The Route Numbers 456,7,8 and 9 - Not

As we move through the 400s, the non-existent routes are increasing in number.  Thanks to the much used Eplates website from which I am shamelessly quoting, I can tell you all about the buses which used to have these numbers, all London Country Area buses.

The 456 was a South Eastern sort of bus operating Mondays to Saturdays:  it plied its trade between Woking Station and Addlestone Garage via Maybury, Pyrford, West Byfleet, Woodham and New Haw, and occasionally extended to the Ship pub in Weybridge.  The Ship Inn is still in Weybridge, but is a Best Western Hotel now. This route died but the number was reused in 1978 for a Sunday-only service  between Sevenoaks and Dartford (Darenth Park Hospital) via Otford, Shoreham Station, Eynsford, Farningham, Sutton-at-Home, Hawley, Wilmington, Dartford Station and Joyce Green Hospital. It was little used, despite serving two hospitals, and was withdrawn after a short while when operating subsidies ran out.

Route 457 dates from 1934, when the 507 changed its name, as it ran from Uxbridge to Windsor (Bus Station) via Iver Heath, George Green and Slough. For a while the route was extended to Staines via Pooley Green, but this extension was withdrawn in 1936. In February 1937 journeys from Uxbridge to Pinewood Studios were introduced, this service being renumbered 457C in August of that year. It stopped being the 457 in 1980 as part of the Chilternlink and Thamesline route reorganization by London Country.

The 458 and 459 were also Uxbridge area buses.  The 458 ran between Uxbridge and Windsor, and sometimes as far as Staines.

In the 1960s route 459 ran on Mondays to Saturdays from Uxbridge Station to Richings Park Estate via Iver Heath and Iver. The route was withdrawn in the mid-seventies. In the late ’70s a completely different 459 ran between Feltham and Chertsey Station via Sunbury Cross and Shepperton.

To change the subject:  apparently there are more than 240 museums in London, according to a rather good list we found.  Now there's a challenge.  This number includes many of the nation's great museums, and we have been past many of them on our bus journeys.  The 7 takes you past the British Museum and the 74, among others, passes the V&A.

 We have also often been past the V & A's Bethnal Green Branch, the Museum of Childhood, and as recently as the 453, we were within touching distance of the Imperial War Museum's Lambeth Road branch.   Sadly no bus passes either of the IWM's other two London branches, Churchill's War Rooms under the Treasury and HMS Belfast moored near City Hall.  And we have only been past one of the two London branches of the Tate, since 'Mod' is also riverside and bus free.  But the 87 goes past the front of 'Brit' and both the 88 and the C10 drop you at the back.

240, eh?  that should keep us busy when we finish all the buses.  And as Linda points out, we shall only need to change one letter to become 'Ladies who Mus'.

As Mary's and my grandmother used to say, 'if we're spared'.....