Day One-Buses 1-4

Well, the Odyssey has begun having travelled this morning by London Overground to Canada Water. I arrived at 1034 and the No 1 departed from the Canada Water bus station at 1040 which was Volvo B5LH Wrightbus Gemini 3 WHV142.

Canada Water bus station

The current end of route 1, Holborn Kingsway

After almost an hour the bus terminated just across the road from Holborn station in Kingsway at 1128. Prior to the Crossrail works it would have gone to Tottenham Court Road.


The No 2 starts from Marylebone station and in an endeavour to not use the underground in Zone one, to minimise cost, I ended up walking to Leicester Square then Oxford Circus and on to the station. This took me an hour in total.

Marylebone railway station

At 1252 I boarded Volvo B5LH Wrightbus Gemini 3 HV302 outside Marylebone station. This bus threads its way through Vauxhall and Brixton and it subsequently arrived at Norwood bus garage at 1359.

No 2 starting point at Marylebone station

Norwood garage the end point of the No 2

I walked from there to West Norwood railway station and caught a train to Crystal Palace 'low level' railway station and arrived at 1422. From there it is just a short walk up Anerley Hill (!) to the bus station at Crystal Palace Parade to start the journey on the No 3 where I arrived at 1433.

Crystal Palace station 

Here I caught the Wrightbus NBFL hybrid LT623 towards Trafalgar Square. This journey lasted from 1433 to 1537.

Crystal Palace Parade the starting point of the No 3

Another No 3 heading for the route end along Crystal Palace Parade

Arrival at Trafalgar Square the current end of the No 3.

On arrival at Trafalgar Square I then walked down Northumberland Avenue to the river, crossed Hungerford Bridge and reached the starting bus stop for the No 4.

The view east from Hungerford Bridge towards Waterloo Bridge 

Here I boarded AD Trident AD Enviro 400 TE679 at 1602 and set off for Archway.

Bus stop at Waterloo station from where I used to get the No 341 and previously the  No 171a to work

Boarding the No 4 to head north for Archway

This journey was really slow owing to traffic density in some parts around Islington and I didn't arrive at Archway until 1720. The lateness of arrival and distance from Canning Town precluded my making further progress.

This time crossing Waterloo Bridge looking east to Blackfriars Bridge

The destination of Archway reached

From here I took the Northern line south to Balham and caught a train home, satisfied that at least I had achieved 4 buses, each journey lasting around an hour in duration. However, this did mean I did not avoid Zone one and thus paid the maximum Oyster fare for Zones 1-5. I could have used the London Overground to circle the north and west of London to reach Clapham Junction, but by now I was getting a bit travel weary!