Completion January 25th (?)
The origin of "cock-a-hoop" is obscure and much debated. The best of a bad lot of explanations sees the 'cock' as a tap in a beer barrel, often called a 'spigot'. (Think 'stop cock'?). Turning on the barrel tap would lead to much happiness, whooping in delight.
Fascinating but irrelevant!
Sunday January 25th 2026 marked the arrival of the missing link in London Buses' original 'outer circle' Superloop bus route.
Although the diagram shows the link from Thamesmead to North Woolwich as a quick hop across the river, this was far from the truth. Thamesmead is about three miles east of (south) Woolwich.
There is a free ferry or a free foot tunnel beotwieen the two Woolwichs!
Here is the link diagrammatically.
The route showing in blue (above) was ordinary non-super route 472 from Abbey Wood station (Elizabeth Line line and SouthEastern proper railway) ...
... via Woolwich to North Greenwich.
Here's is the route shown geographically.
In this case the Superloop routes are blue and purple with the 472 in an unappealing khaki.
The 472 has now been completely replaced by the SL11.
And it is a direct replacement; the 472 has vanished completely. This means that a busy all-stops service has been replaced by a limited stop 'express' service.
fbb is keen to explore the implications.
For most other outer circle Suoerloop routes, the new limited stop service sits along side an existing route or routes leaving an all-stops normality with a slightly reduced service.
But before he explores, a bit of history.
Thamesmead was developed as a vast 'concrete jungle' estate from the 1970s.
It lies between the A2016 and a rather murky River Thames.
To its east sits the delightfull Cross Ness sewage works ...
Again, the housing north of the big red road is usually referred to as Thamesmead West.
Historically, Thamesmead was renowned for poor public transport links and a parlous lack of community facilities.
A proposal to run the River Line (later Fleet Line, eventually Jubilee Line) of the Underground to Thamesmead never materialised.
.. but in the end, and 50 years late a Docklands Light Railway route is being pursued ...
The history of bus services is not particularly endearing, but fbb will touch briefly on the antecedents of the 472.
The ultimate source of such information is the superb London Bus Routes web site by Ian Armstrong. It is to Ian that you must go for a far more detailed history of Thamesmead buses than fbb's weary brain cells can absorb!
First up was route 272 ...
... which arrived to the growing development via Abbey Wood station in 1974.
It was not frequent ...
... especially on Sundays! But it did improve ...
... serving more of the development.
In the days before London Buses insisted on red with red additions, Thamesmead folk had a succession of multi coloured liveries to enjoy.
Bexleybus handed over to Boroline (Maidstone Corporation Transport) ...
... which, in turn, begat Kentish Bus.
Then it was back to London Buses roundabout the Orpington area;
In 1994 Kentish Bus added to its Thamesmead Portfolio an X73 ...
F102 TML passed to Arriva, appearing first in a rather splendid Kentish Bus green and gold ...
So it was that in January 1999, a rerouted and extended 272 was replaced by a 472 and a 244.
We turn our attention to the 472 in tomorrow's blog,
Next SL11 blog : Thursday 5th Feb
