diamond geezer

Anorak corner (tube edition)

2026-04-17T07:00:00.018+01:00

Anorak Corner (t h e a n n u a l u p d a t e ) [tube edition]

Hurrah, it's that time of year again when TfL silently updates its spreadsheet of annual passenger entry/exit totals at every tube station. It's really early this year.

As usual passenger numbers are surveyed for a typical week in autumn then multiplied up to a full year.
The data also includes DLR, Overground and Crossrail stations, but we'll get to those later.

London's ten busiest tube stations (2025) (with changes since 2024)
  1)   ↑1    King's Cross St Pancras (73m)
  2)   ↓1    Waterloo (70m)
  3)   ↑1    Tottenham Court Road (60m)
  4)   ↓1    Victoria (59.3m)
  5)          Liverpool Street (59.2m)
  6)   ↑1    Paddington (57m)
  7)   ↓1    London Bridge (55m)
  8)          Stratford (52m)
  9)          Oxford Circus (51m)
10)   ↑1    Bond Street (42m)

King's Cross returns to the top of the table after Waterloo nipped in for a year. Several other small swaps take place lower down with Tottenham Court Road overtaking Victoria and Paddington leapfrogging London Bridge. Liverpool Street may be Britain's busiest National Rail station but it's only the fifth busiest tube station. All ten stations have lower passenger totals than last year. Half of the tube's Top 10 are also on the Elizabeth line. The spreadsheet confirms that this is gateline data, i.e. passengers entering or exiting the station, so interchanges are not counted and no distinction is being made regarding mode of travel. Oxford Circus remains the busiest tube-only station and Stratford is still the busiest tube station outside zone 1.

The next 10: Farringdon, Bank/Monument, Euston, Canary Wharf, Green Park, South Kensington, Moorgate, Leicester Square, Piccadilly Circus, North Greenwich

24 tube stations had more than 20 million passengers last year and 60 exceeded 10 million. For comparison, 22 National Rail stations had more than 20 million passengers and 50 exceeded 10 million... so pretty similar.

London's ten busiest tube stations outside Zone 2 (2025)
  1)         Barking (17.2m)
  2)   ↑1   Ealing Broadway (17.0m)
  3)   ↓1   Wimbledon (16.7m)
  4)         Wembley Park (15.3m)
  5)         Tottenham Hale (13.8m)
  6)         Walthamstow Central (12.8m)
  7)   ↑2   Richmond (12.3m)
  8)   ↓1   Tooting Broadway (11.7m)
  9)   ↓1   Seven Sisters (11.6m)
10)         Upton Park (11.1m)

Barking remains in the top spot while Ealing Broadway nudges ahead of Wimbledon. The top three here all have gatelines shared by tube and rail services so Wembley Park's total is more reliably tubular. Northeast London has a particularly strong showing including three stations on the Victoria line. If the list were to continue then Harrow-on-the-Hill (8.4m) would be the highest performing tube station in Zone 5 and Heathrow Terminals 2&3 (5.3m) the busiest in Zone 6.

London's ten busiest tube stations that are only on one line
Canary Wharf, North Greenwich, Vauxhall, Brixton, Camden Town, Wimbledon, Old Street, Tottenham Hale, Knightsbridge, Walthamstow Central

Tube stations with over 10% more passengers in 2025 than 2024
Roding Valley, Kew Gardens, Upminster Bridge

Tube stations with over 10% fewer passengers in 2025 than 2024
Tufnell Park, Burnt Oak, Hendon Central, Park Royal, Sudbury Town, Alperton, North Ealing, Piccadilly Circus, Sudbury Hill, South Harrow. Covent Garden. Kingsbury, Hyde Park Corner

Last year Colindale and Kentish Town were both closed during the period of the survey. Their neighbouring stations were thus busier than usual but are now back to normal, hence Tufnell Park, Burnt Oak and Hendon Central show the biggest decline in passenger numbers.

London's 10 least busy tube stations (2025)
  1)         Roding Valley (201000)
  2)         Chigwell (304000)
  3)         Grange Hill (367000)
  4)         North Ealing (510000)
  5)         Theydon Bois (699000)
  6)   ↑1   Moor Park (795000)
  7)   ↑2   Ickenham (805000)
  8)         Ruislip Gardens (813469)
  9)   ↓3   Upminster Bridge (813470)
10)         Croxley (865000)

As usual the top three consists of the three stops on the Hainault shuttle. Roding Valley remains the least used station on the Underground but its passenger numbers are up 22% since 2024, the greatest increase of any tube station. North Ealing is unusually lightly used for a zone 3 station because Ealing Broadway and West Acton are close by and more useful. It haemorrhaged 18% of its passengers in 2025. Upminster Bridge had one more passenger than Ruislip Gardens! Only four of these ten stations lie within the Greater London boundary.

n.b. In this particular set of data Kensington (Olympia) counts as an Overground station, recording 2.5m passengers last year, whereas if you were only to count District line passengers it'd easily beat Roding Valley and be the tube's least used station.

The next 10: Fairlop, South Kenton, Chesham, West Acton, Barkingside, West Harrow, Boston Manor, Hillingdon, Park Royal, Sudbury Town

The least busy tube station in each zone (2025)
  zone 1) Regent's Park (2.1m)
  zone 2) Goldhawk Road (1.8m)
  zone 3) North Ealing (0.5m)
  zone 4) Roding Valley (0.2m)
  zone 5) Ruislip Gardens (0.8m)
  zone 6) Theydon Bois (0.7m)
  zone 7) Moor Park (0.8m)
  zone 8) Chalfont & Latimer (1.5m)
  zone 9) Chesham (1.0m)

And while we're here...

DLR Top 10: Greenwich (12m), Canary Wharf, Limehouse, Lewisham, Woolwich Arsenal, Shadwell, Heron Quays, East India, Westferry, South Quay
DLR Bottom 10: Beckton Park (0.4m), Stratford High Street, Prince Regent, Royal Albert, Elverson Road, Abbey Road, Blackwall, Star Lane, Poplar, King George V

n.b. Tube stations with DLR services don't count, otherwise Bank, Stratford and Canning Town would all be in the Top 5.

Canary Wharf would normally be the busiest DLR station but Greenwich beat it last year because Cutty Sark was closed. Beckton Park remains Tumbleweed Central after the neighbouring office development stalled. Pudding Mill Lane spent two decades in the Bottom 5 but thanks to ABBA it's no longer even in the Bottom 20.

Crossrail Top 10: Canary Wharf (19m), Abbey Wood, Hayes & Harlington, Woolwich, Heathrow T2&3, Ilford, Romford, Custom House, Heathrow T5, Southall
Crossrail Bottom 10: Iver (405000), Taplow, Langley, Twyford, Burnham, Hanwell, West Ealing, Gidea Park, Shenfield, Acton Main Line

n.b. Tube stations with Crossrail services don't count, otherwise every station from Paddington to Whitechapel would beat everything here.

Overground Top 10: Liverpool Street (16m), Clapham Junction, Shepherd's Bush, Hackney Central, Watford Junction, Peckham Rye, Shoreditch High Street, Denmark Hill, Dalston Junction, Dalston Kingsland
Overground Bottom 10: Emerson Park (0.3m), South Hampstead, Headstone Lane, Theobalds Grove, Hatch End, Penge West, Wandsworth Road, Cheshunt, Kilburn High Road, South Acton

n.b. Tube stations with Overground services don't count.

Liverpool Street and Clapham Junction are a very long way ahead of Shepherd's Bush. South Hampstead is the least used of all zone 2 stations. Barking Riverside has crept out of the bottom 10 (it's number 12) as the amount of housing nearby grows. All six Overground lines are represented in the Bottom 10, with the Liberty line taking the 'least used' crown.

Taken overall, TfL's ten least used stations are Roding Valley, Chigwell, Emerson Park, Grange Hill, Iver, Beckton Park, North Ealing, Taplow, South Hampstead and Theydon Bois. That's five tube stations, two Overground stations, two Elizabeth line stations and a DLR station.

As a final statistic, Roding Valley may be TfL's least used station by a country mile, but it's still busier than 45% of National Rail stations. We barely know what 'least used' means here in London.

» Anorak Corner [rail edition]
» Anorak Corner [bus edition]

Hampstead Green

2026-04-16T07:00:00.151+01:00

This is Hampstead Green, a wildflower meadow just up the hill from Belsize Park station. It's fenced off to prevent public access but with low railings so all who pass by can admire. It looks fabulous at the moment with its carpet of spring bluebells, but is also very much under long-term threat from a variety of existential hazards.

Hampstead Green is the name given to a triangular patch of land at the top of Haverstock Hill. Go back far enough and this was part of a large area of manorial waste, later preserved as greenspace when the area started to be residentialised. Grand villas were built and also St Stephen's Church, designed by Samuel Teulon and consecrated in 1869. It hasn't always looked this good, for many years it was neglected and overgrown, but the local community cleared the area and transformed it into a natural open space. It's now planted with nine trees including cherry, sycamore and poplar and is principally cultivated as a wild flower meadow to encourage butterflies. But for how long?

Hampstead Green is managed by the Parks & Open Spaces team at Camden council. They aren't in dire financial straits at present but that could change, indeed every UK council has been under increasing strain since the austerity squeeze by the Coalition government. In Camden's latest budget document the allocation for Green Space management has thankfully risen to £3.85m but this has to cover a large number of sites, also it's only a 2.5% increase on last year and inflationary pressures instead suggest further tightening of belts. It's not inconceivable that the tending of a wildflower meadow could come to be seen as a discretionary extra, particularly when there are legal responsibilities to cover key services like bin collections and adult social care instead.

No such cutbacks are planned at present but the entire council's up for re-election next month, and indeed every four years hence, plus who's to say a future government won't squeeze council funding further. Imagine Eric Pickles on steroids taking up the post of Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government in a Reform government and cutting budgets to a rump 'to protect local taxpayers'. No space then for a namby pamby bio-diverse maintenance regime ("one third to be left uncut in rotation to allow later flowering species to seed"), far easier to just turf the whole thing and run a lawnmower over the lot occasionally. In a hypothetically brutal financial future, today's gorgeous bluebells could one day be history.

Hampstead Green is overlooked by the latest addition to the Royal Free Hospital, the Pears Building. This lowrise facility opened a few years ago and contains a world class Immunity and Transplantation institute with the capacity to accommodate 200 researchers, also the offices of the Royal Free Charity, also a 35-bed hotel for patients. It's a fine building but go back just 15 years ago and its footprint was instead grassland and an access road, because open space is always first to go when a hospital needs to expand. If the Royal Free needed to expand again then Hampstead Green is the last patch of open land locally and who's to say it wouldn't make a really nice medical facility? Technically this triangular patch is protected by a historic covenant signed by the council which restricts its use to "an enclosed open space", but there's always a way round these things if NHS priorities take precedence.

Britain's bluebells are also under considerable threat from climate change. They're blooming earlier due to milder springs, also being outgunned by competitive plants which start their leaf growth earlier in the year. A further threat comes from invasive Spanish and hybrid bluebells, these increasingly prevalent, and if temperatures rise too much then the suitable zone for bluebell growth may edge further north. You can't just replant bluebells, they take several years to establish themselves and grow to maturity, so this is not a loss it'd be easy to turn around. It might take decades but Hampstead Green could easily lose its Hampstead blue, so best enjoy them while they last.

Climate change brings further risks, not least the risk of the collapse of the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation. The AMOC loops around the world's oceans, in particular speeding warm currents from the equator towards the poles and warming the climate of northwest Europe. This helps explains why Britain has much milder winters than central Canada, despite being on the same latitude, dodging the snowbound winters and iced-up oceans that 52°N would normally bring. If the Gulf Stream failed we'd face noticeably colder winters ourselves, notionally only a 0.5°C drop per decade but after a century that'd be 5°C and we could expect lengthier freezes and icebergs off the Hebrides. What's more the most recent research suggests we're likely to be approaching an irreversible tipping point far faster than previously assumed, vastly reducing the UK's agricultural capability and broadening our seasons. It might only be your grandchildren that suffer as a result, living in a country whose climate would be unrecognisable to us today, but Hampstead Green's long term destiny is potentially as Hampstead White.

One of the inexorable consequences of climate change is a rise in sea levels. It's only a few millimetres a year at present but if tipping points are reached it could rise much faster and a coastal city like London could be under serious threat. Bluebells in lower lying spots like Kew Gardens would be first to be threatened, while it would take 15m of sea level rise to smother the glories of Chalet Wood in Wanstead Park. Hampstead Green's flowers are relatively safe being 80m above sea level, which is approximately the maximum height if all the planet's ice melted. But Hampstead-on-Sea is unlikely to be a charming seaside resort, more a brackish marshland in an abandoned city, so no gorgeous spring meadow will survive. We're talking very long term here because geological time waits for no man, but our current inaction may already have condemned substantial portions of the UK to an underwater future.

The swiftest way to permanently damage Hampstead Green would be sudden impact by a thermonuclear device. Usually this is unthinkable but only this week the US Treasury Secretary pondered out loud "I wonder what the hit to global GDP would be if a nuclear weapon hit London", referring to the potential capabilities of Iranian missiles. The fireball from a single 5 megaton intercontinental ballistic missile targeted on central London would only reach Regents Park but Hampstead would be uncomfortably inside the zone of 'moderate damage' where most residential buildings would collapse, injuries were universal and fatalities were widespread. We might well expect fires to burn out of control, also horrendous levels of fallout, and were it April the loss of most local bluebells. It's likely London would need to be evacuated, also that millions would suffer from radiation poisoning and that councillors would have far more pressing concerns than the maintenance of a lightly-mown nature reserve. And that'd be the end of Hampstead Green.

Looking further ahead, in around 5.4 billion years time our Sun will have burned out and shrunk to the size of a white dwarf. Earth will have become uninhabitable long before that, maybe around 2 billion years hence, as our star's expansion boils away the oceans. All kinds of global calamities could have occurred in the meantime, from a giant asteroid impact to man-made Armageddon to a ultra-fatal pandemic, even alien conquest. Everything on our planet has a finite lifespan, indeed if you look around yourself right now everything you see will one day be destroyed by irresistible forces, be that civilisational collapse, oceanic immersion, tectonic action or universal decay. Hampstead Green is ultimately doomed, of that we can be absolutely certain, so best admire the lovely bluebells in the wildflower meadow while you can.

One sign

2026-04-15T08:00:00.003+01:00

Here's a sign I saw yesterday. It's at a bus stop just outside Brent Cross shopping centre.

It contains a spelling mistake and it's incredibly rare to see a spelling mistake on a TfL bus stop, indeed it may be unique.

If you haven't spotted it, Neasden is not spelt with an 'o'. Must have been there years. And yes it is on both sides.

Unblogged April 1986

2026-04-15T07:00:00.010+01:00

30 unblogged things I did in April 1986

They didn't have blogs or the internet forty years ago, so here are 30 things I didn't digitally publish at the time. To help you get your bearings I was 21 and April meant the Easter holidays followed by my last term at university. I should perhaps have been studying a little harder than I was.

Tue 1: It's the day after Easter Monday and there is a lot of news. Hampton Court burned yesterday, the GLC has just been abolished and Charles and Diana are officially opening the tube extension to Heathrow T4. BBC Breakfast Time reports that French scientists have created yolkless eggs and you can identify them because they bounce. I've asked Dad to post two April Fools letters from Florida after he touches down there tonight on his work trip.
Wed 2: Dad rings from America, annoyingly during a brief gap when my Mum is out shopping so she misses him. He's pleased to hear that Watford beat Arsenal yesterday.
Thu 3: I am 21 and I have just let my Mum cut my hair. It could have been a lot worse. On TV: Top of the Pops has a new theme tune - The Wizard by Paul Hardcastle.
Fri 4: I should be writing a job application letter. Instead displacement activities include a) going into Watford, b) replacing a Pet Shop Boys cassette, c) rereading a hardback, d) watching The Tube. Mum is not impressed. She missed another call from Dad earlier which didn't impress her either.
Sat 5: 3rd time lucky with a phone call. Today's displacement activities include a) watching the Grand National, b) doing some revision questions, c) watching The Price is Right.

Sun 6: Dad returns with gifts - some local Florida newspapers and a bag of 1st class toiletries. Celebrate with roast turkey and apple strudel. On TV: I Claudius (the Governor of Syria is played by Grange Hill's caretaker).
Mon 7: Last night Dad sat me down for a heart-to-heart chat so I do actually finish two job applications today, but it takes until 2am.
Tue 8: Dad posts the letters on his way to work. On TV: On Eastenders Michelle proposes to Lofty. On Brookside Heather snogs the man from Picture Box.
Wed 9: My brother and I have to make lunch. I microwave some fish fingers and he cooks too many peas.
Thu 10: A letter arrives. It says the job I applied for has already gone. I am secretly pleased.

Fri 11: Labour beat the SDP in the Fulham byelection. It snows lightly on and off all day. Still revising a bit. On TV: Brand new on Channel 4, The Chart Show. It's gamechanging.
Sat 12: Rather than watch Saturday evening TV Dad gets his slide projector out, closes the curtains and shows us photos of Miami... then my 21st birthday... then old holiday photos. Did our hair really used to look like that, eek.
Sun 13: On TV: Spitting Image, also a programme about the space race because it's 25 years since Yuri Gagarin's first flight, also Jack Nicklaus wins the US Masters.
Mon 14: I am behind on my revision schedule. There are episodes of Fireball XL5 to watch and 901 tiny squares of graph paper to colour in.
Tue 15: Bad news - President Reagan sent bombers to Libya overnight and Margaret Thatcher let the F1-11s take off from here. Bad news - a second rejection letter arrives claiming that the post is already filled. This is particularly annoying because parental nudging to write more job applications starts up again.

Wed 16: Hunt in the garage for three old deckchairs I can take to university so I can sit out on my roof terrace with friends. Mum makes some biscuits I can take too.
Thu 17: Draw £20 out of Watford Post Office. Use it to buy grey slippers from Marks & Spencer, this week's copy of Record Mirror, a cheap plastic cassette rack from Woolworths, a proper haircut from Headhunters and a 54p bus fare home.
Fri 18: Inflation has dropped to 4.2%, the lowest for three years. On TV: The amazing video for Sledgehammer by Peter Gabriel on The Chart Show.
Sat 19: The doorbell goes. "Don't answer it," says Mum, "it's the 7th Day Adventists." An hour later it goes again. It's a woman from the British Market Research Bureau desperately looking for an 18-25 year old to interview. I'll do it! It turns out to be on behalf of the DHSS and is about awareness of their AIDS advertising campaign. "Which of these diseases do you think poses the greatest threat to our society?" "Have you seen these adverts?" "What do you know about how AIDS can be spread?" "How many sexual partners have you had in the last year?" This is not what you expect to be chatting to a researcher about on your family sofa while your Mum makes tea nextdoor.
Sun 20: A celebratory roast before my brother drives back to university. I'm going back tomorrow so do some packing. Yes Mum, I will try to apply for some more jobs.

Mon 21: Drive back during the Golden Hour on Radio 1. It takes eight goes to get all my boxes up to the third floor. It's Andrew's 21st birthday so lots of us head to Go Dutch for a celebratory meal, liberally doused in stroop. It's also the Queen's 60th birthday but she's busy elsewhere.
Tue 22: Off to the ABC cinema to watch John Cleese in Clockwise. The ticket costs £2.20. The film is very funny.
Wed 23: Exams are two months away. However I am mainly spending this week socialising because I've never had so many friends before and it's quite intoxicating.
Thu 24: Confess that yes, the spoof letters from America were my doing. Wave at the King of Spain when his helicopter flies over. Finally make a start on some revision... by going to Ryman and buying five notepads.
Fri 25: My balcony has become the go-to location for everyone to gather, especially the 2nd years because they don't have exams this year. While I nip off to hand in some holiday work everyone else moves my bed outside onto the balcony, and things go downhill from there.

Sat 26: Nah, revision starts tomorrow. In the meantime more deckchairing, several card games, Every Second Counts, and what with all these visitors I've run out of milk again.
Sun 27: The problem with revision is that if you didn't understand it first time it doesn't make much sense second time either. Head to the University careers service and pick up some information on Emergency Career Two. On TV: The Antiques Roadshow comes from Watford.
Mon 28: Today's milk carton has a use-by date of April 31. In the news, scientists in Sweden have detected increased radiation in the air. It seems there's been a bad accident at a Russian nuclear power plant...
Tue 29: Half of my last student grant cheque has to go on paying for accommodation and food. Sneak off to go punting with the second-best-looking student in college.
Wed 30: Time to stay awake for 25 hours because May Morning is a big thing round here. In the morning spend £65 on an Olympus Trip camera, just in time to record some of this jollity for posterity. For lunch a chicken and mushroom pie. In the afternoon a scary tutorial where thankfully Andy gets the harder questions. In the evening beers at the college bar and the purchase of two condoms (oh, they're for blowing up and floating down a corridor). Overnight a canal towpath walk and a succession of board games to fill the hours before dawn. And at 6am join the crowds on Magdalen Bridge while the choir sings inaudibly up the tower, then go watch the Morris dancing and take breakfast with the Sloanes at Sweeney Todd's. Roll into bed at 9am, a tradition finally ticked off, although maybe it would have been more sensible to do this in Year Two. And May's only going to get more sociable, which really isn't going to help June.

Four signs

2026-04-14T07:00:00.052+01:00

Here are four signs I saw yesterday. I have questions.

This sign is wrapped round a bollard outside Blackfriars station.

Save £300 here by not littering.
From April 2026 the fine for dropping litter in the City of London is increasing to £300.
Don't litter, it's a waste of money!

Q: What was my first thought?
£300's a lot for dropping a bit of litter! Sure litter's bad, but £300?

Q: Where has £300 come from?
I checked the City of London website but I can't find anything anywhere about £300 fines for littering. I can find news from April 2019 titled "New clampdown on City littering as fines rise" when the maximum fine went up from £80 to £150. To be specific, that's a Fixed Penalty Notice charge of £80 if paid within 10 days and a maximum of £150 if not paid. The maximum now seems to have doubled, but why?

Q: Has the government just changed something?
In April 2018 the Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs raised the maximum on-the-spot fine for littering from £80 to £150. Last month they increased the maximum to £500 (£500!) in statutory guidance. It sounds like the City of London decided to duck beneath the maximum but still doubled their fine from £150 to £300. So it could have been much worse?

Q: And what is litter anyway?
That's in the government guidance too, although it's not entirely specific. "Litter is most commonly assumed to include materials that are improperly discarded and left by members of the public, often associated with smoking, eating and drinking". That would include a discarded coffee cup, a stubbed cigarette or a scrap of silver paper torn from a packet of Polos, wouldn't it? For £300. So yes, be careful out there!

Q: Could councils solve their financial problems by employing more litter spotters?
I don't think it's as simple as that, otherwise there'd be loads more parking enforcement agents too?

Readers answer: Littering in Tower Hamlets and spitting in Lambeth both now come with a maximum fine of £500.

This sign is at a bus stop on the St Helier estate.

Excursion buses stop here

Q: What were excursion buses?
They'll have been some jolly outbound thing, maybe weekends and holidays, to places like stately homes, hills or the coast. Maybe London Transport ran them and they had special route numbers, or maybe they were private coaches the public could catch. I bet they haven't run for years, likely decades, yet this white tile somehow lingers on.

Q: Why is it here?
The St Helier estate is proper council housing, within London second only to Becontree. Catching an excursion bus is thus just the sort of thing local residents would have done, just as residents of Chelsea or Notting Hill wouldn't. A single gathering point by the Rose Hill roundabout thus perhaps makes sense?

Q: Are there any more of these tiles anywhere?
Using my search skills I've found another 'excursion buses' tile outside The London Cancer Hub in Belmont. It wouldn't have been The London Cancer Hub in those days, obviously. This suggests an excursion route heading south through Sutton, but to where?

Readers answer: Excursions were run by Go-Ahead London to a variety of destinations during the summer using vehicles that would have been used for school services during term time. As recently as 2015 route 773 ran on Sundays, Tuesdays and Thursdays from Kingston to Brighton and Eastbourne via Morden, St Helier, Sutton, Belmont and Banstead. Thanks Andrew!

This sign is at Wandle Park tram stop.

Q: That's the wrong typeface isn't it?
It's certainly not the modern TfL font, it's not quite chunky enough. More likely a leftover from the early days, perhaps circa 2000? Although the small green roundel says 'Tramlink' and that was only the design between 2008 and 2016. It's still over 10 years old though. If all the other tram stops have had their signs updated (have they?) then why not this one?

Readers answer: The sign was installed in 2012 when the park was renovated and they wanted to better advertise the tram stop. The font looks similar to other signs in the park. Thanks Jessica!

This sign is on the door of a block of flats in Croydon town centre.

Polite notice
I am but a fragile little door
Please wait until I go bleep bleep before pushing me
Please ensure the door is closed behind you when entering and exiting the building
Thankyou

Q: Does phrasing it like this actually help?
It's a bit twee isn't it? There again maybe this way of drawing attention is better than a dry instruction? I wonder if it's the delivery drivers rather than the residents causing the issue?

Q: Why has this block of flats got such a feeble door?
Yes that's the real question, There wouldn't be an issue if the design of the door was sturdier, it's the architects we should be blaming. Aha, the flats were built in 2022 by Brick by Brick, Croydon council's arms-length development company, and they went bust that year with stonking debts. Apparently they'd been loaned £200m, a significant contributor to the council being declared bankrupt with £1.5bn of debts, and never earned enough profit to pay any of the money back.

Q: What did people say about Brick by Brick?
» "Residents of three Brick by Brick developments finally met with the Mayor of Croydon this week to discuss the litany of problems they have experienced since purchasing their properties."
» "PwC reported that Brick By Brick had significantly underperformed against its business plan and that its financial governance arrangements were lacking."
» "Greater due diligence on the sites in terms of site information, utilities etc would have reduced the abortive design work and the number of design iterations."
» "One significant Brick by Brick development, Red Clover Gardens in Coulsdon, remains as yet unsold, its 157 flats still sitting vacant, in the middle of a housing crisis, close to two years since the build was finished."

Q: Isn't it amazing where spotting a sign can lead you?
In this case to a Council Housing Partner with debt issues, a reputation for inadequate construction and no way of holding them to account. It seems this 'fragile little door' is just a byproduct of an inadequate political system, and the wording is perhaps a despairing cry from the unfortunate residents saddled with Bleep Bleep ineptitude?

H is for Hanworth

2026-04-13T07:00:00.786+01:00

LONDON A-Z
H is for Hanworth

There are a heck of a lot of Hs in far southwest London. The best known are Hounslow and Heathrow, then come Hayes and Harlington, also Hatton (with its Cross), Heston (with its Services) and Hampton (with its Court). But for my next unsung suburb I've picked Hanworth, a historic neighbourhood with nods to royalty and aviation, alternatively a blur you drive past on the way to the M3.

Note to readers: Yes I have blogged about Hanworth before but only briefly, so if you prefer the quick version go read that instead.

Hanworth lies east of Feltham, west of Twickenham and nowhere near a station. Instead it's a road that defines and divides the place, an elevated motorway feeder built in the 1970s with occasional nods to the idea that local people might want to cross it. That means intermittent footbridges with ostentatious ramps, one of which took me two minutes to negotiate, also the occasional roundabout lodged underneath. From the highest vantage point you can see how lowrise the entire area is, most of it packed with undetached interwar houses, but there are a few older clusters here and there. This is one of the oldest.

This startling frontage on Castle Way is a Victorian reinterpretation of a Tudor stable block, the remainder of the manor house having been lost to fire. Henry VIII acquired the property in 1512, Hounslow Heath being one of his favoured royal hunting grounds, and later gifted it to his wife Anne Boleyn. Her tenure was however cut short, quite literally, and on Henry's death it passed to Catherine Parr instead. She lived here with her stepdaughter, at least for a few months, and when Elizabeth herself became Queen she returned to stay at Hanworth a few times to enjoy the local sport. These days it's called Tudor Court and has been divided up into well-to-do flats around a very private and well-tended quadrangle.

Round the back, where a large square moat used to be, the land has since been carved up to create the Tudor Estate. This is Hanworth's smartest neighbourhood, a mix of rustic brick and modern double garages each on a generous plot. This is the kind of place where the residents association organises fizz-fuelled quiz nights and Santa rides the streets at Christmas on his penny farthing. I weaved through to a cul-de-sac called Moat Side in the hope of seeing the remnants of Elizabeth's water feature, but the only visible edge is now a stripe of open garden repeatedly labelled 'Private Property' so I kept off.

Alongside is the oldest of Hanworth's three churches, St George's, which is fundamentally 14th century but much tweaked over the years. Approaching through the lych gate I wondered if it might be possible to look inside, but when I saw each window had two signs saying "CCTV Working Now" and "Alarmed To Police" I realised I'd have to make to with the churchyard alone. All Saints was added on the main road in 1935 after a jam factory* opened and the working population grew, then upgraded to a chunky brick building in the 1950s when a council estate replaced the orchards. St Richard's arrived shortly afterwards in chalet style, all wonky rooflines and wigwam belfry, providing Hanworth with what I suspect is now ecclesiastical oversupply.

Jam factory interlude
William Whiteley, the original owner of Whiteley's in Queensway, bought 200 acres of farmland in Hanworth in 1891. He used it to supply fruit for his food court and transported it there daily by horse and cart. Alas William was shot dead by an illegitimate son in 1907, after which his legitimate offspring sold the farm to a jam manufacturer, Beach's of Brentford. In 1933 they sold up to Twickenham council for use as housing, and after WW2 it became the Butts Farm Estate. As place names go it's at the more embarrassing end of the spectrum. The King and Queen of Sweden visited in 1954 having requested to inspect a modern housing estate, dropping in at 33 Fountains Close, 27 Towfield Court and 44 Canterbury Road. I wasn't quite so awed when I rode the H25 bus to its terminus at the far end of the estate, and annoyingly the driver flipped the blind before I could take a hilarious photo of it saying 'Butts Farm'.

The hidden treasure locally is Hanworth Park House, a two-storey mansion built in the 1830s, one side of which is pretty much all balconies. The last owner died in 1911 which was perfect timing for the estate to be taken over for the manufacture of newfangled biplanes. These were parked and trialled out front, the local river having been culverted to create an unimpeded space for takeoff and landing. During WW1 the Royal Flying Corps were based here, then in 1929 the National Flying Services moved in and Hanworth became a glamorous private airfield, the kind of place where Amelia Earhart or a Graf Zeppelin might drop by. The next owners were General Aircraft Limited who built planes again, and the aerodrome eventually closed in 1949 after nearby Heathrow started to take off.

It's now a 150 acre recreational space called Hanworth Air Park, mostly a vast patch of grass but with a pleasant patch of riverside woodland up one end. The local rugby team's clubhouse is anchored in one corner while another edge is occupied by a modern multicoloured shed containing a big leisure centre and a small library, only one of which is open more than four days a week. And hidden somewhere in the middle, surrounded by far more trees than 100 years ago, is Hanworth Park House. I caught only veiled glimpses of the former hotel through budding branches, not that I suspect I'd have seen much more in the winter, and was warned off breaking in along the main drive by multiple signs on the gate warning that the guard dogs bite. Alas the great house is increasingly derelict, something local campaigners would love to reverse, but that would require money and some kind of long-term commercial future so continuing decay is the most likely outcome.

Six Hanworth postcards

✉ The river that flows through Hanworth wiggles fairly convincingly but is actually entirely artificial. The Longford River is 12 miles long and was dug in 1638 at the behest of Charles I, diverting water from the River Colne to feed ornamental features at Hampton Court. I joined the riverside path near the Apex Corner sliproad and found myself in a reedy strip hemmed between houses and industrial units, with no hope of exit for a good half mile but a lot of endearing ducks.

✉ The heart of the original village of Hanworth was a small triangular green surrounded by cottages and a pub called The Brown Bear Inn. Alas the A316 dual carriageway scored a direct hit and the junction is now straddled by the Bear Road flyover, a stilted concrete roar. To catch a 290 bus you have to climb some stark 1970s staircases, and for those walking underneath the planners only bothered to provide a pavement on one side. Perhaps more hurtfully, Hanworth's 24,000 residents no longer have a single pub.

✉ Job's Dairy opened alongside Snakey Lane in 1920s and until recently was one of Britain's largest glass milk-bottling plants. It was however bought out one too many times, first to Unigate in 1987, then to Dairy Crest 2000, then to Müller UK in 2014 and most recently to Freshways in 2024. They promptly shuttered the site with the loss of 162 jobs and no crates have since rattled behind the deteriorating frontage.

✉ South of the main road there's less of interest, this area now mostly residential infill with very few of the original cottages surviving the transformation. The village pond, for example, was filled in and replaced by a glaringly mundane office block called Swan House. The Swan pub with its distinctive weathervane became a dead Swan in 2015. Across the street is a minor shopping parade with a Tesco, a disturbingly cheap takeaway (Chicken Steak Burger £1.99) and a warning to Please Refrain From Sitting On The Rock Baskets.

✉ Church Road got decapitated when the dual carriageway arrived and still resembles a country lane wending between allotments and a somewhat scrappy equestrian centre. Close by is the entrance to Kempton Nature Reserve, a decommissioned reservoir that's now a 50 acre sunken wetland. It looks an appealing place to visit but is only unlockable if you apply to Thames Water and alas "Membership is currently unavailable", so the migrating birds must be enjoying some peace and quiet.

✉ Technically Kempton Steam Museum is in Hanworth, as is the Hampton & Kempton Waterworks Railway, even if both are very nearly in Surrey and neither mentions the place nominally. I have however told you about both before (the triple-expansion steam engine is amazing) and both are open next weekend if you want to see Hanworth for yourself.

All previously blogged

2026-04-12T07:00:00.050+01:00

I've been all over London over the last few days, but only to places I've blogged about before.

On Tuesday I went to the station I wrote about in June 2021 and took the train I told you about in May 2022 to the town whose MP I told you about in January 2026. I alighted my next train opposite the department store I told you about in February 2018 and caught the bus I told you about in June 2016 to the park I told you about in February 2009. Then it was on to the roundabout I told you about in April 2008 via the arterial route I told you about in March 2024 to the restaurant I told you about in Unblogged November 2022. Here I crossed the evacuation route I told you about in January 2014 and the waymarked path I told you about in December 2021 before switching to the tube line I told you about in March 2013. One stop later I alighted near the greenspace I told you about in March 2009 before catching a rare bus I told you about in June 2023 to the section of the London Loop I told you about in October 2014. Here a bus I told you about in January 2020 took me to a statue I told you about in April 2008, and another took me to the level crossing I told you about in July 2023. I went one stop to the town I told you about in January 2008 and caught the bus I told you about in January 2019 past the trig point I told you about in October 2004. My next buses took me past the footballing sights I told you about in April 2009, to the terminus I queried in June 2025, along the seasonal road I told you about in December 2024 and past the power station I told you about in April 2024. My next target was alongside the square I told you about in July 2025 before hopping back to a new station I told you about in March 2019. My final bus, which I told you about in December 2014, took me to a train service I told you about in September 2019, after which I came home past allotments I told you about in September 2021. All previously blogged, so nothing to blog here.

On Wednesday I travelled along the High Street I told you about in August 2008 to the sculpture I told you about in March 2012. Here I caught a train I first told you about in June 2017 to the place on the London Loop I reached in May 2014. My first bus passed the public toilets I told you about in January 2024 and the collection of streets I told you about in April 2018 to a road I told you about in January 2012. I told you about the next suburb in some detail in January 2019, including its fork and its library, also about this bus corridor in December 2019. I switched buses opposite the clocktower I told you about in May 2023, finally boarding the bus whose route number I queried in July 2023. This took me through suburbs I told you about in October 2024 and November 2015 respectively, then past the foot of a hill I told you about in August 2006, August 2014 and December 2022. From the bus station I moaned about in December 2022 I rode the tube line I told you about in June 2013 to the shopping centre I told you about in December 2017. Another bus I told you about in July 2024 took me to a road junction I told you about in May 2004 and the venue of a meeting I told you about in May 2019. A little-used station I told you about in November 2017 then propelled me to a lost river I told you about in January 2010 and a supermarket I told you about in February 2013. Improbably my next target was the start of a walk I told you about in October 2024, then I headed to two towns whose museums I told you about in October 2009 and April 2010. A bus I told you about in November 2014 then took me to a shopping parade I told you about in February 2026. From here I took a train across a section of the Capital Ring I told you about in April 2011 to a station I told you about in March 2022 beneath a sign I told you about in September 2025. Then home to use a kettle I told you about in February 2020. All previously blogged, so nothing to blog here.

On Thursday I passed the statue I told you about in August 2003 to take the train through the station I told you about in December 2007 to a cavern I first told you about in September 2012. I briefly visited a tourist hotspot I told you about in May 2016 before backtracking to a historic building I told you about in March 2024. I next paused beside a gallery I told you about in April 2018 before continuing to a bridge I told you about in April 2013 and passing a museum I told you about in March 2016. From a market I told you about in October 2008 I circuited a shopping mall I told you about in October 2018 to an iconic building I told you about in October 2013 in a suburb whose Olympic history I told about in you April 2008. My next bus took me past a former ice cream parlour I told you about in Unblogged September 2018 to a lost river I told you about in September 2010, then it was back past a cultural centre I told you about in September 2018 and a quick ride on a piddly bus route I told you about in December 2019. I avoided the very long tunnel at the station I told you about in November 2004, continuing to the suburb I told you about in April 2021 and looking down into the tunnel entrance I told you about in June 2008. I'm not doing that one again. From there I walked past the library I told you about in December 2011 and burrowed in a subterranean manner to the capitalist temple I derided in September 2024, before heading home through the hinterland I told you about in March 2018. All previously blogged, so nothing to blog here.

On Friday I nipped first to the cooking sauces aisle I told you about in March 2017 before returning home across the roundabout I told you about in more months than I care to imagine. Suitably unladen I passed the launderette I told you about in February 2005 and rode the tube lines I told you about in April 2013 and September 2013 respectively. I dodged the elephant I told you about in November 2013 and then made three fairly pointless stops: a) by the lost river I told you about in February 2010, b) in the postcode I told you about in January 2020, c) alongside the path I told you about in November 2022. My ultimate destination was near the waterworks I told you about in September 2024, specifically the suburb I told you about in July 2022, but not quite as far as the engines I told you about in November 2007 or the tower I told you about in February 2012. After much wandering I headed to the suburb I told you about in January 2017 because that was the quickest way to the neighbourhood I told you about in July 2025. Stupidly I left the train after the park I told you about in September 2023 because there were no buses so I had to walk past the studios I told you about in July 2008 and the famous window I told you about in March 2005. Alas the railway I first told you about in July 2003 was suspended so I had to head home via the roundel I told you about in August 2013, also the hotel I told you about in September 2019, the pub I told you about in August 2019 and the urinals I told you about in June 2012. All previously blogged, so nothing to blog here.

Yesterday I went all over the place, sorry, including the shopping precinct I told you about in December 2017, the lost river I told you about in August 2010, the plaque I told you about in December 2007, the borderline outpost I told you about in May 2017, the infrequent bus I told you about in December 2014, the town centre I told you about in October 2006, the cocky corner I told you about in July 2022, the isolated estate I told you about in March 2025, the high point I told you about in August 2014, the section of the London Loop I told you about in September 2015, the famous residences I told you about in January 2023, the Superloop route I told you about in February 2024, the constituency I told you about in June 2024, the mansion I told you about in April 2011, another clocktower I told you about in May 2023, the peculiarly-named locality I told you about in October 2022, the bend in the road I told you about in March 2022, the farm I told you about in October 2015, the lost river I told you about in May 2024, another high point I told you about in August 2014, the Olympic venue I told you about in September 2012, the town I told you about in January 2009, the football stadium I told you about in October 2009, the roadworks I told you about in January 2026, the IKEA I told you about in February 2019, the aerial folly I first told you about in March 2011, the sponsored tent I told you about in June 2007, the clocks I told you about in May 2004, the town hall I told you about in May 2006, the art gallery I told you about in June 2004 and the 700 year-old church I told you about in November 2011. All previously blogged, so nothing to blog here.

That's the problem with a blog that's been all over London, you've heard it all already.

Tower Hamlets local elections 2026

2026-04-11T07:00:00.015+01:00

London's borough councils are up for grabs in the local elections next month, including Tower Hamlets where I live. Sometimes things can go off the rails here so I've had a go at researching who's standing for what, just in case they do again.

But first a quick historical recap.

1964-1982: very safe Labour
1986-1990: Alliance/Liberal Democrat interlude
1994-2002: very safe Labour
2006: no overall control (George Galloway intrudes)
2010: very safe Labour
switch to elected Mayor
2010-2014: Lutfur Rahman swipes it
2015: 2014 election declared void
2015-2018: John Biggs (Labour)
2022-2026: Lutfur Rahman swipes it back

Sorry, my recap includes a prediction of who's going to win the upcoming election, but it's such a dead cert that I won't be wrong.

Council elections were relatively normal in Tower Hamlets until 2009 when a dodgy petition triggered a referendum on introducing an Executive Mayor for the borough. This seismic change passed with 60% of the vote. The subsequent ballot was won by Lutfur Rahman, now running his own party after a massive falling-out with former Labour colleagues. No matter that Labour had 63% of Tower Hamlets councillors, by becoming Mayor Lutfur took full control of everything and the majority opposition could only sit and watch.

Rahman won again in 2014 although the result was much closer, the cursed 52%-48% ratio. But a lot of well dodgy practices had taken place so in 2015 the electoral court declared the previous election void. Labour's John Biggs duly took over after a 55%-45% victory and Lutfur was banned from politics for seven years. But as soon as those seven years were up he came back, stood again and won, because here in Tower Hamlets we have no qualms in voting for a dubious not-quite criminal and gifting him total power.

In 2026 there are nine candidates for Mayor, one of whom is Lutfur who's going to win again.

» Lutfur Rahman: Aspire
» Sirajul Islam: Labour
» Mohammed Hannan: Liberal Democrats
» Hirra Khan: Green
» John Bullard: Reform UK
» Dominic Nolan: Conservative
» Hugo Pierre: Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition
» Zami Ali: Tower Hamlets Independents
» Terence McGrenera: Independent

The only credible alternative is Sirajul Islam for Labour, or would be were the party more popular nationally which it absolutely isn't. Labour's John Biggs got 33% of the Mayoral vote last time but that percentage can only go down. No other party got more than 10% in 2022 and the Greens didn't even put forward a candidate. It's entirely possible that the Greens will do rather well in neighbouring Hackney, but this is Tower Hamlets and there's no hope of a Green surge for the Mayoralty.

mini bios
• Lutfur Rahman (Aspire) has been found "personally guilty of corrupt or illegal practices, or both"
• Sirajul Islam (Labour) is the current leader of the opposition on Tower Hamlets council
• Mohammed Hannan (Liberal Democrats) came last in Canary Wharf ward in 2022
• Hirra Khan (Green) co-leads an environmental charity and is also standing as a councillor in Bromley-by-Bow
• John Bullard (Reform) is thus far a mystery, likely parachuted in to fill a gap
• Dominic Nolan (Conservative) has been a councillor in Fife, but won only 6% of the vote in Poplar in 2022
• Hugo Pierre (Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition) is certainly a trier, this is his 4th Mayoral election
• Zami Ali (Tower Hamlets Independents) has his own website but hasn't added any news since January, a no-hoper
• Terence McGrenera (Independent) is a local journalist disillusioned by Tower Hamlets political bickering

Here in Tower Hamlets we also vote for 45 councillors across 20 wards, but their main job is either to agree with the Mayor or hold him to account. In 2022 Lutfur's party Aspire won 26 seats, Labour won 19, and the Conservatives and Greens one each. Since then five of those candidates have become independents, which would have been enough to put the council into 'No overall control' were Lutfur not fully in control anyway. The only by-election in the last four years was for my ward, Bow East, after one of the Labour councillors was unexpectedly elected as MP for Cities of London and Westminster.

Aspire, Labour and the Conservatives have all managed to put forward a full range of candidates in each of the 20 wards. The Greens, Liberal Democrats and Tower Hamlets Independents each have two gaps. Reform UK failed to fill ten slots although they've managed to cover every ward. Only residents in Bethnal Green East get the opportunity to vote for The Forward Party, which appears to be the one-man soapbox of a Tiktokker called Adham who likes parading round parks while you read long captions across his head.

Bow East candidates
» Aspire: Hamida, Mansur & Yusuf
» Labour: Abdi, Amina & Marc
» Liberal Democrats: Dan, Daniel & Folkert
» Green: Jonathan, Mads & Ottilie
» Reform UK: Gary, John & Kevin
» Conservative: Georgie, Jade & Robin
» Tower Hamlets Independents: Hira, Salim & Shofiqul
» TUSC: Naomi

Here in Bow East, Aspire are currently winning the letterbox battle with two massive expensively-produced leaflets. One's a folded sheet of A3 covered in bullet-pointed things Lutfur's council has achieved over the last for years, several of them bilingually. The other is ward-specific, half the size, and features our grinning leader alongside his three Aspire candidates. However absolutely no attempt has been made to link any of the party's policies to Bow East ward, merely to dazzle.

Labour have also sent two leaflets, one general and one specific, although these are rather smaller. Sirajul does at least look to have been in the same room as the three Bow East candidates when the cover photo was taken. There are specific mentions of Roman Road Market and 'Vicky Park', generally decrying how Aspire should be looking after them better. Marc Francis has been a Labour councillor here since 2006, but may very well not be in a month's time.

The Greens have sent two copies of something they call Bow East News, generally in the hope I'll be on first name terms with their three candidates. They have the localest policies, even down to litter in a single street, also two attempts at making 'genocide in Palestine' sound locally relevant. The trio have a decent chance of getting at least one of them elected, Bow East being one of the Green's four target wards hereabouts (along with Bow West, Mile End and Bromley North).

Nothing as yet from the Conservatives, Liberal Democrats or Reform UK, partly because it's still early days and partly because they don't have a hope so why waste money.

Politics in Tower Hamlets is rarely dull but I suspect it will be this year, however much reshuffling takes place at councillor level, as Lutfur Rahman wins his fourth election for Executive Mayor. Technically the end result is always in doubt until the final votes are counted, but it would be nice to live in a borough that wasn't quite so one-sidedly anomalous.

Night Bus Facts

2026-04-10T07:00:00.145+01:00

Nightbus facts

How many nightbuses are there?

64 'N' buses: N1, N2, N3, N5, N7, N8, N9, N11, N15, N18, N19, N20, N21, N22, N25, N26, N27, N28, N29, N31, N32, N33, N38, N41, N44, N53, N55, N63, N65, N68, N72, N73, N74, N83, N86, N87, N89, N91, N97, N98, N109, N113, N118, N133, N136, N137, N140, N155, N171, N199, N205, N207, N242, N250, N253, N263, N266, N277, N279, N343, N381, N472, N550, N551
57 24-hour routes: 6, 12, 13, 14, 23, 24, 35, 36, 37, 43, 47, 52, 57, 64, 69, 76, 85, 88, 93, 94, 102, 105, 108, 111, 119, 123, 128, 134, 139, 148, 149, 158, 159, 176, 188, 189, 213, 214, 220, 222, 238, 243, 264, 281, 285, 295, 297, 321, 341, 344, 345, 365, 390, 453, 474, 486, EL1

...so 121 altogether

(in what follows, night buses start with N unless otherwise specified)

Lowest numbered: N1 (Tottenham Court Road - Thamesmead)
Highest numbered: N551 (Trafalgar Square - Gallions Reach)

The lowest number that isn't a nightbus: 4
The only overnight bus that starts with a letter that isn't N: EL1
Five consecutively numbered nightbuses: N25, N26, N27, N28, N29

Can you show me a map of all the nightbuses? Yes, here's one. I generated it using route-mapster.vercel.app (which if you like bus map facts is seriously brilliant)

[Night routes in orange, 24-hour routes in blue]

The extremes of the nightbus network
Most westerly: N9 (Heathrow Terminal 5)
Most northerly: N279 (Waltham Cross bus station)
Most easterly: N86 (Harold Hill)
Most southerly: N68 (Old Coulsdon)

The only nightbus to go outside London: the aforementioned N279

Nightbuses that go nowhere near the daytime route with that number
N5: Trafalgar Square - Edgware (not Canning Town - Romford)
N20: Trafalgar Square - Barnet (not Walthamstow - Debden)
N97: Trafalgar Square - Hammersmith (not Stratford - Chingford)

Nightbuses whose numbers aren't used by daytime buses: N118, N472, N550, N551

How many nightbuses start at Trafalgar Square? 22

Earliest start for a nightbus: 2300 (on the N140 from Harrow Weald)
Latest start for a nightbus: 0115 (on the N133 in both directions)
Earliest finish for a nightbus: 0512 (on the N28 in both directions)
Latest finish for a nightbus: 0717 (on the N140 to Harrow Weald) (and on Sunday mornings, 0807 on the N9 to Heathrow)

The three most frequent nightbuses
N15 (every 10 minutes, every 8 at weekends)
N25 (every 8 minutes, every 10 at weekends)
N29 (every 10 minutes)
n.b. the vast majority of nightbuses run every 30 minutes

When was the first nightbus? 1913, on route 94 (here's a photo of the B-Type outside Piccadilly Circus station)

When was the first 'N' nightbus? 12th October 1960
Here's an N83 timetable (Charing Cross - Tottenham) from July 1961.

What was the nightbus network like in 1972? There were 19 proper Night Bus routes, numbered consecutively from N81 to N99, which generally bore no relation to similarly-numbered daytime routes. Of these only the N97 survives today. Four other routes ran overnight, the 11, 109, 168 and 185. I've blogged about this before.

Number of nightbus routes 25 years ago: 61
The following year 24-hour services lost their N prefix.

Here's a nightbus map from 2005 (by Mike Harris).
And here's the 2015 Central London nightbus map.

The nightbus route that travels the furthest every year: N15 (390,156 km, way way ahead of the N29)
The nightbus route that travels least far every year: N472 (47,709 km)

A long way away from an overnight bus: Northwood, Pinner, Ickenham, Mill Hill East, Marks Gate, Upminster, Biggin Hill, Wallington

London's five busiest nightbus routes (2024/25)
  1) N15 Oxford Circus - Romford (1.5m passengers annually)
  2) N25 Oxford Circus - Ilford (1.1m)
  3) N18 Trafalgar Square - Harrow Weald (0.94m)
  4) N207 Holborn - Uxbridge (0.85m)
  5) N29 Trafalgar Square - Enfield (0.84m)
The next ten: N279, N9, N8, N98, N140, N87, N38, N155, N68, N205

London's five least busy nightbus routes (2024/25)
  1) 486 North Greenwich - Bexleyheath (39,000)
  2) 213 Kingston - Sutton (44,000)
  3) N33 Hammersmith - Fulwell (52,000)
  4) 365 Orchard Estate - Havering Park (54,000)
  5) 85 Putney - Kingston (55,000)
The next ten: 474, 321, N72, 158, 24, 119, N381, N472, 93, 264

The only single decker nightbus routes: N33, N72
The only nightbuses to start and finish in the same place: N5 and N113 (Trafalgar Square - Edgware bus station)

London's newest nightbuses
N472 (North Greenwich - Abbey Wood) [24 January 2026]
N118 (Trafalgar Square - Ruislip) [17 January 2026]
N263 (Moorgate - North Finchley) [6 April 2025]

The three bus stops served by the most nightbuses
Southampton Street/Covent Garden (A)
Bedford Street (J)
Savoy Street (U)
...all served by the N9 N15 N21 N26 N44 N87 N89 N91 N155 N199 N343 N550 N551
(n.b. three routes were missing from the tiles when I took these photos in 2024)

Bus stops that are only used by nightbuses
N8: The Lowe (in Hainault)
N9: Holland Road, Nene Road Roundabout, Newbury Road/Compass Centre (north of Heathrow)
N199: Murray Road (in St Mary Cray)
N205: Warton Road (will be served by the D8 later next year)
N551: Tobacco Dock, Wellclose Street
N3/N87: Abingdon Street (outside Parliament) [dubious]
N133: The Drive (in Morden) [very dubious]

London's longest night bus routes
1) N199 Trafalgar Square → St Mary Cray 21.92 miles
2) N89 Trafalgar Square → Erith 21.33 miles
3) N9 Heathrow T5 → Aldwych 20.94 miles
4) N68 New Oxford Street → Old Coulsdon 19.74 miles
5) N15 Romford → Oxford Circus 18.75 miles

The shortest nightbus route: The N97 is 6.13 miles long
The shortest overnight route: The 238 is 4.83 miles long

Square numbered nightbuses: N1, N9, N25
Cube numbered nightbuses: N1, N8, N27, N343
Prime numbered nightbuses: N2, N3, N5, N7, N11, N19, N29, N31, N41, N53, N73, N83, N87, N89, N97, N109, N113, N137, N199, N263, N277

Nightbuses which run within a single borough: 64, 278, 365
The borough with only one nightbus: Sutton (plus three 24 hour routes)
The borough with 49 nightbuses: Westminster (77% of the total)

Have you ridden on all the nightbuses? Yes I have, it took three nights, although this was in 2018 and there were only 50 back then.
Has anybody else done this? Geoff's just ridden all 64 and made a video about it.
Has anybody else done this? Yes.

Bow Roundabout update #22

2026-04-09T09:00:00.022+01:00

It's now 13 months since long term works at the Bow Roundabout were supposedly completed, but they remain partly out of use. The reverse contraflow lane beneath the flyover has never reopened, despite being the focus of a substantial portion of the works, despite a great deal of time and money having been spent re-engineering it. I told you this last month. Since then two things have changed.

The first is that the wobbly plastic barriers sealing off the contraflow have been replaced by chunky concrete blocks. This gives the closure a more long-term feel, and also prevents overheight lorries and mischievous cars from crashing through the barriers. I presume this is why the spindly security camera overlooking the barriers has now been removed.

The second is that the information on TfL's Silvertown Tunnel webpage has been updated. It used to say...

The link under the flyover at Bow will remain closed until we complete more work to protect the structure later in 2025.

No such works have been completed. It now says...

The link under the flyover at Bow will remain closed until further notice. This is to support the planned introduction of bus priority measures. The London Borough of Newham will implement these measures.

That's passing the buck for you. I'm not aware of what these measures might be, but "bus priority projects on High Street Stratford" were apparently put forward at a council meeting in January. Their implementation might thus be months off, and could involve a lot or only a little further disruption, but this does mean the saga of the Bow Roundabout upgrade lingers on and on.

Previous updates: #0 #1 #2 #3 #4 #5 #6 #7 #8 #9 #10 #11 #12 #13 #14 #15 #16 #17 #18 #19 #20 #21

Installed by cretins - update

2026-04-09T07:00:00.008+01:00

I have, on several occasions, lambasted the Next Train Indicators at Mile End station. Originally it was because you couldn't see them, then it was because some became hidden, then it was because they moved and you couldn't see them from different places. At one point HM Inspector of Railways turned up and urged the removal of a blocking sign to prevent a possible decapitation risk on platform 1. That was sorted but the underlying issue has not changed, which is that you cannot see the time of the Next Train from a substantial proportion of all four platforms.

The chief issue is that there are only four Next Train Indicators and they are all at the far end of the platforms. Walk down the stairs or arrive on a train at the western end of the station and you can easily see when the next trains are due. But arrive on a train at the eastern end of the station and you can see bugger all, this unless you have the eyesight of a hawk and can read small orange letters 100m away. I can't do it, plus the key information like the number of minutes is often hidden behind protruding objects so couldn't be seen anyway.

Four small Next Train Indicators have been added halfway down the platforms, each on the inside of a pillar, these designed to assist platform staff in marshalling passengers during busy rush hour periods. But most of them face west, not east, so can't be seen by anyone in the eastern half of the platform either. The entire Next Train Indicator get-up at Mile End is an impractical mess seemingly installed by cretins.

This regularly proves awkward, generally when changing trains, because you can't tell if the next train is 1 minute away or 11. Usually it's 3 or less but occasionally it's a very big number and you can't tell so you stand there like a lemon on the platform because you don't realise the service is borked. As happened yesterday.

I got off the front of a Central line train and crossed to the District line platform, expecting a train to carry me one stop to Bow Road but unable to confirm this. After a few minutes I started to get suspicious and walked all the way down to pillar 13 to check on the small screen... and sure enough the next train was still 7 minutes away. For Mile End that's disastrous, and it looked like there was then an 11 minute gap coming along behind. Meanwhile on the opposite platform, a 15 minute gap! Nobody in the control room had made any announcements so everyone was just standing there, the eastern half in total ignorance of imminent trainlessness.

The issue arose in 2009 after inept infraco Metronet were given the job of upgrading Mile End station with modern electrical paraphernalia. Their solution included introducing a suspended ceiling to hide all the wiring and other gubbins, but this decision also reduced headroom so it was no longer safe to hang a Next Train Indicator from the ceiling. The boxes were thus all moved to the far end of the platforms where nobody could hit their heads, and suddenly passengers on half the platform could no longer see when trains were coming.

Annoyingly Metronet went bust in 2007 and were taken over by TfL in 2009 before the suspended ceiling was fitted. But because Metronet's plans were so far advanced TfL had no choice but to go along with them, installing a substandard information system while making other aspects of the station better.

What hurts is that Mile End's now been substandard for well over 15 years and nobody's attempted to improve things, bar those tiny boards most people can't see either. Various solutions would sort it, like adding thinner overhead boxes or simply adding Next Train Indicators at the eastern ends of the platforms so everyone could see one. But there must be no money, or no resources, or no willingness, or just an assumption that the current system works when plainly it does not, as those of us who use the station know to our cost.

And so we continue to keep our fingers crossed that a train's coming, hopefully soon, and just occasionally it's not.

The dead end of Beckton

2026-04-08T07:00:00.091+01:00

Six years ago I followed a seriously uncompromising footpath round the back of Beckton sewage works as far as Beckton Creekside Nature Reserve. This creekside haven was as remote as I dared go at the time, there being no alternative exit from the lengthy access road down to the Barking Flood Barrier. But this time I took company and walked all the way to the main drainage outfall of Bazalgette's great sewer, gazing out at the unfinished wedge of Thamesmead across the estuary, along what might be London's longest dead end path...

The path with no exit has two entrances, neither of them especially appealing. The most direct access starts opposite the 5-a-side on Jenkins Lane adjacent to convenient bus stops on routes 325 and 366. It used to start beneath a rusty welcome arch courtesy of Thames Water but that's now vanished, its replacement a scrappy laminated sheet tied to the first security gate. The fenced slalom ahead is optimistically titled the Northern Lagoon Walkway, not that anything tropical will be visible as you wend between brackish scrub and empty warehouses for slightly too many minutes. We didn't go that way.

We walked in underneath the A13, in fact we walked all the way from Barking, attempting to follow the river Roding as it morphed into the muddier Barking Creek. A quiet path hugs the edge of Cuckold Haven Nature Reserve, currently bursting out into shades of spring green, with occasional glimpses of flats and reeds where the treeline thins. At Whitings Trash Screen the Environment Agency prevents gunk from exiting a small drainage channel and a final stepped path drops in round the back of Shurgard Self Storage. The A13 is supported on chunky concrete supports, an underside that barely anybody sees but is sufficiently graffitied to confirm you're not the first ones here.

Beyond the bridge is where the Beckton Showcase cinema used to be, but that closed in 2022 and has subsequently been replaced by four huge white sheds called Valor Park. These have a lot of tall flappy doors suggesting future use as a distribution depot, and also a rim of saplings recently planted in the hope of blocking out clear sightlines from the footpath. Employees might one day be able to exit through security gates to a bench freshly placed on the riverside, perhaps to enjoy a smoke in view of the Bestway cash and carry, but thus far the only occupants are a security handler and their vanful of canine defence. And beyond that is the all-important kissing gate, we're going in...

Everything ahead, which is a thin strip of just over a mile, is the property of Thames Water. Beckton Sewage Works opened in 1864 as the endpoint of Joseph Bazalgette's sewage solution, initially covering 9 acres and since expanded to 250. Most of the former marsh was covered in a mosaic of settlement tanks and circular sludge pools, since augmented by hundreds of pipes, modern plant and the end of the Lee Tunnel. If your toilet lies north of the Thames then your organic waste may ultimately be dried here and burnt as 'cake'. You get the best view of the sewage works on the first bend, a ridiculously extensive landscape of concrete structures and sudden drops, alien enough that you might expect characters from Blakes 7 to come running through at any minute.

A few minutes down, just off-road, is the entrance to Beckton Creekside Nature Reserve. This approximately triangular enclave, hemmed in on two sides by mudflats, comprises mostly scrubby woodland and is home to several species of flora and fauna. Marked paths guide visitors away from the riverside and past the foot of a hulking pylon, its four feet planted in a reedy pool. One track leads up a very slight elevation to a 'view'point with a single picnic table, for hardy sandwich-munchers only. You might meet conservation volunteers here once a month or, as in our case, a seated visitor keen for our human incursion to go away. At the far end is a second gate back onto the road, this where nervousness originally nudged me back but this time we were going all the way.

The access track continues straight along the edge of the sewage works proper, specifically alongside a concrete trench in which a river of sorts flows inexorably towards the Thames. It fills from dubious culverts and frothy sluices, carrying best not think what, all safely contained behind a barb-topped fence. Signs warn of deep danger and also that this road is liable to flood at high tide, although I think it'd have to be a big spring tide to do any damage. Eventually the reeds open out to reveal the very end of Barking Creek, also the backside of the industrial warehouses at Creekmouth on the opposite bank. The pylons ahead are super-tall so they can cross the creek with ease.

I was expecting the tip of the path to be empty but instead a team of workmen had driven here in two vans and were busy hacking down surplus undergrowth around the sludge valves. A separate hi-vis worker was sipping a hot drink by the seawall, presumably on a break, and having had the sense to cycle here rather than walking. We had to wait for him to ride off before we got the estuary to ourselves. The Thames feels massive here, as do the surrounding structures safely tucked out of general view. The Barking Flood Barrier is 60m high and of 1980s vintage, a fluvial guillotine ready to do its protective duty if the Thames ever threatens to invade.

This is a great place to watch birds, for example the wildfowl swimming happily in the swirling effluent from the outfall conduit. On our visit the tide was also coming in, creeping visibly across the mudflats and rising around a crescent of gulls standing on a semi-submerged bar until forced to fly off. Creepiest of all were the rooks perched individually on all the fencepoles screening off the water treatment works, occasionally flying down to the concrete wall but mostly just being sinister and watching our every move. But it still wasn't as scary as I'd previously anticipated, indeed I might now even be tempted to walk it solo.

The access road bends here to follow the Thames, soon ducking beneath two thick green pipes. These stretch way out into the river onto a wooden jetty and are part of Boris Johnson's fiasco of a desalination plant which has operated only five times since 2010. The gates underneath are labelled 'These gates must be kept locked at all times' but were intriguingly open, indeed temptingly so. We wondered if they were only open because the workmen had driven through so decided against exploring, but I understand others have continued round several bends towards an 'attraction' Google Maps describes as The Two Benches. If that's the case you might be able to go another quarter mile to a properly locked gate just round the back of the Gallions Reach Retail Park, and if they ever unlock that a fabulously bleak looping footpath could be possible. In the meantime perhaps I've tempted you to visit the backside of a sewage works down what might just be London's longest dead end.

Update: several of you have confirmed that it is possible to walk further, indeed you've done just that, along a further stretch of tank-overlooked riverfront. This makes the dead end a full mile and a half long (i.e. an hour to walk it there and back)

BM25

2026-04-07T07:00:00.043+01:00

Twenty-five years ago tonight I met BestMate for the first time. There was no inkling that he was BestMate at the time, nor that he'd ever turn out to be, but that's the way things happened. It took a while as these things do, but here we are quarter of a century later and the friendship's strong as ever. How surprised am I?

My life's not been big on friendships. I got through primary school with some good friends, though not really best. My first best friend at secondary school semi-faded away, while the next best friend turned out not to be. At university I fell in with a crowd of soulmates rather than a single wingman, all of whom I subsequently lost touch with. I spent the next ten years entirely without anyone you could describe as a close friend, getting on with life without the need to socialise much. When things got unexpectedly tough I found strong emotional support where I might not have expected it, so thanks for that. And then out of the blue, in April 2001, BestMate turned up.

Our friendship didn't ignite until I moved to London a few months later, our homes now considerably closer. Before long my evenings and weekends changed dramatically. Instead of me sitting at home on that new internet thing we'd go out and drink beer in a variety of interesting places around town. Rather than staying in and watching my telly I could go round and watch his. I had someone to talk to about stuff and he had someone to talk to about stuff too, either in person or via an online Messenger service. You probably think nothing of having a friend on call because normal people always have friends, but for me this was an inertia-busting transformation.

I saw a side of life I'd almost certainly have missed out on otherwise, not least because some things are so much better done in two-or-mores than ones. I wouldn't have dreamed of spending a week in New York by myself, nor dining solo at a top London eaterie, nor repeatedly staying out all night and rolling in at 4am, but friendship took me there. I look back through my 2002 diary now with a sense of dazzled opportunity. Records show that by February 2003 I was spending far more nights out than nights in, which is pretty much unheard of in my introverted world, but that's what ganging up with an extrovert does for you.

If some people collect friends like Panini stickers, BestMate has a complete albumful. He knows everyone and everyone knows him, so he can't have been lacking a posse of friends in his life. That's been useful for me because I was exposed to a broad cross-section of society whenever we went out, who otherwise I'd just have stood in the corner and observed. But I'm still not really good friends with any of his really good friends, because I simply don't connect like that. Back in the day he'd have been climbing the walls if he didn't see any of his friends in a 48 hour period, whereas I can go for weeks with no ill effects. It makes it all the more surprising he's hung onto me ahead of all the rest.

Our friendship was sorely tested when he suddenly upped sticks and went to live on the west coast of America. Suddenly I couldn't pop round for a cup of tea, let alone hand deliver his birthday card, so things moved onto a different level. The internet allowed us to maintain conversation, helped by the fact that late evening over there was breakfastime over here and I was the only UK friend awake and online. Had this been ten years earlier, I don't think being long-distance penpals would have worked quite as well.

This transatlantic hiatus lasted four years, during which time I got to re-experience what not having a best friend in my physical environment was like. Quieter, simpler, and more opportunity to concentrate on blogging rather than socialising to fill my spare time. But we still picked up again afterwards where we'd left off, pretty much, and it was great to have that listening ear back around the corner. Our social whirl never quite returned to those early days but it never died down either, not until middle age hit us both and an evening in with wine started to beat a night out with beer.

When it comes to BestMate's OtherHalf, and there've been several, I got to be the objective one as the relationship began and the supportive one as it fell apart. The latest, we both agree, is a keeper. I've been honoured to be invited along on several holidays, usually long weekends, to such farflung spots as Amsterdam, Blackpool and Reykjavik. I fear that without BestMate I'd have maxxed out on day trips to the seaside and weekends touring the outskirts of Hillingdon rather than properly experiencing Berlin, Rome and Copenhagen. I'm still never going to compete with OtherHalf for his time and attention, but that doesn't stop us sharing an understanding or a bottle or a trio of cinema tickets or whatever.

It's great to have a sounding board, someone who's always there to bounce off when the need arises. He can advise on my finances and I can advise on his downstairs neighbours. I know which is his least favourite Yes Minister episode and he knows not to try and hide sweet potato on my plate. We have twenty-five years of common acquaintances and shared experiences to riff off so the conversation never runs dry. A lot of what we communicate simply goes unsaid, which is something you only get with years of experience.

He puts up with the fact I count things. He puts up with the fact that I go round to his far more often than I invite him round to mine. He puts up with all the things we don't have in common as well as all the things we do. He puts up with me never answering my mobile because it never normally rings so I'm not paying attention. He even puts up with me turning down his offer of a night out because I have a bus stop visit to write up. He understands, and, trust me, that's rare.

For our first anniversary we had an early morning bagel in Brick Lane. For our fifth we could only chat online from different continents. For our tenth we started the day in one pub and ended the night in another. For our fifteenth we splashed out and let Jamie Oliver's underlings serve us in Fifteen. For our twentieth we met up mid-pandemic for a walk along the same creekside path we followed on day one. And for our twenty-fifth he's planned something he's not yet let on about, somewhere up in town, but slightly delayed because filial duties come first.

I'm still not quite sure how I ended up with a BestMate, nor do I believe I could ever recreate the situation where it might happen again. To be honest, the whole set-up only works because he's the one who says "why don't we?" and I say yes. But the last twenty-five years have been hugely enriched by me knowing him, so I simply wanted to express my amazement and appreciation. Thanks, and here's to quarter of a century that wouldn't have been half as much fun otherwise.

Ranworth Broad

2026-04-07T01:00:00.002+01:00

✉ Postcard from Ranworth Broad

The thing about a lot of the Norfolk Broads is that you can only see them from the water, surrounded as they are by wetland and woodland. Many aren't even accessible by public footpath, let alone a road. But Malthouse Broad is fully visible and also car-park-adjacent, assuming you can find a space. Head for the staithe - the local term for a landing stage - where all kinds of boats moor up around a small square of grass. 24 hours max if you come by water, with a £12 overnight fee unless you're a parishioner in which case mooring's free. The village of Ranworth is small by national standards but normal for Norfolk, a few miles from the A47 not quite as far as Acle. I should point out that the Visitor Centre is more a visitor shop, that scooped ice creams can be found in the Granary and that the local pub is closed until 21st April following a winter spruce-up.

From the staithe a footpath leads alongside Broad Road to the edge of a patch of wet carr woodland. Think alder and birch trees growing from squidgy pools, with plenty of grasses and reeds and the occasional burst of yellow irises. Thankfully a wooden boardwalk has been constructed to enable further progress, zigzagging onward for a good few minutes and occasionally wide enough to permit the overtaking of dawdling families. At the far end half-hidden behind tall reeds is a thatched two-storey ornithological hideaway, courtesy of the Norfolk Wildlife Trust, where you can either buy bird goodies or point your binoculars across the water in search of tufty feathers. I don't know what the Queen spotted when she opened the place in 1976 but we spotted a great crested grebe as well as several swans and a big Mississippi-style paddle steamer.

This is actually Ranworth Broad, a separate swathe of water to the broad beside Ranworth. Beside the sole access point is a jetty from which a reed-lighter called Little Tern sets off on 40-minute wildlife-spotting trips, although the heritage aspect is a smokescreen because it's all electric now. Miss that and you're walking back, but you can vary the route and loop pass the parish church instead. St Helen's is sometimes known as the Cathedral of the Broads, more for its treasures than its scale. The painted rood screen is one of England's finest, the illustrated prayer book is late medieval and the church tower can be climbed for a suggested £2 donation. The 89 spiral stairs are teensy, then come two actual ladders to get you past the belfry before pushing open a trapdoor to emerge on the roof. I turned down this opportunity, I believe for the second time, but if you truly want to see the Broads there's nowhere topper.

Some photographs

2026-04-06T07:00:00.159+01:00

Some photographs

This is the latest artwork on The Line, the meridian-adjacent sculpture trail between Stratford and Greenwich. It's attached to the back wall of Three Mills Studios and is called Dreams Are a Language Made of Images. The artist is Zineb Sedira and the text is based on a quote from the Italian filmmaker Federico Fellini. It says DREAMS ARE A LANGUAGE MADE OF IMAGES. IN CINEMA, EVERY OBJECT AND LIGHT MEANS SOMETHING, AS IN A DREAM if you can't be bothered to click on it. Apparently the work 'encourages reflection about the interrelationship between dreams and cinema, here with the added element of the river', although I just thought the aluminium letters looked pretty with the sun on them at that angle.

I see a lot of these little key boxes stuck to the wall outside blocks of flats, all with combination locks or push-button pads. I've never seen so many as here, though, on a block of flats in the middle of Thornton Heath. Why do people do this, why don't they just carry keys? Or are these spare keys, or for Airbnbs, or something HMO-related? And isn't this risky too, I mean I could stand outside on the pavement and try several codes, and if I did it enough times over enough weeks I could eventually break into your flat. You've even labelled the flat number for me, cheers!

They've done up the Octagon Building in New Addington, the first thing you see as you get off the tram, with jaunty green paint and a digital sign and a really rather good local map. But why, I wondered? Turns out it's a project funded from the UK Shared Prosperity Fund, a levelling-up cash-pot established by the previous government in 2022. Croydon council received funding for projects here and in Thornton Heath, Selsdon and Purley. In New Addington they also refurbished the market square stage and created some new lamppost banners, and it certainly brightens the place up but I guess half a million doesn't go very far.

There are a lot of these revamped See It Say It Sorted adverts cropping up everywhere, a new blue-background series encouraging you to clock suspicious behaviour amongst your fellow passengers. The usual dodgy suitcase stuff (THAT LOOKS A BIT ODD), skulking doors (ARE THEY GOING SOMEWHERE THEY SHOULDN'T?) and lurking ne'erdowells (ARE THEY AVOIDING THE AUTHORITIES?). In this case the exhortation is to query WHY HAVE THEY BEEN HANGING AROUND FOR SO LONG?, something which could have a perfectly innocent explanation. I find it sad that they're suggesting alerting the authorities, especially when someone's hugely more likely to be waiting for something rather than an evil terrorist. Also if you've noticed that someone's been hanging around for a long time then you probably have too, so just turn yourself in and be done with it.

This looks nice, except it's in Beckton so how can it be? Beckton Park doesn't have the greatest of reputations, a lot of blank grass with occasional pylons and a rat infestation at the northern end. But this is the southeastern corner, just opposite the DLR station, and it's had a full-on glow-up over the last couple of years. It now has two acres of wildflower meadow, currently roped off so it's pristine next month, also a path across the middle called the Queen Elizabeth Memorial Pathway. They had to get the Palace's permission to call it that. It's a bit worthy (they've planted 7 red oak trees, one for each decade of the Queen's reign, also a Dutch Elm 'demonstrating resilience and strength'). But it is a splendid improvement on before, for which we thank the Beckton Parks Masterplan, the Mayor of London's Rewild London Fund and the University of East London Sustainability Research Institute.

This is the new extension to the ExCel exhibition centre in the Royal Docks, recently opened. They built it across a former car park, this because multi-storey exhibition halls and conference suites are more valuable than windswept parking spaces. It's vast and generally empty, more full of bored-looking security guards than people, and also a dead end so you can't walk through it like the rest of the complex without looking a bit suspicious. But it's also very swish, with banks of escalators up and banks of escalators down, so you may one day find yourself here when attending a commercial gathering or while dressed as Darth Vader.

Moon News 6th April

2026-04-06T01:00:00.022+01:00

Human altitude records

pre-1783: jumping, diving, mountaineering
1783-1956: balloons (1st flight higher than Everest in 1862)
1956-1961: rocket aircraft (overtaking balloons at 24 miles)
1961: Yuri Gagarin (203 miles)
1965: Gemini 5 (218 miles)
1966: Gemini 11 (854 miles)
1968: Apollo 8 (234,473 miles)
1969: Apollo 11 (234,480 miles)
1970: Apollo 13 (248,573 miles)
6 April 2026: Artemis 2 (252,757 miles)

The Easter summary

2026-04-05T07:00:00.185+01:00

Easter posts I have written

• (20th April 2003) Easter daze
• (23rd March 2008) Extremely Early Easter
• (24th April 2011) Extreme Late Easter
• (27th March 2016) March Easters
• (1st April March 2018) Easter(n) Avenue
• (2019) Why is Easter late when it should be early?
• (21st April 2019) Easter weather
• (17th April 2022) The average date of Easter
• (31st March 2024) Gaps between Easters
• (2025) It was nearly Easter today
• (20th April 2025) Nowhere Easter
• (5th April 2026) Not this year sorry

Years with Easter on 5th April

  1643 1654 1665 1676
  1711 1722 1733 1744
  1795 1801
  1863 1874 1885 1896
  1931 1942 1953
  2015 2026 2037 2048
  2105
  2167 2178 2189
  2235 2246 2257 2268

(that's a heck of a lot of 11 year gaps)

Number of years until Easter is next on this date

Mar 22: 259	Mar 29: 17	Apr 5: 11	Apr 12: 67	Apr 19: 45
Mar 23: 134	Mar 30: 33	Apr 6: 16	Apr 13: 5	Apr 20: 61
Mar 24: 365	Mar 31: 60	Apr 7: 49	Apr 14: 21	Apr 21: 4
Mar 25: 9	Apr 1: 3	Apr 8: 65	Apr 15: 37	Apr 22: 31
Mar 26: 36	Apr 2: 25	Apr 9: 8	Apr 16: 2	Apr 23: 53
Mar 27: 131	Apr 3: 41	Apr 10: 13	Apr 17: 7	Apr 24: 69
Mar 28: 1	Apr 4: 57	Apr 11: 40	Apr 18: 23	Apr 25: 12

Recipe for making a Creme Egg

Ingredients
300g milk chocolate
350g powdered sugar
50g unsalted butter
60ml golden syrup
1 tablespoon vegetable oil
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon salt
Yellow food colouring

• Beat the softened butter until creamy. Add the golden syrup, vanilla extract and salt. Mix well. Gradually add the powdered sugar until a smooth and thick dough forms. Add a few drops of yellow food colouring to a quarter of the mixture and form into small balls. Wrap the remaining mixture around the yellow centres and shape into small egg-shaped pieces about 1 inch in length. Place on a baking sheet and chill for at least 30 minutes in a refrigerator.
• Chop the milk chocolate and combine with the vegetable oil. Microwave in 30-second intervals, stirring inbetween, until the chocolate is completely melted and smooth.
• Remove the chilled filling from the refrigerator. Dip each egg-shaped filling into the melted chocolate, ensuring complete coverage. Return baking sheet to the refrigerator and chill the eggs for an additional 10-15 minutes, or until the chocolate coating is set.
• Alternatively, buy a box of real ones because these will be a huge disappointment.

Moon News 5th April

2026-04-05T01:00:00.004+01:00

Surnames of people who've been to the Moon
On it: Armstrong, Aldrin, Conrad, Bean, Shepard, Mitchell, Scott, Irwin, Young, Duke, Cernan, Schmitt
Around it: Borman, Lovell, Anders, Stafford, Collins, Gordon, Swigert, Haise, Roosa, Worden, Mattingly, Evans; Wiseman, Glover, Koch, Hansen

Still alive and have been to the Moon
On it: Aldrin, Scott, Duke, Schmitt
Around it: Haise; Wiseman, Glover, Koch, Hansen

Presidents while people have been to the Moon
On it: Nixon
Around it: Johnson, Nixon, Trump

Census 2031

2026-04-04T07:00:00.104+01:00

The UK census* is held every ten years*, and has been since 1801*.
* 1941 was skipped for wartime reasons
* Technically it's three censuses, one for England and Wales, one for Scotland and one for Northern Ireland
* Scotland held their last census a year after everyone else due to the pandemic

It's always around the end of March or the start of April, this because it minimises potential distortion due to seasonal agricultural work or holiday travel. It's never the Easter weekend, instead always 2-4 weeks away.

1981: Sunday 5 April (Easter April 19)
1991: Sunday 21 April (Easter March 31)
2001: Sunday 29 April (Easter April 15)
2011: Sunday 27 March (Easter April 24)
2021: Sunday 21 March (Easter April 4)
2031: Sunday ?? ????? (Easter April 13)

We don't yet know when the 2031 census will be because they haven't decided, but my best guess would be 24th March or 27th April.

And that means we are pretty much exactly halfway between censuses, the last being five years ago and the next in five years time. Assuming it happens, that is.

It takes a very long time to prepare a census, in this case six years. In July 2025 the Cabinet Office wrote to the Office for National Statistics requesting them "to conduct a mandatory, questionnaire-based, whole-population census of England and Wales in 2031", having deemed it nationally worthwhile. Two subsequent consultations, now closed, have considered which topics should be included and "the needs for additional response options in a future ethnicity standard". If you don't ask optimal questions you get suboptimal data.

A Census Taskforce is now scoping plans and building on the experience of Census 2021, preparing for "an inclusive, digital-first census". You can thus expect to complete an online form in spring 2031, certain previous questions tweaked, with postal or face-to-face alternatives for those unable to access digital services. But what if it never happens?

This Labour government clearly believes in the importance of a national snapshot because they've triggered the process again. But some politicians have argued that we could instead sample the population, asking say 5%, and this would give broadly accurate answers while saving a lot of money. More drastically a White Paper in 2018 suggested that the Conservative government's ambition was that "other sources of data" would be used after 2021, thus the population would never need to be asked again.

The UK census is the gold standard in data collection but this counts for nothing in the world of politics. Indeed it would be a point of some pride for certain politicians to cancel a bureaucratic state-focused busybody survey prying into the lives of private citizens, saving millions of taxpayers money at the same time. Populists famously have no time for experts, so scrapping the census would be a bold policy win. Who needs accurate data when we could instead have lower taxes, or at least the promise of them?

We're due a new government by 2029, at this stage likely to be more right wing than the current administration. If that's the case then 2029 is plenty early enough to scrap a census in 2031, saving the majority of the intended costs. It'd be an easy policy win, a promise of hundreds of millions saved, also a trimming of the civil service' remit, also a swipe at woke questions about gender. One successful manifesto promise (or one capricious whim) and Census 2031 would be dead in the water.

We'd cope without a census because everything's estimatable. But without accurate data several decisions would become harder to make, that is assuming the government of the day were interested in data which isn't a given, because who needs facts when you have common sense? It would however be a damned shame to scrap the census for short term reasons, ending a sequence stretching back over 200 years, just because capricious politicians weren't interested in it any more.

	UK	England	London	Tower Hamlets
1801	10,942,000	8,331,000	1,097,000	144,000
1851	27,369,000	15,289,000	2,651,000	377,000
1901	38,237,000	30,072,000	6,510,000	597,000
1911	42,082,000	33,561,000	7,162,000	570,000
1921	44,026,000	35,230,000	7,387,000	529,000
1931	46,075,000	37,359,000	8,110,000	489,000
1941	48,216,000	38,084,000	8,615,000	419,000
1951	50,225,000	38,669,000	8,197,000	231,000
1961	52,709,000	41,159,000	7,997,000	206,000
1971	55,515,000	43,461,000	7,452,000	166,000
1981	55,100,000	45,978,000	6,713,000	143,000
1991	57,439,000	48,198,000	6,394,000	153,000
2001	59,113,000	49,139,000	7,172,000	196,000
2011	63,182,000	53,107,000	8,174,000	254,000
2021	67,026,000	56,490,000	8,799,800	310,000
2031	????	????	????	????

We are pretty much exactly halfway between censuses, the last being five years ago and the next in five years time, but only assuming the next one happens.

Moon News 4th April

2026-04-04T01:00:00.028+01:00

Ages of people who've flown to the Moon

1960s: 35 37 38 38 38 39 39 40 40 40
1970s: 36 36 36 37 37 38 38 39 39 39 40 41 41 47
1980s: -
1990s: -
2000s: -
2010s: -
2020s: 47 49 50 50

The youngest current astronaut (Christina Koch, 47) is six weeks younger than the previous oldest astronaut (Alan Shepard, 47).

Birth decade of people who've flown to the Moon

1920s: 4 astronauts
1930s: 20 astronauts
1940s: -
1950s: -
1960s: -
1970s: 4 astronauts

8 men born in 1930 have flown to the Moon.
Nobody born between April 1936 and October 1975 has flown to the Moon.

TfL FoI requests in March 2026

2026-04-03T07:00:00.003+01:00

33 things we learnt from TfL FoI requests in March 2026

1) Seven parts of the DLR network have their own names: North route (All Saints to Stratford), East route (Blackwall to Beckton), South route (Heron Quays to Lewisham), West route (Westferry to Bank & Tower Gateway), Central area (Poplar, West India Quay and Canary Wharf), London City Airport extension (West Silvertown to Woolwich Arsenal) and Stratford International extension (Canning Town to Stratford International).
2) Planning documents for the first tranche of Superloop routes have been made available, in case you'd like to know why they go where they go as often as they do.
3) If you have a 'DLR spotting book' and are wondering what happened to '4 Wheel Diesel Hydraulic Locomotives Numbered 5610 & 5611', there's no evidence that either ever existed.

4) The speed restriction between Charing Cross and Leicester Square on the Northern line is to reduce and mitigate against train shoebeam damage caused by track geometry from tunnels built over 100 years ago. The restriction will be removed when the situation improves.
5) In February TfL began a 12 month trial of video‑analytics technology at Stockwell, Clapham North, and Clapham Common focusing on counting people entering and exiting the gateline. This will strengthen understanding of fare‑evasion levels and help assess how enhanced data could support more effective deployment of enforcement officers across the network.
6) TfL don't know why there's a bollard at the junction of Furlong Road and Holloway Road because it was installed in November 2015 and they bin all documentation after 7 years.

7) The timetabled running time from Pimlico to Vauxhall is 65 seconds (but 68 seconds in the opposite direction)
8) In the last 12 months Tram Safety Officers have interacted with customers with regards to smoking/vaping on 146 occasions. No penalties were issued.
9) TfL fleecingtons (showerproof soft-shell jackets) have modal branding and are available in 10 sizes from XXS to 5XL. Before washing the zipper should be closed and the garment turned inside out. Fabric softener must not be used.

10) When the bus stop "Hume Way" was renamed "Highgrove Pool & Fitness Centre", it cost £328.12.
11) By undertaking further mileage running restrictions, the current DLR timetable can be sustained until at least the end of March 2026. TfL are exploring other options to extend this date.
1 2) The floor inside an Elizabeth line carriage is 1145mm above rail level. Overground trains are slightly higher (Class 378 1148mm) (Class 710 1155mm).

13) TfL awarded Stagecoach a £1,967,010 contract to operate the Silvertown Tunnel Cycle Shuttle for 3 years. Demand continues to be around 110-130 cycles on weekdays, lower at weekends.
14) In the month of February, only 8 passengers used a paper ticket to enter Chigwell station. By contrast 1567 passengers used Oyster and 1122 used contactless.
15) Mood lighting has been disabled on new buses "as we have been experiencing issues of these lights being used instead of the main lights".

16) 83 current TfL employees have been off work sick for more than 24 months since 2019. 40% of employees have been off work for 4 weeks or less during that period.
17) 156km of TfL roads have had a speed limit lowered under the Lowering Speed Limits programme.
18) Names proposed for Santander Cycles for International Women’s Day, but not used, include Amelia Jenks Bloomer, Kittie Knox, Rose Yates, Sylvia Pankhurst and Queen Marie of Romania.

19) Lost property found on buses last year included 15570 telephones, 11396 rucksacks, 9385 spectacles, 2915 umbrellas and 444 suitcases.
20) When making manual announcements on the Bakerloo line, the driver presses 1 for 'Let customers off the train first please', 2 for 'Please move right down inside the car', 3 for 'Please stand clear of the doors' and 4 for 'All change please, this train terminates here'.
21) The refurbishment of the toilets at Amersham station has been delayed by unforeseen asset issues in the male facility.

22) Last year 35,166,468 sales were recorded at London Underground ticket machines. The fewest sales were at Emerson Park with 6188.
23) The most popular journey on the Underground last year was again Bank to Waterloo with 1,315,723 taps. The reverse journey was made 1,268,090 times.
24) In last year's sole parakeet incident, the Traffic Signal Controller located on the A23 Purley Way/Commerce Way became heavily contaminated with bird guano, preventing engineers from safely accessing the unit. The contamination resulted from parakeets roosting in a privately owned plane tree situated above the controller.

25) Last year there were 15390 incidents of damage to TfL buses resulting from collisions and crashes, down from 15939 in 2024.
26) 701 candidates applied to the TfL General Management Graduate Scheme last year, of whom 272 passed the online tests, 36 attended interviews and 10 were appointed.
27) If you try to find out why the new Piccadilly line stock is late by asking "So, Hey TFL FOI Team, We Could Pick The Random Date From: Between: Dec 2026 To: June 2027, With The Drumroll, Please? Thanks", expect the response "TfL does not hold the requested information".

28) Last year 88 wigs were logged as lost property, 11 of which were returned to their owners. TfL have had no success returning two sets of false teeth, nor an urn containing ashes.
29) Fitting out Woolwich station for Crossrail cost £294,203,000. Additional Compliancy Works at Canary Wharf cost £122,414,000.
30) Members of the Royal Family do not receive free travel on TfL services, but 'Gold Level' athletes have been eligible for a free Athlete's Oyster Photocard since May 2006.

31) The borough whose residents received the most ULEZ penalty charges last year was Enfield (64,140), followed by Haringey (48,082) and Barking & Dagenham (42,356).
32) If you ever wanted to know precisely where all the 272 Labyrinth artworks are, here's a list.
33) When a suspicious muppet asked "I wish to fact check a series of articles published on the IanVisits website. I have tried looking all over your website and could not find the information. As the author of these articles does not provide sources or links to supporting documents, I believe this is potential fake news until verified", TfL responded by linking to the four supporting documents and confirming in each case that Ian was correct.

Moon News 3rd April

2026-04-03T01:00:00.006+01:00

Number of people who've travelled more than 1000 miles from planet Earth

time immemorial-1967: 0

1968: 3
1969: 9
1970: 3 (1 for the second time)
1971: 6
1972: 6 (2 for the second time)

1973-2025: 0

2026: 4

Total: 28 (27 men, 1 woman)

Unblogged March

2026-04-02T07:00:00.475+01:00

31 unblogged things I did in March

Sun 1: I have bought an air fryer. I am still getting used to how long it takes too cook things, trying to find the balance between undercooking the chicken breast and shrivelling the oven chips to a crisp.
Mon 2: Vegetable of the day.

Tue 3: Scaffolding has gone up outside Bromley-by-Bow station, suggesting TfL are finally getting round to repairing the glass roundel smashed over two years ago. [n.b. as of 2nd April, no further action]
Wed 4: Took BestMate on the Brockley Three Peaks walk and unexpectedly hit the emotional jackpot ("ooh this is where I was christened..." "they never had artisan cheese shops here in my day..." "hang on, this is where my grandparents are buried...")
Thu 5: The reason why the quiz Counterpoint no longer has a studio audience was explained on Radio 4's Feedback. It's because "Counterpoint is recorded with all the contestants in the studio for production flexibility." It is now, anyway.
Fri 6: There's a new tube station guessing game in town - Mind The Map. It names a station and you have to click in the right place on a geographical map, up to 272 times. It took ages but I managed to get to the top of the leader board before six other people overtook, generally thwarted by how long it takes to scroll the map, not my tube knowledge.
Sat 7: I was very nearly thrown down the stairs on the number 32 bus because the driver braked unexpectedly, and thankfully I was holding on tightly enough but that could have been life-wrecking.

Sun 8: This month's dubious car numberplate is OH 61RTH (on a Mercedes in Seven Kings). This month's impressive numberplate is THE 60S (on a Mini in Hyde Park).
Mon 9: I wasn't expecting my air fryer would keep setting off the smoke alarm (for no readily obvious reason).
Tue 10: My Christmas-gift hyacinth is now shrivelling and I'm wondering, can I keep the bulb for next year, could I plant it in a pot outdoors or was it a one-off and I should just bin it?
Wed 11: I received my TfL renewal email saying "You've now had your 60+ London Oyster photocard for a year". It confirmed that to continue using it I had to provide proof of a London address and pay a £18 address check fee. I tried, but the website refused to let me pay claiming the address on my payment card didn't match the address on my TfL account. I tried over 10 times, and the helpful bloke on the helpline tried two more, but no luck. In the end I had to wait 10 days for a letter to arrive and take it to the Post Office.
Thu 12: I counted how many times Angela Scanlon looked down at her iPad during tonight's post-Apprentice recording of Unfinished Business and it was 51. This is one reason why visualised podcasts make dreadful TV. (Another is limp forced bonhomie, and maybe just kill the show off)

Fri 13: It feels like bad form to decorate the new electric charging station on Edgware Road with giant petrol pumps.
Sat 14: I'm not usually a fan of What 3 Words, but I do like that Pine Walk Allotments in Bromley display their location on the gates as ///bought.dream.fork.
Sun 15: In Bethnal Green a tall white truck attempted to drive under a railway viaduct, perhaps not realising that 11'6" only applied to the centre of the arch. I watched as fine particles showered from the brickwork, then more open-mouthed as the driver ignored the noise, ploughed on and ended up getting lodged under the bridge. There are so many scrape-lines in the ceiling that I guess this is a fairly regular occurrence.
Mon 16: On the R8 to Biggin Hill, along some ridiculously narrow lanes, oncoming traffic is generally expected to manoeuvre out of the way of the bus. But our driver was almost scuppered by meeting the Bromley dustcart coming the other way. Fortunately we'd just reached the first decent passing place, otherwise a public-service stand-off could have ensued and we might still be stuck there.

Tue 17: The platforms at Berrylands are seriously shonky, skewwhiff and worryingly insubstantial, so I'm not surprised the station will be closing for four months from 11th May for a complete replacement.
Wed 18: Today I blogged about my failed interview 40 years ago, and belated congratulations to the (just) one reader who correctly guessed in the comments who/what it was for. If you'd left an email address I'd have congratulated you directly.
Thu 19: Hello to the woman who walked off a train a Baker Street without looking and hit me in the leg with her fold-up bicycle. Ouch. I may however have exaggerated my limp as I hobbled off.
Fri 20: I enjoyed three hours of Comic Relief, or at least enough of it to make watching worthwhile. But I was amazed its viewing figures were only 2m this year, accelerating a longstanding downward trend (2025 2.6m, 2024 3.7m, 2023 2.9m, 2022 3.5m, 2021 4.5m, 2019 5.8m, 2017 6.3m, 2015 8.4m, 2013 10.3m).
Sat 21: After five years with my 'new' electric cooker I switched from using the front right hob to the back left hob. I presumed they were identical but blimey back left heats up so much quicker, and if I'd experimented previously I could have had years of quicker dinners.

Sun 22: I went for a farewell walk along Footpath 47 at Barking Riverside, all along the waterfront as far as the section they haven't strimmed to death yet. It'll never be quite so undeveloped again.
Mon 23 Supermarket update: The latest price shock is for a 500g pack of own-brand sultanas. Six months ago £1.05, start of the year £1.15, last week £1.29, this week £1.49.
Tue 24: In the latest edition of Westcombe News, available in the SE3 area and online, I learned that the bee-specific count in Vanbrugh Pits is exceptionally high and that Sam Mendes has been filming for his quartet of Beatles movies outside 82 Beaconsfield Road. A cracking local focus.
Wed 25: Back in January we mused on what might be the oldest year of establishment on the front of a London Tesco. I proposed it might be 'Bishopsgate Est 1988', today I spotted Whitton Est 1965', but the winner still appears to be 'Victoria Est 1960'.

Thu 26: Every year there's a 'leaf week' when trees collectively switch from bare branches to small green leaves and in 2026 I reckon this week is that week. It's definitely normally in April.
Fri 27: London's longest business name may be Supermegahyperdupermarketmetroexpress, a tiny creative bazaar in a container outside North Acton station. Apparently it's only open on Fridays, but it wasn't.
Sat 28: The latest daily word game I'm playing is Cadgy, where you try to make 20 words by picking one letter from each of five columns (and 40 words on Fridays).
Sun 29: The guest on Lev Parikian's Six Things podcast this month is Matt Brown from Londonist. His six things he really enjoys include Tube Station Smells, Parakeets, Wetherspoons Carpets, Wazzbaffles and... oooh, thanks Matt!
Mon 30: If you use the Journey Planner at nationalrail.co.uk, it now opens your search in a new window and displays a list of local hotels, even if you're only going one stop from Hendon to Cricklewood. To avoid this abhorrent commercial hijack you have to untick the booking.com box before searching, and so much for a nationalised railway.
Tue 31: Since 1st January I've ridden on 50% of London bus routes and been to 80% of tube stations, so I'm taking it slowly this year.
Wed 1: No of course TfL aren't publishing new bus maps, the very idea of it. Check the date.

New London bus maps

2026-04-01T07:00:00.382+01:00

Unbelievably it's been 10 years since TfL last bothered to print a set of London bus maps. Ten whole years.

They used to be updated regularly, then came a 14 month hiatus from January 2015 to March 2016 and then they just stopped. No good reason was ever given, although saving money probably had a lot to do with it.

It's since become harder and harder to work out where buses go, at least for those of us who like to plan our own journeys rather than slavishly following an app. I still use the 2016 quadrant maps when travelling around London, they're often invaluable, although the Central London bus map is now impractically inaccurate because so many subsequent changes have occurred.

So it's a joy to report that a new set of London bus maps has finally been published, a proper geographic suite, almost as if TfL have finally seen the error of their ways. I couldn't wait to grab some paper copies.

Physical and digital copies will be provided. Look out for them in bus stations and larger tube stations, while the full set will be available at Visitor Centres, the London Transport Museum and City Hall.

This time there are nine maps rather than five, that's one for each of the eight compass points plus one in the centre. A West End and City summary will appear on the reverse of each map.

The North East map, for example, covers buses from Chingford to Upminster and from Loughton to the Royal Docks. Heathrow appears on two maps but Crystal Palace, annoyingly, is split across three.

It's hoped that having nine maps rather than four means they'll be more useful for planning local journeys. It also allows areas to be shown at greater scale. However the fold-out maps are smaller in size than the previous incarnation, and also printed on thinner paper so may not survive several outings in your jacket pocket.

The front cover designs return to the theme of local attractions. The Central map has a fairly standard Westminster view, bus included, while North East heads to the Olympic Park and North West features Wembley Stadium. South London offers a quirkier pair of dinosaurs, North plumps for parakeets in Highgate Woods... and as for South West, well, we'll get to that.

The real surprise is what they think counts as a bus map these days. It's definitely not what we've been used to.

Don't expect to see a simple road map, it's now a lot more colourful. Don't expect to see a lot of place names, it's now all about interchange with stations. Don't expect the previous confusion with very small numbers, instead a different kind of confusion with big numbers. It's going to take some getting used to.

Previously route numbers were shown alongside the roads and you had to follow them across the map. Now the routes are shown as coloured lines and only numbered at the ends. Arguably it's much easier now to see where the buses go, but patently it's also harder to see what they are.

TfL have very much been following this philosophy of late, for example when producing maps for consultations. I've long thought this unhelpful, especially where several routes follow the same road, but here's that fundamental shift writ large. I mean, just look at the size of the key.

Colourblind passengers may find this particularly hard to get their heads around, if indeed they can use the new maps at all.

Also the edges of the maps now feel less helpful. Whereas previously the routes would go right up to the edge they now end with arrows, some distance away, and this may make gaining an overview harder than before. There also seems to have been somewhat of a cop out in the Purley area, sacrificing the southernmost tip of London to ensure greater clarity.

At least they've gone for dotted lines to make the Superloop stand out.

I am greatly reassured that TfL have finally seen sense and reintroduced London-wide bus maps with up-to-date information. Perhaps the absence of maps meant they no longer knew where their own buses went, making network management increasingly difficult! A fresh suite of public-facing maps thus helps them as well as us. It should also be simple to update the digital maps with revised information every time a bus route changes.

But we need to talk about the South West London map because that is an abomination, and I hope it doesn't set the tone for what's to come.

Uniquely amongst the suite of nine, the South West London map has been produced 'in conjunction with Gail's'. Not only does the bakery chain get a namecheck on the cover alongside a striking photograph of their Brentford store, but the Gail's logo also appears on the map itself. And this being southwest London there are a considerable number of them - I counted nineteen - all given undue prominence simply because the company paid to shoehorn their brand onto the map.

I'm reassured that so far only one map has been commercially sullied in this way. Maybe TfL's commercial team failed to find any relevant businesses for the other sections or maybe they're all in the pipeline, so god help us if Wetherspoons takes South East London or Greggs goes Central.

Whatever, it is a joy to finally have accurate and up-to-date bus maps again, ten years after some budget-focused bigwig decreed we could all do without and should trust an app instead. The full suite of nine should be going live at tfl.gov.uk/maps/bus later this morning, and do look out for physical copies of the maps as you travel around London.

As a special launch offer all bus drivers have been provided with copies of their local map today and will be able to dispense one if you ask, so be sure to request one as you board.

These maps are sure to make travelling around our capital easier, even if they take some getting used to. And they finally right a wrong created ten years ago when some high-minded official decided we no longer needed to know where any of London's buses go, indeed we've all been in the dark ever since.

G is for Grove Park

2026-03-31T07:00:00.339+01:00

LONDON A-Z
G is for Grove Park

For my next alphabetical visit to unsung suburbs we're off to Grove Park, not the well-known one in Lewisham but the less well-known one in Chiswick. Indeed if you head to Chiswick station, that's precisely where Grove Park is.

Modern Chiswick covers the inside of a double bend in the Thames between Brentford and Hammersmith. It once comprised a scattering of villages and a lot of fields and orchards, nobody being particularly keen to live on land that regularly flooded. But a couple of large houses broke the mould, most notably Palladian wonder Chiswick House but also Grove House, a Georgian mansion further to the southwest. It had extensive river-facing gardens once described as some of the finest in England, and its owners included Earl of Grantham and the Duke of Devonshire. Then came the railways, specifically the Hounslow loop which cut across the Thames from Barnes in 1849, adding a very lonely-looking station initially called Chiswick and Grove Park. This triggered the building of a hotel and some well-to-do housing, but not too much, thus most of the land to the south remains as playing fields of one kind or another. And it's still a really nice place to live.

It's hard to define Grove Park's boundaries so let's start at the station and wander around a bit. The southern side boasts an elegant shopping parade, brief enough to be imposing, and whose parking spaces were recently half-filled to create a nicer place to sit. Perhaps grab a frothy coffee from Café Grove, or else some paracetamol from Busby's, a pharmacy which flags its independence with a stripy awning. Across the road is the Old Station House, Grove Park's original hotel, whose upstairs rooms have just been transformed into luxury apartments and whose downstairs may or may not reopen as a pub. If your cat's sick or you want the Co-op, try the even shorter parade opposite the London-bound platform.

The first housebuilders had little imagination when it came to street names, hence we have Grove Park Gardens, Grove Park Road and Grove Park Terrace. Other streets got named after the Duke of Devonshire, his wife, his son's title and a Yorkshire abbey they collectively owned. Grove Park Road still boasts several chunky Victorian villas, gracefully spaced, but its most characterful house is probably the vicarage at number 64. This is where the poet Dylan Thomas lived from 1938 to 1941, roughly coincident with the publication of his Portrait of the Artist as a Young Dog, at least according to those who compiled the Chiswick Writers Trail. John Thaw and Sheila Hancock used to live at number 70 before they skedaddled to Wiltshire.

St Paul's Church was built from Kentish ragstone, has a pleasing symmetry and is topped by a teensy steeple and a fake belfry. The Duke funded it so that his new estate could become a parish in its own right, with other benefactors including Baroness Rothschild and the future Edward VII. I'm not sure if it's usually unlocked or whether I squeaked in while the weekly Coffee Club was clearing up, but I can confirm they have a wide range of jigsaws for sale by the rear pew at £5 a time. As for the super-streamlined Art Deco block opposite that's Hartington Court and it replaced the only other mansion to precede the railway. The even older Grove House was dismantled in 1928, some say to be shipped to America, and in its place are the dazzling white semis on Kinnaird Avenue.

It's quite hard to see the Thames in Grove Park because the waterfront was subject to a landgrab by the first wealthy homeowners. Walk far enough north and you reach the enchanting tidal riverside at Strand-on-the-Green, but that's one of Chiswick's original component villages so out of scope for a Grove Park post. I did however discover a permissive path alongside Redcliffe Gardens, a former missionary training college, which residents permit the public to walk down between 7am and dusk. At the far end eight steps lead down to a rock-strewn tidal strand, pleasingly exposed on my visit, but alas further access was along an absolute mudbath of a footpath so I decided to back off. That's private footpaths for you.

Grove Park Terrace is split by a rarity in residential London, a full-on level crossing. It's a fairly essential traffic connection hereabouts so uncloseable, and with Victorian houses on all sides entirely unbypassable too. But there is just room for a footbridge, which is just as well because Network Rail lower the barriers long before any train appears, indeed I watched three cyclists get so bored waiting that they headed off elsewhere. Closer to the station enough space was found for a proper viaduct, again funded by the benevolent Duke of Devonshire, which is just as well because without Grove Park Bridge TfL would never be able to send a bus here.

These days the Grove Park name also spreads north of the railway, and this is where the suburb's swishest row of shops can be found. Nominal proof comes courtesy of the Grove Park Deli, purveyors of Norbiton Fine Cheese, picnic quiches and balsamic olives. I can imagine Time Out running a gushing feature back in the day, also focusing on Nuka's Thai, Halo salon and the snug ambience of The Copper Cow. Checking the newspaper rack outside Budgens, they've reassuringly placed broadsheets on the top row, tabloids on the second and the Times Literary Supplement at the bottom. But this is probably as far as Grove Park goes because the church a tad closer to the A4 is St Michael Sutton Court, Little Sutton being another of the constituent villages from which Chiswick coalesced.

For leisure purposes, residents of Grove Park are fortunate to have the grounds of Chiswick House on their doorstep, with the Western Wilderness accessed up an alleyway from Staveley Road. But this street also has its place in history as the site of the first V2 bomb to land in London. The supersonic missile debuted without warning on the evening of Friday 8th September 1944, destroying eleven houses and leaving a crater 30 feet wide and 8 feet deep. Three people died; a toddler asleep in a cot in her front bedroom, her 68 year-old neighbour who ran three local sweet shops and an army engineer walking to the station to see his girlfriend. 60 years later a granite memorial was placed at the site, or rather squeezed into a gap beside an electricity sub-station because the actual landing spot was in the middle of the road, but it's none the less respectful for that.

Heading south Grove Park ends abruptly on the edge of Quintin Hogg Memorial Sports Ground, originally the playing fields for the Central London Polytechnic. Full marks to them for never replacing the original sign. Closer to the river Grove House's former ornamental lake has been repurposed as Chiswick Quay Marina, the nucleus of an exclusive nautical enclave. And if you continue to the far end of Hartington Road be sure to look out for the green gates by the traffic lights on the approach to Chiswick Bridge. The metal panels feature a hugely distracting plug for Dukes Meadows (Pay & Play - Golf, Tennis & Ski) and also a much smaller sign saying 'Ibis Cottage', this being the name of the incredibly famous property concealed down the drive. For this is the location of the Taskmaster House, Alex Horne's comedian-testing hideaway, which you have far more chance of seeing on Channel 4 than through the gates in real life.

I did however find a gap marginally wide enough to peek through and was thrilled to see that something challenging was underway. Two balloons were resting on pedestals in the driveway, one blue and one yellow, but the slit was really narrow so heaven knows what they were for. I did spot a couple of people wandering about, by the looks of them technicians rather than comedians, so most likely setting something up rather than filming. But look out for these coloured balloons when series 22 screens in the autumn, whatever task they were mastering, because the tip of Grove Park is much better known than you thought.