London Buses route 47

London Buses route 47 is a Transport for London contracted bus route in London, United Kingdom. The service is currently contracted to Selkent.

History
The 47 is a very old route and has been linking Catford with the city since before the First World War. However, it used to push on beyond Catford to Bromley and Farnborough via what is now the 208 and 358, and taking around 90 minutes. The frequency from Shoreditch to Bromley was every 6 minutes, exactly matching the 208, but bettering the current 10 minute service on the 47. Alternate buses continued to Farnborough and for many years before and immediately after the Second World War buses continued at summer weekends on Knockholt Pound. These provided a cheap way for those living in the poorer areas of inner London to reach the country side.

The extension of the route to Farnborough arose as a direct result of the movement of patients from Guy's Hospital to Farnborough Hospital after the commencement of World War Two. The 47 bus was seen as an essential and convenient way of enabling patients, relatives and staff to travel between the two sites.

There have been a few minor changes in between. Apart from the introduction of one-way systems at Shoreditch and Catford — and the subsequent introduction of a contraflow bus lane at Catford and abandonment of the Shoreditch one — there has been a diversion in the Surrey Quays area, first to serve the new shopping centre, and later to serve a new station at Canada Water nearby when the Jubilee Line opened. But the most significant one is the diversion of buses away from Deptford High Street to Deptford Church Street. The latter is now the main route through Deptford, having been upgraded to dual carriageway, but the former is where all the shops are. It is also where the market is, which is where the problem lay.

As mentioned, the route used to originate from Farnborough. Introduction of route 199 in 1958 saw the 47 cut back to Bromley garage on Mondays to Saturdays, but the status quo was restored in 1964. The 4 September 1982 scheme saw trunk routes in the Bromley area revised, with route 94 withdrawn in favour of new routes 208 and 261. The latter also replaced the 47 between Bromley Common and Farnborough (and the 229 between Farnborough and Orpington).

The 47 was further curtailed to the rather silly terminus of Downham in 27 April 1985, which was a device to allow the southern part of the route, now numbered 47A and running from Bromley Common to Surrey Docks (now known as Surrey Quays), to lose its conductors, having already lost its Routemasters the previous year. The 47A interestingly had a Sunday extension to Aldgate via Tower Bridge, to serve market traffic. However, the 47A lasted just five months on Mondays to Saturdays, being replaced by a re-incarnated 199, which ran via Greenwich and continued to Trafalgar Square via route 1. The rather useless section of the 47 between Downham and Catford garage was withdrawn without replacement in November 1988.

Route departing Catford

 * Catford Bus Garage
 * Bromley Road
 * Catford
 * Rushey Green
 * Lewisham High Street
 * Lewis Grove
 * Lee Bridge
 * Lewisham High Street
 * Loampit Vale (for Lewisham station)
 * Jerrard Street
 * Thurston Road
 * Brookmill Road
 * Deptford Church Street
 * Creek Road
 * Evelyn Street
 * Bestwood Street
 * Bush Road
 * Rotherhithe New Road
 * Rotherhithe Old Road
 * Surrey Quays Station
 * Lower Road
 * Surrey Quays Shopping Centre
 * Redriff Road
 * Surrey Quays Road
 * Canada Water Station Bus Station
 * Surrey Quays Road
 * Lower Road
 * Rotherhithe
 * Jamaica Road
 * Bermondsey Station
 * Jamaica Road
 * Tooley Street
 * Duke Street Hill
 * London Bridge station
 * Borough High Street
 * London Bridge
 * King William Street
 * Monument Station
 * Gracechurch Street
 * Bishopsgate
 * Liverpool Street station
 * Norton Folgate
 * Shoreditch High Street
 * Great Eastern Street
 * Holywell Lane
 * Curtain Road
 * Old Street
 * Shoreditch High Street

Route departing Shoreditch

 * Shoreditch High Street
 * Norton Folgate
 * Liverpool Street station
 * Bishopsgate
 * Gracechurch Street
 * Monument Station
 * King William Street
 * Borough High Street
 * London Bridge station
 * Duke Street Hill
 * Tooley Street
 * Jamaica Road
 * Bermondsey Station
 * Jamaica Road
 * Rotherhithe
 * Lower Road
 * Surrey Quays Road
 * Canada Water Station Bus Station
 * Surrey Quays Road
 * Redriff Road
 * Surrey Quays Station
 * Lower Road
 * Evelyn Street
 * Creek Road
 * Deptford Church Street
 * Brookmill Road
 * Thurston Road
 * Loampit Vale (for Lewisham station)
 * Lewisham High Street
 * Lee Bridge
 * Lewis Grove
 * Lewisham High Street
 * Rushey Green
 * Catford
 * Bromley Road
 * Catford Bus Garage