to the terminus I queried in June 2025, along the seasonal road I told you about in December 2024 and past the power station I told you about in April 2024. My next target was alongside the square I told you about in July 2025 before hopping back to a new station I told you about in March 2019. My final bus, which I told you about in December 2014, took me to a train service I told you about in September 2019, after which I came home past allotments I told you about in September 2021. All previously blogged, so nothing to blog here.
On Wednesday I travelled along the High Street I told you about in August 2008 to the sculpture I told you about in March 2012. Here I caught a train I first told you about in June 2017 to the place on the London Loop I reached in May 2014. My first bus passed the public toilets I told you about in January 2024 and the collection of streets I told you about in April 2018 to a road I told you about in January 2012. I told you about the next suburb in some detail in January 2019, including its fork and its library, also about this bus corridor in December 2019. I switched buses opposite the clocktower I told you about in May 2023, finally boarding the bus whose route number I queried in July 2023. This took me through suburbs I told you about in October 2024 and November 2015 respectively, then past the foot of a hill I told you about in August 2006, August 2014 and December 2022. From the bus station I moaned about in December 2022 I rode the tube line I told you about in June 2013 to the shopping centre I told you about in December 2017. Another bus I told you about in July 2024 took me to a road junction I told you about in May 2004 and the venue of a meeting I told you about in May 2019. A little-used station I told you about in November 2017 then propelled me to a lost river I told you about in January 2010 and a supermarket I told you about in February 2013. Improbably my next target was the start of a walk I told you about in October 2024, then I headed to two towns whose museums I told you about in October 2009 and April 2010. A bus I told you about in November 2014 then took me to a shopping parade I told you about in February 2026. From here I took a train across a section of the Capital Ring I told you about in April 2011 to a station I told you about in March 2022 beneath a sign I told you about in September 2025. Then home to use a kettle I told you about in February 2020. All previously blogged, so nothing to blog here.
On Thursday I passed the statue I told you about in August 2003 to take the train through the station I told you about in December 2007 to a cavern I first told you about in September 2012. I briefly visited a tourist hotspot I told you about in May 2016 before backtracking to a historic building I told you about in March 2024. I next paused beside a gallery I told you about in April 2018 before continuing to a bridge I told you about in April 2013 and passing a museum I told you about in March 2016. From a market I told you about in October 2008 I circuited a shopping mall I told you about in October 2018 to an iconic building I told you about in October 2013 in a suburb whose Olympic history I told about in you April 2008. My next bus took me past a former ice cream parlour I told you about in Unblogged September 2018 to a lost river I told you about in September 2010, then it was back past a cultural centre I told you about in September 2018 and a quick ride on a piddly bus route I told you about in December 2019. I avoided the very long tunnel at the station I told you about in November 2004, continuing to the suburb I told you about in April 2021 and looking down into the tunnel entrance I told you about in June 2008. I'm not doing that one again. From there I walked past the library I told you about in December 2011 and burrowed in a subterranean manner to the capitalist temple I derided in September 2024, before heading home through the hinterland I told you about in March 2018. All previously blogged, so nothing to blog here.
On Friday I nipped first to the cooking sauces aisle I told you about in March 2017 before returning home across the roundabout I told you about in more months than I care to imagine. Suitably unladen I passed the launderette I told you about in February 2005 and rode the tube lines I told you about in April 2013 and September 2013 respectively. I dodged the elephant I told you about in November 2013 and then made three fairly pointless stops: a) by the lost river I told you about in February 2010, b) in the postcode I told you about in January 2020, c) alongside the path I told you about in November 2022. My ultimate destination was near the waterworks I told you about in September 2024, specifically the suburb I told you about in July 2022, but not quite as far as the engines I told you about in November 2007 or the tower I told you about in February 2012. After much wandering I headed to the suburb I told you about in January 2017 because that was the quickest way to the neighbourhood I told you about in July 2025. Stupidly I left the train after the park I told you about in September 2023 because there were no buses so I had to walk past the studios I told you about in July 2008 and the famous window I told you about in March 2005. Alas the railway I first told you about in July 2003 was suspended so I had to head home via the roundel I told you about in August 2013, also the hotel I told you about in September 2019, the pub I told you about in August 2019 and the urinals I told you about in June 2012. All previously blogged, so nothing to blog here.
Yesterday I went all over the place, sorry, including the shopping precinct I told you about in December 2017, the lost river I told you about in August 2010, the plaque I told you about in December 2007, the borderline outpost I told you about in May 2017, the infrequent bus I told you about in December 2014, the town centre I told you about in October 2006, the cocky corner I told you about in July 2022, the isolated estate I told you about in March 2025, the high point I told you about in August 2014, the section of the London Loop I told you about in September 2015, the famous residences I told you about in January 2023, the Superloop route I told you about in February 2024, the constituency I told you about in June 2024, the mansion I told you about in April 2011, another clocktower I told you about in May 2023, the peculiarly-named locality I told you about in October 2022, the bend in the road I told you about in March 2022, the farm I told you about in October 2015, the lost river I told you about in May 2024, another high point I told you about in August 2014, the Olympic venue I told you about in September 2012, the town I told you about in January 2009, the football stadium I told you about in October 2009, the roadworks I told you about in January 2026, the IKEA I told you about in February 2019, the aerial folly I first told you about in March 2011, the sponsored tent I told you about in June 2007, the clocks I told you about in May 2004, the town hall I told you about in May 2006, the art gallery I told you about in June 2004 and the 700 year-old church I told you about in November 2011. All previously blogged, so nothing to blog here.
That's the problem with a blog that's been all over London, you've heard it all already.
London's borough councils are up for grabs in the local elections next month, including Tower Hamlets where I live. Sometimes things can go off the rails here so I've had a go at researching who's standing for what, just in case they do again.
But first a quick historical recap.
1964-1982: very safe Labour
1986-1990: Alliance/Liberal Democrat interlude
1994-2002: very safe Labour
2006: no overall control (George Galloway intrudes)
2010: very safe Labour switch to elected Mayor
2010-2014: Lutfur Rahman swipes it
2015: 2014 election declared void
2015-2018: John Biggs (Labour)
2022-2026: Lutfur Rahman swipes it back
Sorry, my recap includes a prediction of who's going to win the upcoming election, but it's such a dead cert that I won't be wrong.
Council elections were relatively normal in Tower Hamlets until 2009 when a dodgy petition triggered a referendum on introducing an Executive Mayor for the borough. This seismic change passed with 60% of the vote. The subsequent ballot was won by Lutfur Rahman, now running his own party after a massive falling-out with former Labour colleagues. No matter that Labour had 63% of Tower Hamlets councillors, by becoming Mayor Lutfur took full control of everything and the majority opposition could only sit and watch.
Rahman won again in 2014 although the result was much closer, the cursed 52%-48% ratio. But a lot of well dodgy practices had taken place so in 2015 the electoral court declared the previous election void. Labour's John Biggs duly took over after a 55%-45% victory and Lutfur was banned from politics for seven years. But as soon as those seven years were up he came back, stood again and won, because here in Tower Hamlets we have no qualms in voting for a dubious not-quite criminal and gifting him total power.
In 2026 there are nine candidates for Mayor, one of whom is Lutfur who's going to win again.
» Lutfur Rahman: Aspire
» Sirajul Islam: Labour
» Mohammed Hannan: Liberal Democrats
» Hirra Khan: Green
» John Bullard: Reform UK
» Dominic Nolan: Conservative
» Hugo Pierre: Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition
» Zami Ali: Tower Hamlets Independents
» Terence McGrenera: Independent
The only credible alternative is Sirajul Islam for Labour, or would be were the party more popular nationally which it absolutely isn't. Labour's John Biggs got 33% of the Mayoral vote last time but that percentage can only go down. No other party got more than 10% in 2022 and the Greens didn't even put forward a candidate. It's entirely possible that the Greens will do rather well in neighbouring Hackney, but this is Tower Hamlets and there's no hope of a Green surge for the Mayoralty.
mini bios
• Lutfur Rahman (Aspire) has been found "personally guilty of corrupt or illegal practices, or both"
• Sirajul Islam (Labour) is the current leader of the opposition on Tower Hamlets council
• Mohammed Hannan (Liberal Democrats) came last in Canary Wharf ward in 2022
• Hirra Khan (Green) co-leads an environmental charity and is also standing as a councillor in Bromley-by-Bow
• John Bullard (Reform) is thus far a mystery, likely parachuted in to fill a gap
• Dominic Nolan (Conservative) has been a councillor in Fife, but won only 6% of the vote in Poplar in 2022
• Hugo Pierre (Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition) is certainly a trier, this is his 4th Mayoral election
• Zami Ali (Tower Hamlets Independents) has his own website but hasn't added any news since January, a no-hoper
• Terence McGrenera (Independent) is a local journalist disillusioned by Tower Hamlets political bickering
Here in Tower Hamlets we also vote for 45 councillors across 20 wards, but their main job is either to agree with the Mayor or hold him to account. In 2022 Lutfur's party Aspire won 26 seats, Labour won 19, and the Conservatives and Greens one each. Since then five of those candidates have become independents, which would have been enough to put the council into 'No overall control' were Lutfur not fully in control anyway. The only by-election in the last four years was for my ward, Bow East, after one of the Labour councillors was unexpectedly elected as MP for Cities of London and Westminster.
Aspire, Labour and the Conservatives have all managed to put forward a full range of candidates in each of the 20 wards. The Greens, Liberal Democrats and Tower Hamlets Independents each have two gaps. Reform UK failed to fill ten slots although they've managed to cover every ward. Only residents in Bethnal Green East get the opportunity to vote for The Forward Party, which appears to be the one-man soapbox of a Tiktokker called Adham who likes parading round parks while you read long captions across his head.
Bow East candidates
» Aspire: Hamida, Mansur & Yusuf
» Labour: Abdi, Amina & Marc
» Liberal Democrats: Dan, Daniel & Folkert
» Green: Jonathan, Mads & Ottilie
» Reform UK: Gary, John & Kevin
» Conservative: Georgie, Jade & Robin
» Tower Hamlets Independents: Hira, Salim & Shofiqul
» TUSC: Naomi
Here in Bow East, Aspire are currently winning the letterbox battle with two massive expensively-produced leaflets. One's a folded sheet of A3 covered in bullet-pointed things Lutfur's council has achieved over the last for years, several of them bilingually. The other is ward-specific, half the size, and features our grinning leader alongside his three Aspire candidates. However absolutely no attempt has been made to link any of the party's policies to Bow East ward, merely to dazzle.
Labour have also sent two leaflets, one general and one specific, although these are rather smaller. Sirajul does at least look to have been in the same room as the three Bow East candidates when the cover photo was taken. There are specific mentions of Roman Road Market and 'Vicky Park', generally decrying how Aspire should be looking after them better. Marc Francis has been a Labour councillor here since 2006, but may very well not be in a month's time.
The Greens have sent two copies of something they call Bow East News, generally in the hope I'll be on first name terms with their three candidates. They have the localest policies, even down to litter in a single street, also two attempts at making 'genocide in Palestine' sound locally relevant. The trio have a decent chance of getting at least one of them elected, Bow East being one of the Green's four target wards hereabouts (along with Bow West, Mile End and Bromley North).
Nothing as yet from the Conservatives, Liberal Democrats or Reform UK, partly because it's still early days and partly because they don't have a hope so why waste money.
Politics in Tower Hamlets is rarely dull but I suspect it will be this year, however much reshuffling takes place at councillor level, as Lutfur Rahman wins his fourth election for Executive Mayor. Technically the end result is always in doubt until the final votes are counted, but it would be nice to live in a borough that wasn't quite so one-sidedly anomalous.
The lowest number that isn't a nightbus: 4
The only overnight bus that starts with a letter that isn't N: EL1
Five consecutively numbered nightbuses: N25, N26, N27, N28, N29
Can you show me a map of all the nightbuses? Yes, here's one. I generated it using route-mapster.vercel.app(which if you like bus map facts is seriously brilliant)
[Night routes in orange, 24-hour routes in blue]
The extremes of the nightbus network Most westerly: N9 (Heathrow Terminal 5) Most northerly: N279 (Waltham Cross bus station) Most easterly: N86 (Harold Hill) Most southerly: N68 (Old Coulsdon)
The only nightbus to go outside London: the aforementioned N279
Nightbuses that go nowhere near the daytime route with that number
N5: Trafalgar Square - Edgware (not Canning Town - Romford)
N20: Trafalgar Square - Barnet (not Walthamstow - Debden)
N97: Trafalgar Square - Hammersmith (not Stratford - Chingford)
Nightbuses whose numbers aren't used by daytime buses: N118, N472, N550, N551
How many nightbuses start at Trafalgar Square? 22
Earliest start for a nightbus: 2300 (on the N140 from Harrow Weald) Latest start for a nightbus: 0115 (on the N133 in both directions) Earliest finish for a nightbus: 0512 (on the N28 in both directions) Latest finish for a nightbus: 0717 (on the N140 to Harrow Weald) (and on Sunday mornings, 0807 on the N9 to Heathrow)
The three most frequent nightbuses
N15 (every 10 minutes, every 8 at weekends)
N25 (every 8 minutes, every 10 at weekends)
N29 (every 10 minutes)
n.b. the vast majority of nightbuses run every 30 minutes
When was the first nightbus? 1913, on route 94 (here's a photo of the B-Type outside Piccadilly Circus station)
When was the first 'N' nightbus? 12th October 1960
Here's an N83 timetable (Charing Cross - Tottenham) from July 1961.
What was the nightbus network like in 1972? There were 19 proper Night Bus routes, numbered consecutively from N81 to N99, which generally bore no relation to similarly-numbered daytime routes. Of these only the N97 survives today. Four other routes ran overnight, the 11, 109, 168 and 185. I've blogged about this before.
Number of nightbus routes 25 years ago: 61
The following year 24-hour services lost their N prefix.
Here's a nightbus map from 2005 (by Mike Harris).
And here's the 2015 Central London nightbus map.
The nightbus route that travels the furthest every year: N15 (390,156 km, way way ahead of the N29)
The nightbus route that travels least far every year: N472 (47,709 km)
A long way away from an overnight bus: Northwood, Pinner, Ickenham, Mill Hill East, Marks Gate, Upminster, Biggin Hill, Wallington
London's five least busy nightbus routes (2024/25) 1) 486 North Greenwich - Bexleyheath (39,000) 2) 213 Kingston - Sutton (44,000) 3) N33 Hammersmith - Fulwell (52,000) 4) 365 Orchard Estate - Havering Park (54,000) 5) 85 Putney - Kingston (55,000)
The next ten: 474, 321, N72, 158, 24, 119, N381, N472, 93, 264
The only single decker nightbus routes: N33, N72
The only nightbuses to start and finish in the same place: N5 and N113 (Trafalgar Square - Edgware bus station)
London's newest nightbuses
N472 (North Greenwich - Abbey Wood) [24 January 2026]
N118 (Trafalgar Square - Ruislip) [17 January 2026]
N263 (Moorgate - North Finchley) [6 April 2025]
The three bus stops served by the most nightbuses
Southampton Street/Covent Garden (A)
Bedford Street (J)
Savoy Street (U)
...all served by the N9 N15 N21 N26 N44 N87 N89 N91 N155 N199 N343 N550 N551 (n.b. three routes were missing from the tiles when I took these photos in 2024)
Bus stops that are only used by nightbuses
N8: The Lowe (in Hainault)
N9: Holland Road, Nene Road Roundabout, Newbury Road/Compass Centre (north of Heathrow)
N199: Murray Road (in St Mary Cray)
N205: Warton Road (will be served by the D8 later next year)
N551: Tobacco Dock, Wellclose Street
N3/N87: Abingdon Street (outside Parliament) [dubious]
N133: The Drive (in Morden) [very dubious]
London's longest night bus routes 1) N199 Trafalgar Square → St Mary Cray 21.92 miles 2) N89 Trafalgar Square → Erith 21.33 miles 3) N9 Heathrow T5 → Aldwych 20.94 miles 4) N68 New Oxford Street → Old Coulsdon 19.74 miles 5) N15 Romford → Oxford Circus 18.75 miles
The shortest nightbus route: The N97 is 6.13 miles long
The shortest overnight route: The 238 is 4.83 miles long
Nightbuses which run within a single borough: 64, 278, 365
The borough with only one nightbus: Sutton (plus three 24 hour routes)
The borough with 49 nightbuses: Westminster (77% of the total)
Have you ridden on all the nightbuses? Yes I have, it took three nights, although this was in 2018 and there were only 50 back then.
Has anybody else done this? Geoff's just ridden all 64 and made a video about it.
Has anybody else done this? Yes.
It's now 13 months since long term works at the Bow Roundabout were supposedly completed, but they remain partly out of use. The reverse contraflow lane beneath the flyover has never reopened, despite being the focus of a substantial portion of the works, despite a great deal of time and money having been spent re-engineering it. I told you this last month. Since then two things have changed.
The first is that the wobbly plastic barriers sealing off the contraflow have been replaced by chunky concrete blocks. This gives the closure a more long-term feel, and also prevents overheight lorries and mischievous cars from crashing through the barriers. I presume this is why the spindly security camera overlooking the barriers has now been removed.
The second is that the information on TfL's Silvertown Tunnel webpage has been updated. It used to say...
That's passing the buck for you. I'm not aware of what these measures might be, but "bus priority projects on High Street Stratford" were apparently put forward at a council meeting in January. Their implementation might thus be months off, and could involve a lot or only a little further disruption, but this does mean the saga of the Bow Roundabout upgrade lingers on and on.
London's borough councils are up for grabs in the local elections next month, including Tower Hamlets where I live. Sometimes things can go off the rails here so I've had a go at researching who's standing for what, just in case they do again.
