London Night Bus Routes: N1 - N551

The Overnighters: Routes N1 - N551

It was never intended in the original challenge to ride all London bus routes to include the night routes, but after I finished, I decided to take on this challenge. Well, not right away. A few months after I finished, my love for the town of Erith grew after starting another challenge I'll write about soon, so the idea came about to explore it at night time. For this, I gave N89 a go, which starts at Trafalgar Square, like so many other night routes, and actually is the longest night route. Usually, a night route follows it's daytime counterpart, and then carries on further as part of a different daytime route, like the N29's route of its daytime service between Trafalgar Square and Wood Green, and then the 329 to Enfield. This route is also the most frequent and the busiest night route. N89 does this between Lewisham and Slade Green, but strangely has an extension on either side, following the 99 around to Erith. It was a unique experience to explore Erith at night that a couple of weeks later, I thought I'd give N1 a go from Tottenham Court Road to Thamesmead, another place besides the Thames I enjoy, where uniquely, it actually runs all the way around the town and instead of terminating at the leisure centre, it stops at the bottom of the estate. This was actually the only night routes I did for months because it was still not confirmed that I wanted to do all of them. It was about 8 months later in summer that I actually redid the N89 because I wanted to see the sunrise from Erith Pier, and it was genuinely amazing to see and one of the best memories of my life. Whilst waiting for the bus at Trafalgar Square, I saw an N9 to Heathrow Terminal 5, which made me think that would be a cool to do, and I was also in Coulsdon a week later and saw an N68 bus stop where I also thought that would be a cool one to do. It was at this point that I made the decision to do all of them, so I got on to that relatively soon after.

N9 and N68 were actually not the next night routes I did, but it was instead the N205. This is because I was on a day out in Cornwall, getting to explore St Ives and Penzance for the first time, which were great to see, and I got the Night Riviera Sleeper Train back to London Paddington, running overnight on the Great West Main Line. My train got into Paddington with just enough time to make the last N205 of the night, but it arrived a few minutes late, so I had to run and only just made it. This route follows the entirety of 205, which used to be a 24 hour route by itself, and then continues through Stratford, with a unique stop for this route which are rare for night routes, and even terminates at a unique terminus of Leyton, Downsell Road, which 97 used to stop at before the development of Stratford City and the Olympics came along. N9 was great though, as going to the airport at night when there's no flights departing was eerily quiet. This route uniquely serves Heathrow Central Bus Station, but doesn't terminate, and instead returns through the Bath Road Tunnel, and runs up a new way to Terminal 5, where a ride on the Heathrow Pods at 4AM, and walk on to the spooky Staines Moor for sunrise entailed. Just before N9 though, I did N113 from Edgware to Trafalgar Square, which follows it's daytime counterpart all the way to Oxford Circus, where so many other routes run between the two, so I can't help but feel it would be worth just making the 113 24 hours to Oxford Circus. N68 was also spooky after it does a unique loop to serve East Croydon Station and terminates at Old Coulsdon, as I walked up to Farthing Downs, which was empty but there were creepy sounds in the bushes which were probably foxes, for sunrise. These experiences were so amazing, and although it messes up my sleeping schedule, I never actually got tired during the night and I thought I made a good decision doing these routes as it gave me an opportunity to visit places I'm familiar with in a new environment at night or seeing the sun rise from there.

There were some night routes that existed that were exactly the same as their daytime routes that I did. For example, when I did Route 53, it ran between Whitehall, Horse Guards and Plumstead Station, but got cut to start at County Hall instead, and at this point, they introduced Route N53 to run this original route, which technically meant I had to do it again. This did let me watch the sunrise from Woolwich though beside watching the ferry set up for the morning staring out across the Thames, which was really fun. Other routes that fit into this category was Route N266 between Brent Cross and Hammersmith, which was the same as the daytime route when I did it, but because of the all new routes that got introduced as I mentioned before, I had to do it again. It was a little unfortunate that I had to go to Brent Cross, because I thought I wouldn't have to at all, which I was happy about. I did also see an N189 blind, which confused me why that existed as the 189 is a 24 hour route. These same changes caused an N140 to spawn out of the old daytime route, where the driver was very fast and a fox got stuck in the headlights, unfortunately, I don't know if we hit it or not. More routes like this was the N83 between Golders Green and Ealing Hospital, one of the rare examples where a night service doesn't serve Central London, and the N25 between Oxford Circus and Ilford. These routes were never the most interesting because they are just replicas of daytime routes I've done before, but one which was a little interesting was the N44 to Sutton Station, where the driver strangely kicked me off the penultimate stop, which seemed to happen a lot for whatever reason. Afterwards, I got the very first train of the morning to Epsom Downs, where I took a walk over to the racecourse for sunrise. Unfortunately, the sun rises behind the course so the houses hide it, but it was so cool to see it empty at this time of the morning. It was also extremely cold, so I didn't stick around long, and got the train home from Tattenham Corner, which was packed with early morning commuters, who must have found it strange that I was eating Oreos and drinking the rest of my Dr Pepper at 7AM. 

There were some more night routes that were almost similar to their daytime counterparts. I mentioned Hammersmith, and how the bridge was closed, so this caused a couple of 24 hour routes over it to be altered into a night route variant. Therefore, Routes 33 and 72 were the same as their daytime services when I did it, but because of the bridge closure, the night routes got introduced and use Putney Bridge instead. This also causes these two routes, which shouldn't exist, to be the only two routes to use single deckers. Staying in Hammersmith for the most useless night route, the N27 which runs to here at Hammersmith Grove from Chalk Farm. The 27 used to run up to Chiswick Business Park, but got cut back, causing a night route to get introduced, which is really stupid, because the night route terminates at the bus station, whilst the daytime route continues a couple more stops to the high street, so this is the only night route to be shorter than their daytime route. This is a bit ridiculous as it really should just be 24 hours, or at least have the night route still serve the business park. Route 277 also got cut back from Highbury Corner to Dalston Junction, as the corner got worked upon to no longer be a roundabout so buses couldn't terminate there anymore, so when they introduced the night route at the same time, they had to extend it down to Angel Islington. Route 242 also got cut back from Tottenham Court Road to St Paul's, but kept their 24 hour service, until the 67 got cut back from Aldgate to Dalston Junction, so they rerouted the 242 to terminate at Aldgate instead, which formed the N242 to run its original route from Tottenham Court Road. I find this change to be ridiculous too as they cut the 242 to St Paul's originally as people can still transfer to a different route as part of the bus hopper fare, which lets you get as many buses as possible within a hour, but once they changed it again to Aldgate, they made it harder to change to a different bus to Tottenham Court Road. It was still during winter when I was doing some of these night routes, which isn't a great idea, because a lot of night routes run every half hour, so it can be a long wait in the freezing cold, so I took refuge on the ground floor of a grotty apartment in Roehampton for the N74, and I was shivering whilst waiting for sunrise at Crystal Palace after N2, which was one of the best experiences either way.

There was a weird scenario where Route 65, running between Ealing Broadway and Kingston, got a night time extension along Route 71 to Chessington, but wasn't actually a totally separate route. Eventually though, they did split it into an N65, which means I had to do it, but they never recorded an announcement for this new route, so it just said '... To Chessington.' The driver, even though I was clearly visible and waiting for the bus at Ealing, just drove off without letting me on, so I had to wait another half hour. It didn't help that my N11 driver prior didn't know about a diversion, so had to reverse and waste time, causing me to miss an N65, making me a whole hour late, so that was great. Route 250 also had a slight alteration during night time via East Croydon instead of Wellesley Road, and at some point, when 250 got cut back from the Town Centre to West Croydon, they also decided to switch this into a night route, which means I had to do that too. That's another route that doesn't seem like it should be a night route, but when I got to Brixton on the other side, I noticed a bus stop still had an N35 plate, which doesn't exist as a route anymore. Foxes were a very common occurrence on Overnighters, as I call them, as they are nocturnal animals, and more than you think may exist in a city, and after the N98, terminating at Stanmore Station, I saw some in the country park that lies north of here, as well as some rabbits, as I walked through in the dark to the viewpoint across London at the top for sunrise. These were always the rewarding moments of the night, getting to see just how beautiful sunrise is from an obscure area. This also gave me a rare opportunity to see the sidings at Stanmore Station completely filled with tube trains, where the same thing happened with the Morden Depot between waiting for Routes N133 and N155, which must be annoying for people who live nearby, as the drivers still tooted the horns as the trains made movements around the depot.

Another few weird examples of night routes were the ones where the daytime numbers it was named after ran nowhere near where the night counterpart ran. For example, Route 97 runs between Chingford and Stratford City, which bizarrely is a 24 hour route, but the N97 runs between Hammersmith and Trafalgar Square, almost providing a sort of night time Piccadilly Line replacement up to Piccadilly Circus, which also provided a spooky view into the dark closed Natural History Museum. Route N5 is a similar scenario where it's daytime route runs from Canning Town to Romford Market, which N15 covers at night, whilst the night route runs from Trafalgar Square to Edgware, stopping at all the Northern Line Stations on the branch, where it also does a loop of the Grahame Park estate, and noticing that Edgware Bus Station is usually filled with homeless people at night time looking for shelter. Another route which doesn't run near its daytime route is the N20, also providing a Northern Line replacement for the High Barnet branch, as well as stopping at some stops around East Finchley that no other daytime routes stop at, a rare thing for night routes. Meanwhile, Route 20 runs between Walthamstow Central and Debden, a favourite route of mine, and just the day before I did N20, it got an extension from Barnet Church to make a connection to the hospital, running express which is unique for a night route. The other routes I did that night was N16 and N91, which provided an experience of travelling from North to Central to North to Central to North London, all within a few hours, which actually wasn't too bad because it was pretty entertaining. The last route of the night, N91, also provides a Piccadilly Line replacement between Turnpike Lane and Cockfosters, which is needed now that the night tube was ceased due to the pandemic, and as a local, even though I had never been on this bus service before, I think it would be pretty handy if the northern section was a regular daytime route. This did let me explore Trent Park during the early hours of the morning, which was a very nice experience, especially seeing some rabbits running about. It was much nicer doing Overnighters in the summer as it wasn't as cold and sunrises were much earlier.

Alongside sunrises, the other best thing on this challenge was seeing familiar London locations in the middle of the night. As so many routes terminated at Trafalgar Square, a popular chill spot while waiting for the next bus was on top the Nelson's Column, which seems like a lot of other people do the same. Other places like Leicester Square, Oxford Circus and opposite the London Eye also became popular spots, and I even spotted a pub behind Carnaby Street that had old railway paraphernalia in, which looked really cool, as well as the Liberty building. The London Eye looked amazing lit up at night, and there were several instances where it was different colours, from red, to pink, to blue. It was also a pretty good sunrise spot, as well as on top of Hungerford Bridge, looking out towards the City of London. Being out at night though in the city means that you get your fair share of drunk people who try to get friendly with you, and whilst on Hungerford Bridge for sunrise, there was a couple of drunk people who I befriended. My conversation with them lasted two hours, and I don't even remember what we talked about. There was a few drunk people who talked to me on N207 too, and there could also be an opportunity to see a minor fight occur, or someone high on drugs, so it is a very dangerous thing to be out at night, so you definitely have to be careful. One of these such people though did offer to buy me McDonald's but unfortunately it was closed, and then I waited with him for his next bus. Another route which provided me with an amazing sunrise afterwards, and probably one of my favourites, was after the N7 to Northolt Station, which was also a bizarre experience to see so many tube stations closed whilst travelling around at night. Walking down from the terminus, spotting a couple more foxes, to Northala Fields, some amazing hills which provides direct access to the sunrise spot. It seemed I wasn't the only person watching sunrise from the hill, as there was a couple people on the hill next to me. It's definitely one of the better sunrise spots, especially when you can turn 180° and see the moon in the dark sky, as the sun is rising behind me.

Before I talk about the final 2 night routes, here's some quick information about some of the other routes. Route N279 is the only night route to serve outside of London at Waltham Cross, whilst Route N253 reminds me of Route 46 that starts in Central London, goes into North London via Stamford Hill and Manor House to return to Central London to terminate. Route N199 runs between Trafalgar Square to St Mary Cray Station, and has the most bus stops for any route I believe with a total of 114, but isn't as long a distance as N89 or takes as long. Afterwards, I did a 2 mile walk in the dark through the woods to Chislehurst War Memorial for Route 136 which was a spooky experience. Route N8 runs to a unique terminus of Hainault, The Lowe, also stopping at a unique stop, but the 462 used to terminate here, before it got altered to terminate at the Limes Farm Estate. After this, I took a short walk to Chigwell Row, noticing for the first time that you can catch a glimpse of the Dartford Crossing all the way from here. Route N21 also starts at Trafalgar Square, but unfortunately, even though it was a weekend, it was a running a weekday service, so the bus I was intending to catch didn't show up, which was exactly what happened with N199 and N63 at Crystal Palace, which was cool to see empty again after N2. The N21 behind also didn't show up because it apparently got cut short due to a pub fire in Welling, but when I eventually got on one to Bexleyheath Shopping Centre, and then transferred to an N89 to Erith, it was time for my favourite sunrise spot and of course, I had to witness it again. The last two night routes do not have a daytime counterpart at all, the first being N550 between Trafalgar Square and Canning Town, running all the way around the Isle of Dogs and doing a loop of the D3 terminus of Leamouth, which nobody used. To be fair, down by Trinity Buoy Wharf and the East India Docks, opposite the O2 Arena, could be a good sunrise spot, but I think the sun may rise in the wrong direction at that point, so maybe the opposite side of the Thames at North Greenwich instead could be a good one. The last route is N551 from Trafalgar Square to Gallions Reach Shopping Park, which may seem weird to run a night route out to a retail park, but surely it does this to provide a service for people who may work nights at some of the retail shops. I can't help but feel though that this would be a good regular daytime route, maybe not running the whole way as it will be too long with increased traffic during the day, but from Aldgate to the shopping park could be useful. I didn't feel as nervous approaching Gallions Reach as I did on the X68 to West Croydon, but more relieved, and as much as I enjoyed doing all the night routes, I hope that TFL don't introduce any new ones any time soon. I thought to myself after the day time routes that I will never do the night routes, but I mean it this time when I say I will definitely never do the school routes, but any new daytime or night routes, I will do in the future. My favourite night route will always be N89.