please empty your brain below
And yes, I know they're not all slightly strange to you, but play along...

diamond geezer | Homepage | 18.08.14 - 1:00 a.m. | #

Great list. The one that gets me is 'University of Cumbria in London'. What? Why? Etc

IslandDweller | 18.08.14 - 6:59 a.m. | #

There's your list, now get walking...

Waterhouse | 18.08.14 - 7:32 a.m. | #

What about Brian Close in Elm Park?

Running Corespondent | 18.08.14 - 7:34 a.m. | #

The multiple "Clitterhouse..." stops in North Cricklewood have been known to tickle my fancy

Dominic H | 18.08.14 - 7:38 a.m. | #

I always think West Wickham and Shirley Baptist Church is strange since if they could have simply called the stop "Shirley" and everyone would know exactly where it would be. It seems from an check of the TfL website they have now abbreviated it to West Wickham Baptist Church despite the fact that the stop is in Shirley (formerly Surrey) and not West Wickham (formerly Kent).

There is also Lebanon Road Tram Stop, which I have mentioned before. This is presumably Lebanon Road Tram Stop bus stop.

Apparently on iBus they can't override the default capitalisation. I notice one on your list should be iCity but is Icity - kind of ironic given that the system doing this is iBus. Another one that I think is strange for this reason is Charles 11 Street.

How about Regina Coeli School?

What is more curious is how you created this list. Is if from experience or looking through the names of each bus stop in London? I think we should know.

Pedantic of Purley | 18.08.14 - 7:44 a.m. | #

I know one of them, like Waterhouse said...off you pop. Camera in hand..;-)

We'll be here waiting.

Daniel | 18.08.14 - 7:59 a.m. | #

I visited two of these oddly-named bus stops over the weekend, as part of my latest London Borough Tops excursion, so you'll be hearing all about them soon enough.

diamond geezer | 18.08.14 - 8:16 a.m. | #

I was crammed on a Melbourne tram the other day along with many other wet and cranky Melburnians, listening to some young thing who had just got back from London... "and they have this stop called COCKfosters" and that's the way they say it, "COCKfosters", he he he @@.

Antipodean | 18.08.14 - 9:19 a.m. | #

The Icity bus stop (which appears on the sign as "i City") needs renaming anyway - the developers renamed the former Olympic media and broadcast complex "Here East" shortly before the stop opened. It probably deserves to stay on this list when they get around to renaming it anyhow.

martin | 18.08.14 - 9:20 a.m. | #

Not so much stops but destinations. I always liked the what's the furthest you can go on a London bus from Piccadilly Circus question.

Is it Cyprus or World's End?

Strangely I don't think either appears on bus blinds these days.

ap | 18.08.14 - 9:32 a.m. | #

Pleased to see my local favourites The Squirrels and Naafi Messing Store, but wot, no Temple of Mithras?

Political Animal | Homepage | 18.08.14 - 9:45 a.m. | #

Tibbet's Ride/Green Man is my favourite.

A similar example of a bus stop that should be renamed: Merton Abbey Savacentre ought to be amended as the supermarket adjacent to it is no longer known as a Savacentre.

James Armitage | Homepage | 18.08.14 - 9:46 a.m. | #

ap - in Sheffield you can get a bus the destination of which is Halfway.

Sarah | Homepage | 18.08.14 - 9:48 a.m. | #

@antipodean

As in the advert for a well-known lager
Tourist: "Do you know the way to Cockfosters?"
Paul Hogan: "Yeah: serve it warm"

I'm surprised how many of those hundred I actually know. However, the list is out of date: when I was passing on Saturday I noticed that the "Thames Riviera" stop (as shown on Google Street View) is now flagged as St Albans Riverside. (It used to be Taggs Island)

timbo | 18.08.14 - 9:55 a.m. | #

I only found The Thames Riviera a few months ago. I was so amazed that this bit of the Thames embankment at Hampton should be called that I even took a photo of the sign inside the bus.

Cornishmonkey | 18.08.14 - 9:55 a.m. | #

Disappointed to see that the St Paul's, Bow Common stop isn't actually called the Gate of Heaven but is just known colloquially as that.

Joan | 18.08.14 - 9:58 a.m. | #

@ Sarah
On the Sheffield trams, when you reach Halfway, you're at the end of the line.

| 18.08.14 - 10:00 a.m. | #

The Thames Riviera, aka Taggs Island, aka the Casino Hotel, has had a colourful history
http://hidden-london.com/gazetteer/taggs-island/
It can't even decide which side of the Thames it's on - nearer the Surrey bank but connected to the Middlesex one since a bridge was built during WW2 to service the AC cars factory there.
The recent change of name may be connected to a dispute over planning permission

| 18.08.14 - 10:12 a.m. | #

Can I add Oval Square, one stop south of the O2 in Greenwich ?

Boneyboy | 18.08.14 - 10:40 a.m. | #

J's surely must have Jolly Farmers' Open Space bus stop.

B | 18.08.14 - 10:44 a.m. | #

Oh do please go and find this one:

Croydon,CRO,E/B,,NONE,CRO,STROUD GREEN WAY,Stop - Dead Bus Stand,

B | 18.08.14 - 10:49 a.m. | #

Revive yourself here:

KING GEORGE HOSPITAL,Stop - Live Bus Stand,

B | 18.08.14 - 10:51 a.m. | #

@timbo

"Tourist: "Do you know the way to Cockfosters?""

I thought the joke was that it was a yuppie and he had a tube map in his Filofax?

(perhaps I'm wrong as I was far too probably busy taking MaDMAn to trouble myself with weak larger at the time)

Briantist | Homepage | 18.08.14 - 10:57 a.m. | #

I wonder if @antipodean is aware of my favourite Melbourne tram stop name on the #55 in Royal Park - used to appear in timetables as "Middle of Nowhere"...

Offshore | 18.08.14 - 11:11 a.m. | #

There are approx:

45 Sainsbury's,
39 Tesco,
17 Asda,
9 Morrisons, and
0 Waitrose

mentioned in bus stop names

Patrick | 18.08.14 - 4:46 p.m. | #

I don't want to be difficult - no that's not true - I do. Surely Badger's Mount is in Sevenoaks. It was when I was last there.

Rory | 18.08.14 - 4:54 p.m. | #

@Patrick

Thought for the day:

Now, some of these are quite prominent. Take the 168 heading southbound, and every single time the doors open, you'll hear the announcement, "One Six Eight, to, Old Kent Road, Tesco". Travel on this bus for 10 minutes, and you'll probably hear the word Tesco about 20 times. As you look out the window, you'll constantly hear Tesco. In fact, there's a good possibility that you'll subconsciously ponder about Tesco once you step off the bus.

In Britain, it seems that transport and urban planners have generally tried to avoid naming commercial businesses on signs or as part of planning. In most areas of the country, signs will generally say 'Superstore'. When Stagecoach changed their routes in Cambridge 2 years ago, the buses for a while said 'Cherry Hinton Tesco' on the front of them for a while, before they thought better and renamed it 'Cherry Hinton Superstore'. By taking the agriculture/planning analogy, it is the job of us to create the condition for plants/businesses to thrive, but not to tender to every seed/start-up with direct intervention.

The problem is that people generally don't tend to think that blandly. In our minds, it's the Old Kent Road, not the A2, and it's Tesco, not 'Superstore' (in this case admittedly, there's both an Asda only a stone's throw away, but it's not difficult to create another bus stop name). Over time, businesses truly do become established in geography, such as Reeves Corner in Croydon, named after an independent furniture store that sadly went up in flames a few years back. Charlie Brown's Roundabout (also the name of a bus stop), an unglamorous monstrosity where the North Circular meets the M1, is apparently named after a local pub. The general public generally don't separate out businesses and geography as neatly as us planners would like. And we know our directions by landmarks, not by road names.

Perhaps planners should aspire to work with the understandings and geographies that people possess, rather than to remould them and impose from above. Marks and Spencer's, sitting at the other end of the 168 bus, may think otherwise.

Planner | 18.08.14 - 5:13 p.m. | #

(This was a post written as a thought for the day elsewhere, inspired by Patrick's statistic).

Planner | 18.08.14 - 5:15 p.m. | #

Interesting thoughts there on the commercialisation of London's bus stop names. What is it acceptable to name a bus stop after? A shop? A pub? A school? A church?

And thanks for all your other suggestions, so far. I've added a few to the bottom of the list. Any more?

But sorry, the following don't appear in TfL's current list of London bus stops, so may have been removed.
• Cyprus (now Cyprus station DLR)
• Merton Abbey Savacentre
• Temple of Mithras

diamond geezer | Homepage | 18.08.14 - 5:25 p.m. | #

Planner - that was just the stop that made me do the comparison! It started because I thought the Old Kent Road stop was called the Dun Cow/Tesco but apparently not. Which businesses get mentioned in stop names (pubs for example) seems slightly random, but perhaps for some of the supermarkets the bus stop was a condition of the planning so the name was linked more directly.

| 18.08.14 - 5:46 p.m. | #

In the West Midlands buses go to, or via,
New Invention, Fighting Cocks, California and Londonderry.

tony Martin | 18.08.14 - 5:53 p.m. | #

Having had a look through the list, 'Surbiton Telephone Exchange' does seem a bit quaint. I like 'Openview' and 'Friendly Street' too.

Some other commercial bus stops:
Selfridges
Barnet Odeon
Petersham / Fox & Duck
Ikea Brent Park
Banstead / Marks & Spencer
Safari Cinema

martin | 18.08.14 - 5:59 p.m. | #

It's an interesting thought about whether businesses pay to receive their names on bus stops. I actually don't know about Old Kent Road Tesco, but we do know that IKEA paid to rename Ampere Way for a few years (it has since reverted). Obviously, the significance of a tram stop renaming is far more than a bus stop, since it would also appear on the London Connections map at every tube station.

Up past Northumberland Park, there's bus stops called 'Glover Driver, Tesco' and 'Glover Drive, IKEA' located on other sides of the street (buses in both directions serve both stops, turning at a mini-roundabout). I do wonder if either of them contributed towards the naming of the stops, since the alternatives would cause more confusion, being'North Side' and 'South Side' or 'Supermarket' and 'Home Furniture Store'.

Also another one for you list:
https://www.tfl.gov.uk/bus/stop/490G00004053/black-boy-lane/

Planner | 18.08.14 - 6:03 p.m. | #

My two absolute favourite bus destination names (not that I have been looking for them, I just encountered them while travelling)

are: in Rome, Largo Labia
and: in Tourcoing, just on the French side of the French/Belgian border, outside Lille, Risquons Tout

Dominic H | 18.08.14 - 6:18 p.m. | #

The final stop on the 168 is actually named Dunton Road. Might be easier to reference Tesco along Old Kent Road because of the sense of place it gives, rather than "168 to Dunton Road".

There is an example of necessity, though, on the 321 which terminates at New Cross Sainsbury's, since it is literally a parking lot for the supermarket. No surprises though for what's at the other end of the route - Foots Cray Tesco!

Bus-spotter L | 18.08.14 - 6:24 p.m. | #

The temperance movement apparently discouraged the use of pubs as bus stop names, but in the days of stage coaches, they actually used inns as the staging points so it was natural to say that the Holyhead Mail would leave from the Bulls Head, or whatever.

Surely none of Waitrose's clientele would ever let themselves be seen using a bus!

timbo | 18.08.14 - 6:28 p.m. | #

there are some references to major stores on the Underground too. Knightsbridge station has exits at both ends of the platform. Harrods is near the front (west), with TfL signs pointing towards that exit, but Harvey Nichols, which is at the other end, isn't mentioned at platform level. However if you choose the right exit, there are signs there showing which stairs to take.

amber | 18.08.14 - 7:58 p.m. | #

Oval Square is my favourite.

Great Aunt Annie | 18.08.14 - 10:22 p.m. | #

Of course, these names don't sound so strange when you add the rest of the title after them. For example, 'Lady Dock Path / The Ship York' doesn't sound so bad. Personally though, my favourite has to be Bonar Road in Peckham - or at least the way iBus says it!

Rotherhithe | 18.08.14 - 10:48 p.m. | #

@Timbo - I don't think you can cock Fosters any more than it already is - although serving it warm would render it undrinkable! :)

@Offshore - I've never actually taken the 55! I have never needed to - so there is an outing for me.

Melbourne has Moonee Valley and Moonee Ponds, Sydney has Rooty Hill.

Antipodean | 19.08.14 - 1:57 a.m. | #

it would appear that tfl change the names of bus stops as they will, unlike tube station names which cause quite a stir if they are renamed.
I am sure there was a stop in Kilburn named after the State Cinema, a church now owns this building and I did not see the stop on the list.
I doubt if tfl get any money from stores whose names appear on bus stops.
Museums also get used as place names, ie Museum of London, or in Brentford there is a stop call The Musical Museum.

John | 19.08.14 - 7:36 a.m. | #

With regard to the supermarket names, surely it makes sense to use names passengers will recognise; arguably the most important thing in fact, and since the practice has been going on for a lot longer than commercial sponsorship (whole areas of London, and on the canals, take their names from pubs, for example), not necessarily evil. Apologies for appalling sentence structure.

Sarah | Homepage | 19.08.14 - 8:11 a.m. | #

Regarding the Glover Drive example, while the stops are named with the stores they serve, the 341 bus which terminates there has its destination as the bland "Angel Road Superstores"

Moogal | 19.08.14 - 1:36 p.m. | #

@Moogal
The 341 is particularly confusing, as it also serves the better known Angel station. For much of the time it displays "Angel Road", it is of course going away from Angel station!

I'm sure they used to say "Northumberland Park"

timbo | 19.08.14 - 3:22 p.m. | #

Inconsistencies abound!

If it's OK for the 166 to have a stop called Banstead, The Woolpack, why is it NOT OK for the Chipstead Valley stop to be called The Midday Sun ?

This has been a terminating point since the beginning of time and now that the 166 runs beyond to Banstead, buses in both directions pull into the forecourt of the pub. But TfL deem it necessary to avoid mentioning this local landmark by name and instead refer to it as Chipstead Valley, Rectory Lane !

Petras409 | 19.08.14 - 3:41 p.m. | #

Offshore -

Southern Vectis on the Isle of Wight have both a 'Middle of Nowhere' and a 'Back of Beyond'!

A | 19.08.14 - 7:18 p.m. | #

re the 166 it also passes "Swan and Sugarloaf" which was a pub for many years and is now a Tesco's so even more odd that the Midday Sun is not called, especially as when it terminated there the destination was "Chipstead, The Midday Sun" as far as I remember

Mark | 19.08.14 - 10:35 p.m. | #

@ Planner 1803 - having IKEA referenced on the bus stop is an aid to those who rely on their electronic gizmos or crumpled print out of the Journey Planner route info. I understand the concern about advertising commercial businesses via the bus network but the legions of lost souls at Tottenham Hale hunting for the 192 to IKEA prove that people do turn up at these places by public transport. You could always spot the IKEA visitors - that slightly dazed yet desperate gaze as they approach the final leg of their journey to household and furniture nirvana.

PC | 19.08.14 - 10:51 p.m. | #

@political animal - I too was sorry not to see the Temple of Mithras (in Queen Victoria Street in the City) on the list. There is a much delayed project to move the remains of the Roman temple back to its original location in Walbrook, and I think TfL must have pre-empted that by renaming the bus stop.

Peter CS | 20.08.14 - 10:56 p.m. | #

Blimey... you're really pulling out all the stops for this one! :)

RogerW | 21.08.14 - 6:26 p.m. | #

Balls Pond Road.

Personal highlight.

Adam S | Homepage | 21.08.14 - 9:24 p.m. | #

Ha Ha Road is quite funny...

Debbie | 23.08.14 - 7:05 a.m. | #

There's a stop on the 20 called Homebase...

| 26.06.16 - 9:55 a.m. | #











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