please empty your brain below

Nice summary and thanks for confirming how you did it. In some ways doing it over 6 days must have been trying given the time to get to and from your residence to the relevant start and end points on each day. I admire your perseverance.

Having recently ridden quite a lot of London bus routes that are new to me I endorse your comment about the different aspects of London that a bus ride can help you discover. All sorts of interesting places, buildings, businesses and people to see. Oh and how places have changed if it's years since you were last in a part of the Capital.
No bus stop name will top 'Sir John McDougall Gardens' on the Isle of Dogs.
I agree with your last statement that buses should get more attention compared to the tube. On Thursday I went to St, Pancra's station by tube in the morning, it was crowded, slow and not pleasant. Returning in the evening I took the 59 bus from outside St. Pancra's station to Waterloo. Lovely ride, front seat double decker much nicer that the tube and at about 20 minutes,not much difference in journey time.
Have enjoyed your observations along the way; great series of posts, thank you.
The only answer to that Andy is "does he really?"

Thanks DG, I really enjoyed this series.
Well I thought it was a classic DG series, so yah boo sucks to people who didn't like it...
Whilst not particularly a "round London by bus buff", I always find DG's (sometimes) eclectic mix of articles interesting and you learn so many new things too. I have always enjoyed reading timbo's take on the journeys - so a big thanks from me to timbo too! Maybe one thing someone could answer for me (and I bet DG has covered it), when did the roof’s of London buses start to be painted white?
Enjoyed it, thanks.
Nice round up tying it all together. Can't wait for your next adventure now!
Yes, as DG kindly notes, with any London travelcard the entire bus network is included, which is a very good deal.

I did my London bus orbital on a Z2-3 travelcard, and obviously none of the buses went anywhere near a Zone 3 station.
This series of blog posts terminates here. All change, please! All change!
Thanks DG. Buses are vital for so many people in London.
"...some people are silently begging me to stop. Good news, I'm stopping."

Random factoid: in colloquial Urdu/Hindi 'bus' means stop/enough/cease (depending on the context).
I've really enjoyed this series of posts, especially hearing about the X80.

I agree there's some great bus stop names. One of my favourites is 'Tibbet's Ride Green Man' just outside of Putney.
You can go round London by train, but only if you go a long way in:

Stratford - Clapham Junction - Stratford

....or out
Stratford,Ipswich,Cambridge,(Hitchin), Peterborough, Leicester, Bedford, Bletchley, Coventry, Oxford, Reading, Redhill, Tonbridge, Strood, Stratford (via Ebbsfleet).

The "East West" rail project will make it possible to shorten this by going Bedford-Bletchley-Oxford direct. Even before that, Bletchley to Oxford via Watford Junction, Moor Park, Aylesbury and Princes Risborough, will be possible when the Croxley Link opens.
Does anyone know where the Thames Riviera is?! It's the name of a bus stop between Hampton Court and Hampton.
I've really enjoyed the series, thank you.
Hail and ride is an obsolete institution anyway. There should be bus stops 400 metres apart.
@ Happy Harry (in the UK)

i'm sure someone will correct me but think it was late 1990's early 2000's.

...or around the time "global warming" started to become a issue to think about.

the idea bein that painting the roof white 'reflects' the rays of the Sun and is so much cheaper that having proper 'climate control/air-conditioning' on London's buses.

the NB4L is suppose to be designed with the thought that London gets very warm in Spring and quite hot in Summer but as many found out last Summer it failed to provide the 'comfort'. This Summer and no doubt warmer/hotter years to come will show the need to sort this out.

as more buildings (offices/shops) are air-conditioned, more cars have a/c the 'London heat-effect' will increase an the 'poor' bus travel an cyclists will bear the brunt.

planting lots an lots of trees may help (when was the last major tree planting scheme undertaken in London i wonder?) and other measures fountains/designed shaded areas etc.
@Cornish Monkey
Thames Riviera is one of the many (at least six) names the hotel on Tagg's Island had in its 120-year history: it burned down in 1961 and is now a houseboat community. I think it doubtful that the stop's name has been the same since the hotel was called that, in 1935.
Contrary to popular belief, tube stuff can get boring more easily than bus stuff, mainly because the number of tube *stations* are probably even less then the number of bus *routes*.

Of course, I started out as a bus fan (though switched over in recent years), so my view is somewhat biased.
A really enjoyable set of posts.

This final one in particular opened a line of thinking - where in London is the furthest point from a TfL bus route (or stop)?
@Spinfold

"where in London is the furthest point from a TfL bus route (or stop)? "

I thought it would probably be somewhere like the middle of Richmond park, but from the bus map, it looks like the GLA boundary on the road from Corbets Tey and South Hornchurch to Aveley might be the winner (or loser).
With interest I was waiting for your final leg of the tour around London hoping that you take a ferry in Tilbury. Instead you took the tunnel. Tilbury is the very first town in England I have seen about 45 years ago. Tilbury was a port where poiish ship Stefan Batory docked for a day on its way to Montreal.










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