Top 5

Snipe Top 5: London bus routes for sightseeing on the cheap

Mike Pollitt | Tuesday 19 October, 2010 10:10

It’s fun acting a tourist in your own city for the day, especially if that city happens to be London. But do you know how much it costs to get a sightseeing bus in this day and age? £20 at least, and that won’t leave you much change to buy any tacky souvenirs. Help, however, is at hand. Here are five regular bus routes which will give you a great day out for the cost of an updated Oyster card. Just avoid rush hour.

Number 11: Fulham Broadway -> Liverpool St
Love this bus. It starts (or ends, of course, if you’re that way inclined) in plushy Fulham, louches down the King’s Rd and preens through Sloane Square. Then it gets serious, marches through Westminster, past Big Ben and within curtseying distance of Buckingham Palace. Then Whitehall, the Strand, Fleet St, the Bank of England…it’s got it all, and more: it finishes up right next to the Shoreditch bars. Truly, this is the king of bus routes.

Number 100: Elephant & Castle -> Wapping
Research indicates (and there’s only so long Snipe is willing to spend on bus-spotters websites) that this may be an exclusively single decker route. Now, obviously for optimum sightseeing you would want to nab the seats upstairs at the front of a double decker, so you could put your feet up and pretend to drive. However, this route is still pretty cool. Get your hit of brutal urban planning in E&C, hit Blackfriars Bridge where you can check out the South Bank and Tate Modern, then slalom by St Pauls and down to the Tower of London before heading on a loop of underrated Wapping. Finish at this pub.

Number 53: Plumstead -> Westminster
Great parks to start down by Woolwich and Blackheath, and the option of stopping off for all the varied Greenwich treats. Then get a taste of what’s really going on in London at the moment in New Cross and up the Old Kent Rd. Push through Lambeth and across Westminster Bridge to finish in the more salubrious surroundings of Horse Guards Parade. Might not be the prettiest route, this one, but you’ll see many sides of the modern city.

Number 13: Golders Green -> Aldwych
Goes close enough by Hampstead Heath to justify a stop if it’s a pleasant day. If not, enjoy a plush entrance to central London through St John’s Wood and Lord’s cricket ground. After that it’s London sightseeing 101 as Baker St, Oxford St, Regent’s St and Picadilly Circus are gobbled up in quick succession. Well, depending on the traffic obviously. This is very much your basic sightseeing and shopping tour bus. Few frills, but it gets the job done.

Number 29: Wood Green -> Trafalgar Sq
Passing the Emirates is always cool, then head on into Camden where you can gawp at the freaks/marvel at the self-expression on show, and maybe hop off for a quick pint. Then on to Euston and the student areas, where you may choose to avail yourself of a swift drink. From there skirt along by Soho (where you could…etc) and Covent Garden (ditto). Finish in Trafalgar Square, and celebrate a hard day’s tourism in the customary fashion.

Commiserations to the 388, which would have made this list had it not made Snipe late for work loads of times last year. Now we’re even.

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