The Red Buses of London - Route 1

For a long time I have been meaning to write about my obsession with the London Bus Routes.
I have been living in this city for five years and I am simply fascinated with its whole transport system.
It's a huge city and transportation is something that works fantastically (a lot of things work, or else this wouldn't be London), but the tubes, buses, taxis etc. are just something else.

From the start me and G. have disagreed when it comes to transportation - he prefers the tube, he thinks it's faster and easier. I tend to go for buses - I like riding on the upper deck and sitting in the first row (just like a kid); I like watching life go by; I know it takes longer, but the going up and down the stairs to get to the tubes is pretty annoying sometimes and I simply prefer the praticality of the bus.

Another thing that fascinates me are the bus routes. There are approximately just over 800 bus routes in London (and that is excluding night buses!!). I have this weird game I play to myself, which is trying to know by heart as many routes as possible - I've gotten very good at it actually.

So, I have decided, that I will list as many routes as I possibly can here in the blog, just for my personal memories of London. I will also let you know if I have ever ridden the route back to back, some tips along the way etc.

I'll start at the very beginning - a very good place to start:

Route 1 - Tottenham Court Road Station / Canada Water

This is actually a route that I have ridden sometimes nearly back to back. When I studied at Goldsmiths I would take it on some occasions. It starts in busy Tottenham Court Road Station and moves South going through Holborn and Aldwych, goes through Waterloo Station, the ugly Elephant & Castle area and then goes into Grange Road. Back in 2010 I would stop there to visit a really interesting and cutting edge contemporary art project space that was called the Woodmill, it was an office building that was kind of abandoned by the council and was given to be run by a group of curators.There were dozens of artists that had studios there and some even lived in the building. They had a fantastic exhibition space and programme and I think it went on for just over a year. Nowadays there is another really nice art space just off Crimscott Street (off Grange Road) called the Drawing Room (http://www.drawingroom.org.uk/) - definitely worth a visit. The bus also goes past Sothwark High Road and ends up in the more modern built area of Surrey Quays Shopping Center and finally Canada Waters - that I have been many times when I need to go to Decathlon (a frequent family trip place - oh the pleasures of being married to a jungle boy).

I guess this is it for today - hopefully I will manage to keep this updated.