please empty your brain below
Both the D8 & D9 had their origins as unnumbered routes introduced on 23rd September 1991, the DLR signalling was so unreliable at the time that these supplementary services were introduced Mon-Fri so passengers could still get around when the DLR broke down, they were replaced by normal bus services on 7th December - initially the D8 had the distinction of actually using the Bow Flyover instead of bothering with the roundabout.

They then continued as DLR replacements while the railway was closed evenings and weekends whist it was upgraded to cope with all the extra traffic generated by the Canary Wharf development.

When the work on the DLR was completed in 1995 the D9 was withdrawn, but the D8 survived as a Mon-Sat daytime service.

D Notice | 16.11.14 - 11:51 a.m. | #

I've been in Marsden Grotto many times over the years and would definitely recommend it if or when you're up that way DG ... it's up to you whether you take the healthy(?) route on the staircase or the lazy way via the lift

Caroline | 16.11.14 - 2:55 p.m. | #

Well I was interested, so thank you DG for sharing.

By extension, if you ever fancy doing a blogpost on the history of bus routes in south-west Hertfordshire, I'd also be very interested in that... although possibly your only reader who would be. :-)

THC | 16.11.14 - 3:12 p.m. | #

I was involved in the original planning of Docklands in the early 80s, at a time when nobody I knew had ever had any reason to go there and most didn't know it existed. On the Isle of Dogs there was only one bus, which went round the edge, I can't remember its number, but I don't think it started with D. Public transport generally in the whole Docklands area was almost nonexistent, I had to do the initial survey by bicycle. Whenever I go back there now, it's unrecognisable.

amber | 16.11.14 - 4:51 p.m. | #

The 56 perhaps - see http://www.londonbuses.co.uk/routes/056-2.html

Gordon | 16.11.14 - 5:22 p.m. | #

The long established route round the outside was the 56, until it was replaced by an extension of the 277 in 1969.

The 56 was revived between 1980 and 1987.

I think on the Isle of Dogs the whole area in the middle was the docks, and was hidden behind a massive brick wall, the same applied at Silvertown and North Woolwich, so you could only see within at the entrances, going over the bridges, or whatever could be glimpsed from the top deck of the bus, there was a similar situation with the Woolwich Arsenal south of the river.

Sadly because access was restricted, some items of architectural interest were lost or barely recorded before people were aware it even existed - of course you can't save everything and time moves on, but the docks in the 'decay era' of the 70's early 80's was a fantastic place - I'm told it was a fantastic place when everything (and everyone) was working too.

| 16.11.14 - 5:37 p.m. | #

The 277, which was the route I remember circumnavigating the Isle of Dogs, has now reverted to the shorter routing terminating at Poplar, with which it was launched as a replacement for trolleybus route 677. Trolleybuses never made it onto the Isle of Dogs (I guess wiring across the lifting bridges at the dock entrances might have been a chaellnge) but they did get to the Royals.
Indeed, as trolleybuses served both ends of the Free Ferry, it would have been possible to run a through service (using battery power to get on and off the boats). But as it was the two Woolwich-Dartford routes were always isolated from the rest of the network - they had been converted out of turn because of the parlous state of the tramways inherited by London Transport in 1933 from the local councils in that area.

timbo | 16.11.14 - 7:16 p.m. | #











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