London Buses route 1

London Buses route 1 is a Transport for London contracted bus route in London, England. The service is currently contracted to East Thames Buses.

History
Route 1 once ran from Willesden to Lewisham, and more recently provided part of the service between Lewisham and Bromley. However it has since retracted at both ends, largely without direct replacement. At one point, the terminus was the now-closed County Terrace Tavern pub on the New Kent Road, until an accident in which a bus fell into the collapsed cellar of the pub. The new night equivalent, N1, goes off in a completely different direction, to Thamesmead.

Although essentially now a south London route, it was won late in 1998 by First Capital, a company from North East London, which operated it from a base in distant Dagenham. The route was later re-allocted a bit nearer home at Hackney.

Changes connected with the Jubilee Line Extension in 1999 saw the 199 withdrawn between Surrey Quays and Elephant & Castle. Once again the 1 became the only route serving South Bermondsey on an East-West axis, the theory being that passengers would transfer to the Jubilee Line. They did not, and severe overcrowding resulted at peak times on this section. Extra buses had to be introduced; these were provided by a variety of operators, but notably Blue Triangle. They were eventually absorbed into the main schedule by First Capital itself.

Meanwhile, London Buses owned East Thames Buses found itself needing to re-locate from Ash Grove to make way for the new bendy buses on the 38, and a suitable base was found in Southwark. However, most of the Ash Grove routes were well away from Southwark, so it made sense for a swaparound of routes to occur, and ETB’s routes north of the Thames (128 and 150) were put out to tender while they assumed the 1/N1.

Route departing Canada Water

 * Canada Water Station
 * Surrey Quays Road
 * Lower Road
 * Surrey Quays Shopping Centre
 * Redriff Road
 * Surrey Quays Station
 * Lower Road
 * Bestwood Street
 * Bush Road
 * Rotherhithe New Road
 * Galleywall Road
 * Southwark Park Road
 * Bermondsey
 * Grange Road
 * Tower Bridge Road
 * Bricklayers Arms roundabout
 * New Kent Road
 * Elephant & Castle station
 * London Road
 * St George's Circus
 * Waterloo Road
 * Waterloo Station
 * Tenison Way
 * Waterloo Road
 * Waterloo Bridge
 * Lancaster Place
 * Aldwych
 * Kingsway
 * Holborn Station
 * High Holborn
 * St Giles High Street
 * Tottenham Court Road Station

Route departing Tottenham Court Road

 * Tottenham Court Road Station
 * New Oxford Street
 * Bloomsbury Way
 * Vernon Place
 * Southampton Row
 * Holborn Station
 * Kingsway
 * Aldwych
 * Strand
 * Lancaster Place
 * Waterloo Bridge
 * Waterloo Road
 * Waterloo Station
 * Waterloo Road
 * St George's Circus
 * London Road
 * Elephant & Castle station
 * New Kent Road
 * Bricklayers Arms Roundabout
 * Tower Bridge Road
 * Grange Road
 * Bermondsey
 * Southwark Park Road
 * Galleywall Road
 * Rotherhithe New Road
 * Rotherhithe Old Road
 * Surrey Quays Station
 * Lower Road
 * Surrey Quays Road
 * Canada Water Station