London's newest bus
Route L10: Horseguards to Buckingham Palace Location: London central Length of bus journey: ½ mile, 14 minutes
A new bus route has been introduced serving a unique section of central London. It operates with double deckers and runs in one direction only to a very specific timetable. The route is excellent for sightseeing purposes, although is not being operated as such. It would be fairer to describe it as a limited stop service rather than an express. A number of keen bus spotters turned up yesterday to be present for the inaugural run, which ran mostly to schedule. As for passenger numbers, it proved so popular that there was standing room only on the upper deck.
The route is relatively straightforward, running from a temporary bus stand at the northern end of Horse Guards Road to a terminus outside the front gates of Buckingham Palace. No other scheduled bus route goes this way so the new L10 offers an exciting way for anyone with a fractured tibia to reach the royal heart of London without hobbling. As is fairly typical with a new route the TfL website provided no information, nor was a timetable provided at bus stops, but the BBC kindly provided a route map enabling tens of thousands of excited enthusiasts to line the route and cheer on the driver and his passengers.
The scheduled departure time for the first service was 12:10pm, as had been heavily trailed in several serious news outlets. Two open-topped Alexander Dennis Tridents had been parked alongside the top corner of St James's Park well in advance, each with a vinyl covering on all sides. So diligently had this been applied that the front blind had been completely obscured, thus it was hard to tell if CHAMP 10 NS was the route number or some kind of marketing claim. Bus wraps can cost the taxpayer several thousand pounds so it was reassuring to see that several corporate sponsors had contributed to the rebrand, a list on the side including Nike, Google, M&S, Budweiser and a company that makes fridges.
You could tell that the intended passengers were true afficionados of bus travel because they arrived in two hi-spec coaches, one a Van Hool the other an Irizar, provided by Ellisons Travel Services of St Helens, Merseyside. Unfortunately both coaches had polarised windows and proceeded to park between two privacy screens so it was not possible to see anyone alight, nor to gain access to the queue preparing to board. There was a brief moment when one of the pony-tailed passengers climbed onto the shoulders of a colleague and waved some silverware around, but it soon became clear that nobody without official clearance would be boarding the inaugural service.
The L10 does not accept either Oyster or contactless. Instead passengers must be in possession of a large European trophy, recently-obtained, and present this to the driver as they board the vehicle. One UEFA Trophy is sufficient to permit access for all, acting a group ticket for the entire team. Unusually the vehicles provided were both open-topped, a risky prospect on a day when heavy showers were forecast. It also meant spectators unable to board the bus could clearly see the lucky few as they appeared on the top deck, which could have got ugly but instead they cheered loudly and exuberantly, and occasionally called to them by name.
Unexpectedly the bus departed two minutes early, as if nobody at the bus company had any sense of timing. Unfortunately the traffic was awful, the Band of His Majesty's Royal Marines Portsmouth insisting on proceeding at a walking pace in front of the vehicle, so the L10 crept ever so slowly into the Mall. And ridiculously it was immediately followed by a second service, a vehicle packed out with hangers-on nobody appeared to recognise, but lapping up the adulation all the same. I was not able to track either of the vehicles on any of the apps, which seems an unfortunate oversight. But how typical that when it comes to special buses, you wait for years and then two come along at once.
The crowds on the Mall were five deep, which isn't normal behaviour on a new bus route, not even Day One on the Superloop. What's more the majority of them appeared to be female and that's very much exceptional for what's essentially a bus-spotting event. Even the passengers on the top deck, grinning with glee at the situation they found themselves in, weren't the usual men the nation used to think of in these circumstances. What was particularly encouraging to see was the number of young people present, easily into the high thousands, all agog to be here and recording reels to share on their socials as is so often the case with new bus launches today.
Even with a heavy police presence the open-topped service was making slow progress. It's often said that "you could walk it faster" and on this case I actually did, nipping marginally into St James's Park to avoid a throng increasing in density as the journey proceeded. Some families appeared to have travelled for many miles and all because their youngest child had insisted on dragging them here simply to see a particular bus, as is so often the way. They cheered in collective adoration, they waved flags name-checking an online bank and they screamed adoringly at the excitement of a converted Alexander Dennis Trident (or perhaps at the historic gathering on the open deck, it was hard to be certain).
Hundreds of latecomers could be seen running expectantly through the park to try to catch a glimpse, increasingly in vain as the bus inched toward the end of The Mall, with many held back so far from the action so that the double decker formed barely a few pixels on their smartphone screen. A complete bottleneck eventually halted the crowd's onward progress, formed by those who'd had the dedication and forethought to have staked their position hours in advance. At the final cordon it became clear that nothing was getting through apart from the two buses, the triumph of the new route complete in that it was the only possible way to reach the terminus and experience the final celebrations first hand.
A huge bus shelter had been constructed beneath the Queen Victoria Memorial, ideal for shielding passengers from the elements had there been a return journey. It was so large you could almost imagine Heather Small coming out and singing Proud, the inevitable finale to any significant bus-related gathering. Instead the passengers were brought forward one at a time to relate how the 14 minute trip had made them feel, in one case confessing to crying all the way, and seemingly exhausted from all the waving. The entire nation was impressed by how far they'd come, and as Sweet Caroline boomed out were left dreaming that they might one day make the same journey again. It was a day that generations of fans will never forget.
It's hard to see the L10 as a practical bus route, being barely half a mile long and taking the best part of quarter of an hour to complete. The open-topped vehicle is impractical in the British climate and the lack of seats upstairs a glaring error. But 65,000 enthusiasts were drawn to witness its first journey yesterday, and plainly ecstatic at what they saw, confirming that collective endeavour and London buses can always bring the nation together. It may be many years before the same team are back on The Mall with another inspirational success to share, maybe even the men rather than the women next time, but let's hope pride returns to our streets and this becomes a regular service.
It forms an approximate circle spreading 20 miles from the centre of London.
This is deliberate, for historical reasons.
But London is not circular.
So some places outside London have 020 dialling codes.
And some of Outer London is not in the 020 area.
Let's investigate.
Places outside London with an 020 dialling code
There are six 020 telephone exchanges outside London.
They are Bushey Heath, Elstree, Hainault, Ewell, Loughton and Thames Ditton
The most populous areas outside London with an 020 dialling code are South Oxhey/Bushey/Borehamwood and Buckhurst Hill/Loughton/Chigwell, and south of the river Molesey/Thames Ditton/Hinchley Wood and Ewell/Stoneleigh.
Parts of Sewardstone in Essex have a London postcode (E4) and a London dialling code (020). For example Scout HQ at Gilwell Park has postcode E4 7QW and telephone number 020 8138 0191.
Havering is the least 020 London borough, followed by Bromley, Bexley and Hillingdon.
I have spent 15 minutes looking for an 020 phone number in Havering but I have not found one.
Places in Greater London not in the 020 area
19 telephone exchanges inside London don't have an 020 dialling code. They are...
01322: Crayford, Erith, Slade Green 01689: Orpington, Farnborough, Lodge Hill 01959: Biggin Hill 01737: Downland 01895: West Drayton, Denham, Uxbridge, Harefield, Ruislip 01923: Northwood 01708: Romford, Ingrebourne, Hornchurch, Upminster, Rainham
That's seven non-020 dialling codes that definitely stretch into London.
They're the yellow codes on this map.
But I believe eight other non-020 dialling codes can be found in London.
They're in green.
01883: Caterham [for example The Fox, Coulsdon Common - 01883 340737] 01372: Esher [for example The Star, Malden Rushett - 01372 842416] 01932: Weybridge [for example Kempton Steam Museum - 01932 765328] 01784: Staines [for example The Orchard Cafe, Staines Road - 01784 258795] 01753: Slough [for example Airpets, Spout Lane North - 01753 685571] 01707: Welwyn Garden City [for example New Cottage Farm, The Ridgeway - 01707 655026] 01992: Waltham Cross [for example Lea Valley Academy, Bullsmoor Lane - 01992 763666] 01277: Brentwood [for example RJ Skip Hire, Grove Farm - 01277 350775]
It took me a while to a while to locate some of these, indeed some are seriously borderline.
A few are strongly correlated to peripheral postcodes that barely enter London.
Greater London thus has 16 geographic dialling codes
The first pillarboxes were introduced in 1853, since when Britain has had seven monarchs. I wanted to track down one postbox from each reign, noting that two of these could prove quite tricky, so I did my research and headed off to Dartford in Kent to try to grab the full set. I eventually succeeded, but I was not expecting Mr Blobby.
This box is in a prominent location at the foot of the High Street, or just off it, on the pedestrianised cut-through to the old market place. It's also the closest postbox to Dartford's main Post Office, although that moved from Hythe Street in 2018 and can now be found at the back of what's still a WH Smith. The box is positioned outside a pawnbroker's window, which feels a bit on point for Dartford, so you can eye up a nice watch or second-hand guitar while posting your letters. This is a Victorian Type A pillar box with a ribbed top, slightly smaller than your average Type B, with a narrow slot not amenable to rigid A4 envelopes. It's also painted all over with a Union Jack motif, and I did wonder whether this was a weird Dartford thing but the bunting down the High Street is all St George's flags and that would be a lot more on brand.
This is just over half a mile away along what used to be Watling Street, up East Hill and onward into suburbia. In Victorian times all that was here was a road and a gravel pit, hence when development kicked off in the early 20th century it needed a new pillar box with an E VII R cypher. I missed it at first because it's not outside the Post Office, which since 2018 has been at the back of the local Nisa grocery store. Instead it's outside where the Post Office used to be, a long time back, which is why the slot faces away from the road towards the Woodland Paws dog grooming boutique. The other reason I missed it is that it's not red, it's gold, which is odd because Dartford had no Olympic medal winners in 2012. And therein hangs a tale.
On 31st January 2024 residents of the Temple Hill area of Dartford discovered that some of their postboxes had been spray-painted gold overnight. Over the next five nights more followed - a total of 26 gold postboxes altogether - and local police released a CCTV image of a masked suspect they wished to question. A perpetrator was successfully arrested on 13th February, but leaving behind a cleaning bill estimated at £150 per box. A spokesperson said "This incident has caused Royal Mail to spend a significant amount of time investigating this matter. It will also cost a significant amount of money to rectify the colour of the post boxes to their iconic red"... and I'm intrigued to see that over a year later they still haven't bothered.
I had been intending to take a photo of the George V pillar box immediately outside Dartford station, but it too had been painted gold and not repainted red. That's fairly staggering for what's perhaps the most prominent postbox in town. This left me seeking an alternative GR box, which I fortuitously stumbled upon along St Vincents Road while walking between Edward VII and George VI. Annoyingly the owner of the adjacent house had chosen this precise moment to rest a ladder against his front wall and vigorously clean out his guttering. Taking his photo would have been gauche and improper, so instead I waited until he was distracted by moss and managed a discreet shot chopping him off at the legs. See how the George V cypher is the simplest of the royal designs, neither over-twiddly nor encumbered by the need for Roman numerals, nobody at the time expecting there'd ever be a George VI.
This always used to be the hardest of the royal cyphers to find, given that Edward VIII abdicated after less than a year. Research suggests that only 161 E VIII R pillar boxes were installed during his reign, of which about 130 were still intact thirty years later and even fewer survive today. None of these I believe are in Kent. Thankfully in 2015 I wrote a post identifying Edward VIII pillar boxes in the capital, of which three are in Bexley, so I went to the easiest to get to from Dartford which is outside Albany Park station. Specifically it's outside the former Post Office, now a Premier foodmart, just across the road from The Albany pub.
Annoyingly just as I turned up a Ford Focus drew up alongside and a woman got out, leaving the car door open while she faffed around at the nearby parcel collection locker. Taking a photo of the postbox would thus have required taking a close-up of her husband in the passenger seat so I held back for five minutes until they drove off, only for a Volkswagen to fill the space before I could wander over. My photo of this rare royal cypher therefore contains an over-prominent Polo, whereas it might instead have featured the barman at The Albany checking his sauce bottles before the Sunday lunchtime barbecue. Perhaps I'd have had a clearer shot in Blackfen or Foots Cray.
Back to Dartford and back to Temple Hill, a grid of Victorian streets with a slew of closed corner shops at several junctions. This particular box is a later addition to the streetscape, possibly as a result of bomb damage, located by the grit bin at the top of Lavinia Close. It is thankfully red but it hasn't been repainted particularly thoroughly because there's leftover gold paint everywhere - in the indents around the lid, round the edge of the cypher, inside the raised lettering and perhaps most noticeably inside the slot. It is arguably quite pretty to have a gold throat inside a red mouth but that doesn't make it right, and it looks like the local miscreant's handiwork is destined to linger for years. And it gets worse...
This bullet-shaped receptacle is the Type Kpillar box designed by Tony Gibbs and first introduced to our streets in 1980. Cylindrical and capless it was intended to be the pillar box of the future, but the cast iron hinges proved prone to failure so no more were produced after 2001. It has a wide slot capable of receiving all sorts of mail, and also what's probably the largest royal cypher of all with a particularly whopping E, R and crown. Also as you can see it very much isn't red, or indeed gold, with a slapdash white frontage and (if you look round the back) a pink mess with yellow spots. And all because Dartford's postbox painter wasn't silenced while he was out on bail.
On 19th/20th February 2024 four Dartford postboxes were spraypainted to look like Mr Blobby, and another to resemble a Cadbury's Creme Egg. Some of the former gained googly eyes to help increase the resemblance, while the latter looked particularly amateurish because it's hard to write 'Creme Egg' in large purple letters on a curved surface. On 8th March a Swizzels Drumstick appeared. The following day the graffiti sprayer was caught midway through a Union Jack, and Kent Police subsequently found 11 cans of gold paint at his home, 18 other cans and receipts totalling £169. His name was Danny Whiskin and in May he was sentenced to 100 hours of community service and ordered to pay £2600 in compensation. It's not clear who painted three more postboxes in August to resemble a Wispa, a Mars and a Twirl, but it is clear that Danny's compensation repaint hasn't yet reached this postbox on Victoria Road.
And here's the toughest royal cypher to locate. After the Queen died the Royal Mail continued to use up their stocks of E II R postboxes so it wasn't until last July that the first C III R pillar box was installed. It can be found in Cambourne High Street west of Cambridge, and although the King didn't turn up to unveil it the Lord Lieutenant of Cambridgeshire did the honours and local school children posted the first letters. The database I've been using includes just 13 subsequent postboxes with a King Charles cypher, and although I could have gone to Brighton, Canterbury, East Wittering, Welshpool or the Isle of Man I chose to go to the nearest to London which is in Dartford. It's a 'lamp box' on the corner of Miskin Road and Penney Close, a short walk from the town centre, and is looking pretty pristine.
The cypher is no longer an intrinsic part of the moulding but cut from a metal panel stuck to the front. This should help make the eventual introduction of W V R cyphers economically painless. The 'Royal Mail' plate is similarly detachable, should they decide to change their name in future, and the aperture below is now very practically sized. But what bemused me was why it was here, given the houses nearby are either Victorian or postwar infill, not modular hutches on fresh streets. I'd also checked Streetview before I arrived, and had been mystified to see a new-ish E II R box in precisely the same spot. Amazingly I do now know precisely what happened because two lovely ladies who live in Penney Close saw me taking photos of the box and stopped to tell me all about it.
The original box had a stiff lock, it turns out, so could only be opened with care. Then one week the usual postlady went away on holiday, and in her absence the replacement bloke managed to get the key stuck in the lock and it broke off. The only way to remove the mail inside was to prise the door open, which damaged the box and the Royal Mail took it away. "We expected it'd come back repaired," the ladies said, but instead a brand new box turned up and that's why their obscure street corner now has a rare C III R cypher. I wish I'd asked them how recently the replacement took place - I'm still kicking myself for not asking - but I can tell you that the mail here is usually collected around 12.30pm, not the 9am it says on the front of the box. If you're friendly with your postlady you get to find out all sorts, and occasionally you get to pass the information on to an interested audience.
Seven postboxes, seven royal cyphers, six of them in Dartford. I'm not sure anywhere else can beat that.
09:00 The day of destiny is here! 10:00 A nation dares to dream! 11:00 The Lionesses can rewrite history! 12:00 Mentality! Passion! Togetherness! 13:00 England expects a famous victory! 14:00 (Spain are also potential winners) 15:00 One final push to glory! 16:00 Get ready to roar!
17:00 Kick-off. The score is nil nil. 17:25 Goal 😢 17:47 Off for oranges at half time. 18:02 Back. 18:13 Goal 😀 18:52 Extra time. 19:33 Penalties 😢😢😀😀😀😀😢😀😀 19:46 ENGLAND HAVE COME FIRST! 20:08 The trophy is retained. 20:10 Pubs are open until 1am.
45 Squared 26) BONNINGTON SQUARE, SW8
Borough of Lambeth, 80m×40m
As requested (thanks), we're off to the backstreets of Vauxhall. Bonnington Square is a dense terraced loop sandwiched midway between the station and the Oval Cricket Ground, tantalisingly close to both but impressively well screened. It has a similar neighbour called Vauxhall Grove which is both leafy and desirable, but Bonnington Square has evolved differently into a tightknit community and a true urban jungle. You sense it as you approach, the street alive with palms, fronds and banana trees where most would make do with planes and cherries, or nothing green at all.
These three-storey terraced houses were built for railwaymen in 1881, their facades enlivened by bands of gault brick and cast stone in Italian Gothic style. Local geography dictated only two access roads, one in the northwest corner and the other partway along an adjacent side, so it's always been more of a refuge than a cut-through. Normally you'd expect a central garden but here they filled the middle with two dozen more houses, a situation later remedied by the Luftwaffe who damaged seven beyond repair. This will be relevant later, hang in there.
Guerilla gardening has been a thing here since collective days, thus trees, planters and street gardens have been crammed into every available space. On a grand circuit you'll see kerbsides sprouting, flowerboxes aplenty, overspilling tubs, a dustbin full of twigs and in the three dead-end corners special green enclaves with bushes, cycads and leafy foliage reaching for the sky. The cluttered pavement around Bonnington Square's not exactly accessible-friendly but the lack of traffic means it's perfectly fine to wheel down the road instead. Along one wall faded paint announces that the bed below is "Biggle's Garden 22.8.03", which I assume is the final resting place of a much-loved pet with a dubious apostrophe. The house with the leopardprint wheelie bin sets things off a treat.
The greening of the square began on the footprint of the seven bomb-damaged houses, a nettle-infested waste patiently transformed into The Pleasure Garden. This is a nod to the famous Vauxhall Pleasure Gardens which delighted Georgian Londoners very close to here, although this is much smaller with fewer hotair balloons and an intrinsically sub-tropical vibe. Enter beneath the helping hand sculpture (which for some reason is surmounted by a giant black beetle), then turn right for the swings or left for the memorial benches. The dense greenery includes a 60 foot walnut tree, a lime arbour, a bamboo stand and a birch grove, also at the far end a huge slip wheel rescued from a local marble factory during demolition. It's a lovely place to hide away with a good book, or to party under fairy lights on special communal evenings, and all the better for being shared with anyone who chooses to wander by.
For a taste of the squatter life here in the 1980s, check out Crispin Hughes' amazing photo exhibition reconstituted on his website along with the original interview text. And to see how the collective DIY attitude has continued to this day, why not drop into Bonnington Square for a walkaround, you're bound to be 10 minutes away at some point. If you've time maybe settle in the central garden or dine alfresco at Italo, although I'm not sure what bereted Lee and Bob who ran the original cafe would think of its sliced San Danielle ham and carnivorous supperclubs. Also I note that one floor of one of the original squats is currently up for sale for 'offers in excess of £1m', because capitalism is hard to hold back forever, although in this lush oasis they've done a far better job
than in most gentrified squares south of the river.
THE UNLOST RIVERS OF LONDON Cannon Brook Northwood → Ruislip Common → Ruislip (2½ miles)
[Cannon Brook → Pinn → Colne → Thames]
Here's a short stream skirting Ruislip which I thought I'd never heard of, that is until I got to the famous bit and then thought "oh of course". For narrative reasons I intend to walk upstream, climbing from Ruislip's HS2 edgelands to Northwood's Iron Bridge.
Cannon Brook enters the River Pinn just north of Ruislip Golf Course, which is currently sealed off having been conscripted for use as a massive worksite for the tunnelling of the West Ruislip portal. Several local footpaths are either severed or on diversion, but the confluence is just far enough away not to be disturbed, and just about visible if you crouch through some trees in the corner of a meadow off Glenhurst Avenue. The nearby footbridge follows the alignment of Clacks Lane, a medieval trackway that HS2 has kindly left open, and which continues across a scrubby field to a shady track approaching the outer edge of Ruislip. The immediate area is a patchwork of small meadows, the next accessed over a stile beside the entrance to Old Clack Farmhouse, an isolated six-bed timber-framed Tudor bolthole. It's all very pleasant.
The last footbridges over the Cannon Brook are a concrete slab and a modern ribbed alternative better able to support passing machinery. The Hillingdon Trail crosses the former, this fine long distance footpath choosing to shadow the Cannon Brook during its fourth waymarked section. The stream is languid here, maybe two metres wide and heavily overhung with foliage. It also has a nearby artificial neighbour, the Ruislip Canal Feeder, which the Trail nudges across to follow next. This was dug in the early 19th century to supply water to the Grand Union Canal at Hayes seven miles away, a distance which proved the project's downfall because the gradient was pitiful and the supply thus unreliable. The channel's dry today, but you can still see a couple of very low bridges along the back path between two local schools.
The rural chunk ends here at the edge of the Green Belt as the outer nub of Metro-land intrudes. The houses in the middle of Ladygate Lane are a postwar addition on former allotments, the closest resident to the Cannon Brook being a proud soul with a Union Jack hoisted in the garden and a huge Middlesex flag flapping across the front porch. An Environment Agency sluice sends the Cannon Brook briefly into a culvert, this where it joins up with the delightfully named Mad Bess Brook, so called because it drains the delightfully named Mad Bess Wood. Meanwhile our stream has become the focal point of townhouse development along Wallington Close, the luckiest houses facing a preserved stripe of green and blue crossed by a single brick bridge. I have never seen so many signs on back gates saying "My Dog Bites And I Hope It Does", or words to that effect.
Howletts Lane is another suburban road on a former rural alignment, and here the Environment Agency maintains a water level gauge just in case flooding might be imminent. It very much isn't now, but this piddly stream very much topped three feet on 23rd September 2023. Slip down the side of Minnie's Hair & Beauty and a broad green corridor separates houses from risk - a delightful local resource and a proper playground for any adventurous youth permitted to leave the house. At one point a ridge of brambly earth dips down to a damp ditch spanned helpfully by planks and thick branches, should you be nimble enough to nip across. The final stretch before the river emerges from a concrete pipe is particularly incongruous because you can step down and walk along a perfectly flat gravel bed devoid of any water, as if a significant flow has simply ceased flowing.
We've reached CannonBridge, the point where the main road from Ruislip to Rickmansworth stops being Bury Street and becomes Duck's Hill Road. This river crossing was first recorded as Canons Bridge in the 14th century, it's thought because the land hereabouts was owned by a widow called Lucy Canon, and only in much more recent times did the bridge give its name to the brook passing through. See the 2004 Journal of the Ruislip, Northcote and Eastcote Local History Society for fuller details than you could possibly need. Cannon Bridge Farmhouse is timber-framed and potentially 16th century, and to continue to follow the river we need the footpath up the side. This leads into Park Wood, a fabulous expanse of thick broad-leaved woodland, although we're only threading through one brief oaky corner before emerging on the flank of a long sloping dam... and oh of course!
This is Ruislip Lido, Hillingdon's finest recreational resource, which was created by damming a river and that river was the Cannon Brook. In 1811 the Grand Junction Canal Company bought 60 acres of woodland, also a row of cottages, and flooded them to create a reservoir to feed the aforementioned canal. It ultimately failed, as also aforementioned, and in 1933 an entrepreneur repurposed the reservoir as a lido instead. The opportunity for outdoor swimming was augmented by rowing boats, sailing and water-skiing, also a miniature railway round the perimeter and more recently an artificial beach you're not allowed to paddle off. I can confirm that the Lido remains impressively busy in the school summer holidays as parents pile in with gleeful children, some patiently lugging trolleyloads of picnicgear, none of whom realise they're crossing a dam on a very minor river.
The Cannons Brook flows out of the Lido through a grille in the southeast corner, as necessary, and flows in at the top end near Haste Hill station. In 1990 volunteers at the Ruislip Lido Railway added a proper culvert beneath the tracks, suitably dated, whereas those on foot can only cross via a single level crossing (listening out for steamy whistles as appropriate). Several tiny tributaries merge here, one branch descending from the heights of Copse Wood and the remainder draining the adjacent golf courses. To follow the longest take footpath R38 between the derelict pump house and a patch of fenced-off wetland to emerge beside the 16th fairway. Alas this thin water feature soon disappears into private golf territory, a shallow ditch between pristine lawns crossed by a dozen tiny footbridges to permit the passage of players and trolleys.
To reach the heights of Northwood bear right by the enormous patch of Himalayan balsam and then trace the edge of fairway number 12, so close that they've had to erect a enormous mesh screen to protect ramblers from flying balls. Haste Hill's clubhouse is at the top of the slope, complete with inbuilt Bombay Chow brasserie where players can enjoy authentic Indo-Chinese cuisine or perhaps, if they arrive early enough, a Full English breakfast. The Cannon Brook is already flowing freely beneath its uppermost footbridge, lusciously fern-fringed, and puts in a first appearance behind the electrical substation on Lees Avenue. Contours suggest it once sprang from higher ground near Hillside Primary School but modern maps launch it from the Metropolitan line viaduct at the foot of Northwood High Street instead.
You'll only ever walk the Ruislip Lido stretch, I know, but isn't it good to know where the river that feeds it goes on the remainder of its journey?
What's else is new this week in the world of London transport?
The Silvertown Tunnel is a success unless it isn't
TfL plan to release detailed data reports on how the Silvertown Tunnel's doing every three months and the first report is just out. Here are ten things I noticed.
» Since the Silvertown Tunnel opened fewer vehicles are crossing the river, down from 96,400 through one tunnel to 91,000 through two tunnels. That's tolls for you.
» Weekday traffic using the Rotherhithe Tunnel is up 10% and using the Woolwich Ferry up 36%.
» HGV crossings at Tower Bridge have reduced by 12% and on the Woolwich Ferry by 25%.
» Unplanned closures of the Blackwall Tunnel are down by 39%, they suspect because overheight vehicles are using the Silvertown Tunnel instead.
» Two-thirds of vehicles paying to go through the tunnels are cars and a quarter are large vans.
» Average speeds on the approach to the northbound to the Blackwall Tunnel were 9mph in March 2025 and are now 30mph.
» Passenger numbers on route 129 have increased by 80%, which isn't surprising given it now goes 60% further and is suddenly free.
» The SL4 sees around 6700 passengers on an average weekday. That's about 25 passengers per bus, not all of whom are going through the tunnel.
» Between the three routes 108, 129 and SL4, about 7000 passengers cross the river daily. It used to be 2600 when it was just the 108.
» 125-130 cyclists use the cycle shuttle on a typical day which, as I've said before, is about one bike per bus. Graph here.
If you're a "microinfluencer", look out for TfL trying to collaborate with you to promote the cycle shuttle service.
If you'd like to see a more detailed analysis, do read the report yourself.
London's Next Dead Bus
The consultation on Superloop route SL11 (North Greenwich to Abbey Wood) is complete and the new route will be going ahead as planned. Introduction is expected "in early 2026", although at the same time the 472 bus will be extinguished, a route currently used by 6 million passengers annually. It's the first time a new Superloop route has killed off another route entirely.
The SL11 will essentially be the 472 with a half-white vehicle and 25 stops missing. If you normally wait for the 472 at one of those 25 deleted stops you'll still be able to catch buses on other routes but not as often. If you normally wait at one of the retained stops you'll probably get to where you're going quicker so you're a winner.
The consultation report essentially says "Thanks but we're going to do things exactly as we proposed in March". I wrote a post in March listing several reasons why the new SL11 wouldn't necessarily be great for everyone, and those reasons still stand. The bad things include running for 2 miles between Charlton and Woolwich Arsenal without stopping, and deviating all the way round East Thamesmead but only stopping once.
London's Next Dead Bus
A new bus consultation has been launched in the Shepherd's Bush area. The plan is to merge the 72 and 283, following the 283 route but calling it 72. The consultation would be a lot easier to understand if TfL used the word 'renumber' but they haven't, they've used 'withdraw' and 'reroute' instead.
The 72 and 283 are both runty routes that operate between East Acton and Hammersmith, a distance of four miles. They used to run much further across Hammersmith Bridge but that's been closed to traffic since 2019 and it seems TfL have finally decided to bite the bullet and scrap one of them. Cutting the total number of vehicles will ensure a tidy saving.
The 72 currently runs the quick way via Westfield and continues to a lacklustre layby on the approach to Hammersmith Bridge. The 283 currently runs the slow way via Loftus Road stadium and the Uxbridge Road and terminates at Hammersmith bus station. The newly merged route will take everyone the slow way, annoying anyone wanting to go from Hammersmith to Hammersmith Hospital, then continue as far as the bridge. Technically the dead bus is the 72 but TfL intend to pretend the dead bus is the 283 because we're playing that game again.
London's Next Dead Bus
The 472 and 283 aren't really London's next dead bus because they won't be disappearing until 2026. The real next dead bus is the 84B because this dies at the end of next month.
The 84B was introduced in 2023 to replace the Barnet to Potters Bar leg of the 84 which was withdrawn in 2022. The 84B is itself to be withdrawn on August 31st and replaced by the 243, a new hourly route linking Barnet to Hatfield. Oyster cards will not be accepted on the 243, just as they weren't on the 84B because neither are TfL buses. For people who like to know about operators, the previous 84 was run by Metroline, the shortened 84 by Sullivan Buses, the current 84B by Central Connect and the future 243 by Uno.
A weekend in Unlondon
Greater Anglia have launched a new weekend return ticket called a Weekender, especially for Londoners planning a weekend away in East Anglia. You have to depart on a Friday (after 9.30am) or a Saturday, then return any time on Saturday, Sunday or Monday. There's no need to specify a particular train, also you can buy it at the ticket office as well as online. It's only available for journeys starting at Liverpool Street, Stratford or Tottenham Hale, not for East Anglians coming the other way.
To coincide with the launch Greater Anglia have fired up a marketing campaign called UNLONDON (you might have seen posters on the tube) pointing out that lots of places in East Anglia are not like places in London. Thus far the #unlondon hashtag has not been a great success on social media, although I did find a couple of obviously-sponsored minute-longpuffvids on TikTok.
I checked a few return journeys and essentially you're getting about 20% off, this on top of any Railcard savings. It's still much cheaper to specify a train out and a train back, but if you don't want to tie yourself down a Weekender ticket is ideal.
Travel-based clickbait
The wordspewers at Secret London continue to publish clickbait headlines pointing out that interesting-sounding things aren't necessarily very far from London. To save you clicking, here's this week's selection.
• This Picturesque Medieval Town Is Just An Hour Away From London – With Charming Cobbled Streets And Buildings Right Out Of Fairytales (it's Rye in Sussex)
• Two Charming English Countryside Towns Are Finally Getting Train Stations Again – And They’re Perfect For A Weekend Escape From London (they're Cullompton in Devon and Wellington in Somerset)
• Meet And Feed Highland Cows At This Charming Farm Experience That’s Less Than Two Hours Away From London (it's up a farm track in fields north of Royston in Cambs)
• The UK Is Home To The Oldest Original Model Village In The World – And It’s Only A 30 Minute Train Ride From Central London (it's Bekonscot in Bucks)
• This Gorgeous Wine Route Nestled Within An Area Of Outstanding Natural Beauty Features Five Vineyards – And It’s Only A Stone’s Throw From London (it's the Surrey Hills in Surrey)
• The Most Walkable City In The World Is Filled With History, Culture And Unbelievably Delicious Food – And You Can Fly There From London For Less Than £50 (it's Rome in Italy)
• This Stunning English Coastal Town Has A Medieval Fortress Known As The ‘Key To England’, Secret Tunnels And Iconic White Cliffs – And It’s Only 2 Hours From London (it's Dover in Kent, obviously) (and it's Only 1 Hour From London if you do your research properly)
I was on the train between Norwood Junction and London Bridge and I said "this is quite a long way isn't it?" "Longer than most," they said. "I wonder what the longest journey between stations in London is?" I said. "That sounds like the sort of thing you'd blog about," they said. So I'm blogging about it.
London's longest non-stop train journeys (both ends of the journey must be inside London)
12.2 miles: London Paddington - Heathrow Central [16 min] Heathrow Express 11.7 miles: London Bridge - Orpington [15 min] Southeastern 11.0 miles: London Waterloo - Surbiton [17 min] SWR 9.6 miles: London Euston - Harrow & Wealdstone [11 min] LNWR 9.6 miles: London Victoria - Bromley South [18 min] Southeastern 8.9 miles: London Bridge - East Croydon [13 min] Thameslink 8.5 miles: London Marylebone - Harrow-on-the-Hill [12 min] Chiltern 8.3 miles: Stratford - Romford [10 min] Greater Anglia 7.6 miles: Clapham Junction - Surbiton [11 min] SWR 7.4 miles: London Bridge - Norwood Junction [12 min] Southern 7.4 miles: Barking - Upminster [8 min] c2c
The longest non-stop journey entirely within London is aboard the Heathrow Express. It's 14.2 miles by train from Paddington to Heathrow, but for tabulation purposes the measurement I'm using is "as the crow flies" which is 12.2 miles. The longest regular non-extortionate journey is London Bridge to Orpington at 11.7 miles.
At time of publishing London Bridge to Norwood Junction is in the top 10 but I've probably forgotten something so it may not stay there. London Bridge to East Croydon is obviously longer. I should say I'm only including regular trains here, not weekend weirdness nor special one-off services that do strange things at 5.30am.
13.2 miles: London Bridge - Chelsfield [21 min] Southeastern (Peak Only) 12.2 miles: West Ruislip - London Marylebone [18 min] Chiltern (0836 Weekdays) 10.8 miles: West Ham - Upminster [13 min] c2c (Peak Only) 10.4 miles: South Ruislip - London Marylebone [16 min] Chiltern (3 morning journeys) 9.2 miles: London Blackfriars - East Croydon [26 min] Thameslink (Overnight) 8.1 miles: London Bridge - New Eltham [16 min] Southeastern (Peak only) 7.8 miles: Harrow & Wealdstone - Shepherd's Bush [23 min] Southern (Late Evenings) 7.8 miles: Ealing Broadway - West Drayton [13 min] Crossrail (Peak only)
Technically the longest non-stop rail journey entirely within London is 13.2 miles between London Bridge and Chelsfield (one stop beyond Orpington). This journey only happens four times a day in each direction, so maybe it's a bit rare, but if you were making a video called 'I Made The Longest Non-Stop Rail Journey Entirely Within London' this is the journey you'd film. Unless you know different.
Below are some of the other non-stop journeys I checked to make sure they weren't in the top 10.
over 7 miles: Clapham Junction - East Croydon over 6 miles: Denmark Hill - Bromley South over 5 miles: London Marylebone - Wembley Stadium, Paddington - Ealing Broadway, St Pancras International - Stratford International, Liverpool Street - Tottenham Hale, London Bridge - Hither Green
One practical use of this is that if you were thinking of moving to an Outer London suburb with fast connections to the centre, Orpington, Harrow, Bromley and Croydon would appear to be a good bet.
"Is this pub open?" I asked. "It looks closed. The doors and windows are all covered up."
"Google says it doesn't open for another hour," they said. "Yeah but who says Google's right?" I said. "I was here last month and I swear it was open then, I remember seeing a cleaning lady in the window."
We tried to check The Kenley Hotel's website but they don't have one. We checked their Facebook page but that was last updated in 2019. I eventually discovered on the CAMRA website that "this Pub is Temporarily Closed 14/07/2025 and is expected to reopen on or before 01/10/2025. Closed until a new licensee can be found." That's good news for pubgoers in Kenley, assuming it ever opens again.
But what it actually made me wonder is "Why do so few hospitality businesses have an online presence?"
It could be a website, even an incredibly basic one, just enough to show opening times and a taste of what's on offer. But so many pubs and shops and restaurants don't bother, they just assume you'll turn up and see for yourself. Many have a Facebook page instead, which is fine if you're a member but locks a lot of the rest of us out, or only able to scroll down briefly. Many younger businesses only have an Instagram account - great for posting lovely photos of food but again not always accessible to everyone, nor indeed answering the crucial question "when are you open?"
And many businesses have nothing searchable, no presence at all, or else some lingering account last updated several years ago that's as good as saying "sorry we're probably extinct". Advertising yourself online or on social media is effectively free, so it always looks remiss when a business has made no effort whatsoever. Does it actually matter, or are they losing trade from potential customers who simply wanted to ask "but are you open?"
There were some boisterous schoolboys on the bus, except they weren't at school because they'd broken up. "Have all the schools broken up yet?" my questioning companion asked. "I'd have to look that up," I said. So I have.
I checked the websites of all 33 London boroughs and can confirm that they have very similar summer holiday dates, but not identical.
The last day of the summer term Friday 18th July: City of London Monday 21st July: - Tuesday 22nd July: the 24 other boroughs Wednesday 23rd July: Barking & Dagenham, Bromley, Enfield, Newham, Waltham Forest Thursday 24th July: Tower Hamlets Friday 25th July: Brent, Ealing
The City of London only has one maintained school so you can ignore their date as a one-off. Three-quarters of boroughs broke up on Tuesday - I remember walking past a mother gamely holding onto her daughter's toilet roll castle, probably thinking "I wonder how long before I can bin this?" Five boroughs hung on until Wednesday because that's their prerogative, term dates aren't centrally set.
And Tower Hamlets, Brent and Ealing do something the other boroughs don't do which is provide leeway for extra days schools can choose to use for religious festivals. In Tower Hamlets for example schools may choose to close for Eid Al-Fitr and Eid Al-Adha, and if they do then pupils have to come in for two extra days at the end of the summer term. Tower Hamlets schools that don't close for Eid instead get to break up on Tuesday like the majority of other schools. Brent and Ealing allow three extra days, again with a notional end date of Tuesday if schools don't use them.
The first day of the autumn term Wednesday 27th August: Bromley Thursday 28th August: - Friday 29th August: - Monday 1st September: the other 31 boroughs Tuesday 2nd September: Hillingdon
Bromley are weird because they drag their children back in August and nobody else does. That said they also have a two week half term at the end of October which nobody else does, so maybe the Bromley way is the better way. Meanwhile Hillingdon stretch out their summer holiday by one extra day compared to everyone else (but of course grasp it back elsewhere).
I should say most schools use the notional 'first day of term' as a staff training day instead, so children are very unlikely to be back in the classroom on Monday 1st September. I also checked a few councils round the country and 1st September is by no means ubiquitous - Leicestershire go back on 26th August while Nottinghamshire wait until 4th September.
I should also say that private schools tend to have shorter terms so several of them broke up weeks ago, while academies can do whatever the policy wonk in their MAT hotseat decrees, which may be really quite off-piste. There's nothing standard about school holidays.
What's new this week in the world of London transport?
Cutting the DLR timetable
TfL's DLR Rolling Stock Replacement Programme isn't going well. The first new walk-through train arrived for testing in January 2023 and should have entered public service in April 2024, yet somehow still hasn't. The latest official estimate for the first new train in public service is "before the end of 2025". That is one hell of a signalling issue.
54 new units are being built to replace ageing rolling stock, most of which are still mothballed in Spain awaiting depot space. Their introduction will allow 33 of the oldest units to be retired, also additional capacity across the network, so a brighter dawn lies ahead. But those 33 units mustn't be allowed to become life-expired so some are being taken out of service lest they do too much mileage, hence a new reduced DLR timetable was introduced this week.
Here's a summary of the previous timetable.
Eight different routes operated on weekdays, the most frequent being Bank-Lewisham at approximately 5 minute intervals throughout the day. Of the eight routes five ran all the time, two only at peak times and one only off-peak.
Here's a summary of the new timetable, starting this week.
The plan has been to remove all three of the intermittent routes, leaving a core service on the remaining five. Frequencies will remain unchanged, except on the Stratford - Canary Wharf branch where intervals will widen.
In good news, services in and out of central London are entirely unaffected, as are services to Woolwich Arsenal. Indeed if your journey is anywhere between Bank, Tower Gateway, Canning Town and Woolwich Arsenal you'll see no change whatsoever. It's the other branches that are getting cut back.
• Canary Wharf - Lewisham is losing its trains from Stratford so frequencies will be reduced in the peak. Expect two trains in every 9 minute period whereas previously it was three. Off-peak frequencies are unaffected.
• Canary Wharf - Stratford is reducing in frequency throughout the day. In the peaks the reduction is from every 4.5 minutes to every 5, and off-peak it's from every 5 minutes to every 6.5.
• Canning Town - Stratford International is losing half its off-peak trains, i.e. services will only operate every 10 minutes not every 5. Peak services are unaffected.
• Canning Town - Beckton is the most downgraded. Only trains to Tower Gateway will now operate, i.e. half the number of trains as before, both peak and off-peak. You could now be waiting up to 10 minutes on this branch, whereas previously it was up to 5.
The new timetable has been deliberately introduced to coincide with the start of the school summer holidays so initially the impact will be reduced. However a full timetable will only be restored "once enough new trains are in service" so we're stuck with lower frequencies for at least the rest of 2025.
TfL still hope that all 54 new DLR trains will be introduced "by the end of 2026", and they don't need all 54 to be able to return to a full timetable. But expect this annoyance to continue well into next year, and if you live on the Beckton branch my condolences.
Side Quest cycling
The latest gimmick to encourage more use of TfL's hire bikes is a website called Side Quests. This generates a cycle route across central London linking three or four themed locations. If you like the route there's a link to a detailed Google map and if you don't you click again and get another one. There are 24 Side Quest routes altogether, presented sequentially. The sponsor's brand colour appears prominently.
Themes include parks, architecture and history but also bao buns, meet-cutes and F1 racing because the whole thing skews heavily Gen Z. A group of bored friends might well find inspiration for a weekend rollout, but should be prepared to fork out along the way because 75% of the routes feature paid-for attractions. Well done if you're the creative team who put this together, but can you really see anyone embracing this?
Bleeding old people
On Monday, fairly quietly, TfL increased the prices for concessionary Oyster photocards. These allow free travel for certain groups but you have to pay an administrative charge when applying for one and that's what's being hiked.
Most prices are going up £1.
» 5-10 Zip card application (£10 → £11)
» 11-15 Zip card application (£15 → £16)
» 16+ Zip and 18+ Student application (£20 → £21)
» Apprentice and Care Leavers application (£20 → £21)
» Replacement for all of the above (£10 → £11)
However anyone who uses a 60+ Oyster card, or wants to keep it, is being pumped for more.
That's quite a hike, at least 75% more for every aspect of the scheme. Applying for a card suddenly costs £15 more than it did last week which is bad news for Londoners born after July 1965. Meanwhile the annual address check now costs £8 more, which given you might have to be checked six times before you're 67 could end up costing £48 more.
To put this in perspective, a 60+ card allows jammy pre-pensioners the opportunity to swan around London for nothing, so they're not really being hard done-by. An extra £15 is nothing compared to a freebie that could end up saving you thousands.
When the chief executive of London TravelWatch says "Higher TfL photocard fees, especially for the over-60s, will be unwelcome news to Londoners who continue to feel the pinch of the ongoing cost of living crisis and some of the most expensive public transport fares in Europe," he's undoubtedly over-stating this.
Equally when TfL say "the large increase in the cost of the 60+ Oyster was because it has the biggest gap between the estimated revenue that we would receive were these journeys paid for and the income we receive through fees", that sounds like they'd be very keen to hike these fees again.
If you have an Oyster photocard best look after it a little bit more carefully. And if you're planning on applying for one in the future, expect to pay more for the privilege.
Magnifying glass
Last month the Dangleway introduced two glass-floored cabins as an opportunity to attract more custom. A round trip cost £25 on weekdays and £35 at weekends.
However as of today the price has risen to £35 at all times, this because the school holidays have started, the last £25 flight having been at 8pm last night. Buying your ticket online and entering a special code at the checkout lowers the new price by 20%, but that's still £3 more than yesterday. Expect prices to readjust downwards in September but until then the shameless revenue-raising continues.
I wondered if there was any mileage in further 'Random' blog series.
Random grid reference: TQ269722 Springfield Park Wandsworth SW17
Technically the precise spot is a block of flats just over the wall, but I was in Springfield Park just last week and blogged all about it so there's no point in going back again.
Random Haringey Park Wood Green Common N22
After generating my random number I headed straight there, just down the road from Alexandra Palace station, but it was closed. This was annoying because according to Haringey's website "Works to improve Wood Green Common were completed in June 2025", but they very much aren't. The new Multi Use Games Area and outdoor gym remain sealed off behind metal barriers while workmen tweak poles and paving, and a lot of grass people could be using for recreation is out of commission for parking white vans.
Admittedly the small children's play area is open but best not wander in there unaccompanied, also Barratt Gardens is unaffected but the wisteria on the pergola has already done its thing. Works were supposed to take 22 weeks which seems very precise, but they're very much not over yet and might not even be ready before schools go back. Bad timing.
Random London bus route 169 Claybury - Barking
The first number the generator threw up was 347 which hasn't been a London bus route for the last six months, then 446 but that hasn't run since 1996. Third time lucky I got the 169 because that actually exists, but I wasn't convinced anyone wanted to read a road trip across Redbridge whose commentary would mostly have been "and then more shops".
Random diamond geezer comment number 51857, 5th December 2011
There are now over 180,000 diamond geezer comments, which is damned impressive thanks, and to trawl back to the 51857th I had to scroll down to 5th December 2011. This was on a post about Ben Pedroche's book Do Not Alight Here in which I followed his route to disused stations round Bow, Stepney and Limehouse. Mid-afternoon one of you commented...
Shame the old Bow Station was demolished. What a magnificent building! CornishCockney 5 Dec 2011 - 4:15 p.m
...and how exciting that Cornish Cockney also left the 184817th comment only yesterday!
My random number generator picked a very high number this time, and photo 18637 turns out to be from the very start of this year when I went to Lancing to walk the road of the year. This is the roundabout at the northern end of the A2025, and excitingly it's never appeared on the blog before.
If a list exists, a random item can be identified. In this case the 71212th postbox in the database can be found in the Norfolk village of Southrepps, not far from Cromer. It's an E2R lamp box, probably the 1970s design, with a 9am collection time. It used to sit proudly outside the Post Office but that closed in January 2024 due to the resignation of the postmaster and is now a private home. I could schlepp up to Southrepps to take a photo but why bother when Google StreetView exists, other than perhaps enjoying a beer at the VernonArms afterwards.
Random London pub Little Windsor Sutton SM1
There is no official list of London's pubs but there was once courtesy of CAMRA, back in 2019, so I used that and hoped that pub number 2598 hadn't closed post-pandemic. It hadn't, but I had no idea where it was because I've never been to Greyhound Road in Sutton before. The Little Windsor looks like a decent local with a teensy front patio, formerly Fullers but they've recently withdrawn. Alas their website no longer exists but on Facebook they claim to be "a traditional cosey pub providing excellent real ales and food", plus they host occasional gigs by solo singers. I reckon Random London Pub might actually work as a feature on someone beer-friendly's blog, but I would very much run out of stuff to say after admiring the green wainscotting and noting the availability of Mini Cheddars.
I was hoping to delve back into my early years but instead we go back just three years to a rare Bank Holiday Thursday. It was the first day of the Queen's Platinum Jubilee, and after a breakfast of porridge and a nice walk round Hampstead Heath I headed to the Olympic Park to watch the flypast. Wow!
I headed home to eat bacon sandwiches while fast-forwarding through Trooping The Colour, then stuck a turkey joint in the oven. Charles and Camilla appeared on EastEnders, almost acting properly, and my most successful tweet of all time passed three quarters of a million views, which would never happen nowadays.
I went multiply random here. First I picked a random year during the lifespan of the UK Singles chart (1982), then a random month (June), then a random week and got the Top 40 announced by Paul Burnett on 8th June 1982. It was the day Adam Ant toppled Madness from the chart summit if you remember. Finally I picked a random position in that Top 40 chart and got number 5 which was Tight Fit's follow up to The Lion Sleeps Tonight, the much superior Fantasy Island. A bit cheesy perhaps, but you can see where Steps got a lot of their ideas from. Retro Charts Radio is the perfect place to hear random Top 40 hits these days.
Random London station Bexley (zone 6)
By the time I'd been to Wood Green there wasn't time to go to Bexley, plus Bexley's a dull station in an interesting place so I'd have spent more time writing about the village instead. You can always read the Wikipedia page where you'll discover the station car park has 259 spaces, or perhaps wait for someone to add their own thrilling anecdote to the comments.
n.b. I reserve the right to come back and do Random Station: Bexley at some point in the future, should it ever come up again.
Random grid reference: TQ414890
North Circular Redbridge IG4
This is mid-dual-carriageway on the A406 just north of the Redbridge roundabout, so you can only really get to it with a car. There is a footpath alongside by the river Roding, and if only it had been TQ415890 that'd have been Roding Well Pumping Station, but TQ414890 is alas off-limits Ballardian beltway. Some ideas only work once, and the magic rarely works a second or even third time, sorry.
