Route 27

Route 27
2 August 2006

Although reduced in length from its heyday, the 27 remains a major trunk route across inner west London, and is relatively long by modern standards with an end to end timing approaching 1½ hours. Following a 5 year term with First Centrewest, the route reverted to London United operation from 12 November 2005, and the current vehicles are SLE class Scania double deckers with East Lancs Omnidekka bodywork, such as SLE 63 (YN55 NLP), which was seen at Paddington at 06:59 on 2 June 2006, with what would appear to be an out of date advert on the offside!

Photo © Dave Salter.

Of note in this view are the large tree deflector, and the pods above the front upper deck windows associated with the latest air cooling system. The destination display of “Chalk Farm” proved controversial as the route does not actually make Chalk Farm itself, terminating instead at the Morrisons (formerly Safeway) store, which is halfway between Camden Town and Chalk Farm. The reason for the lack of any qualification is simply that the final name for said store had not been decided at the time the blinds were ordered, although new TfL policy to simplify blind information might well mean that this becomes the normal display anyway.

The 27 has been a notoriously unrelible service in recent years, not helped by the way it skirts along the edge of the congestion charging zone; the Marylebone Road is notorious for jamming solid at the slightest problem, while Hammersmith, Paddington and Camden Town are also all prone to gridlock, although much of the route is now kitted out with bus lanes which helps. But efforts to improve matters by running a lower frequency with the same number of buses seem not to have been too successful, but a fresh effort by the new operator seems to have done the trick; the route is now operated from Stamford Brook garage, which is on the line of route, which should help.

The route will feature prominently in bus service enhancements for phase 2 of the congestion charge zone, with an increase from 6 to 8 buses per hour during the Monday to Saturday daytime. Most of the routes involved will get only very small increases or short extensions, but the 27 is the main exception, having in a way missed out the first time round! There are also proposals to extend the route a short distance to the new Chiswick Park development, on the site of the old LT Chiswick works.

The traditional route of the 27 was from Hounslow to Muswell Hill, via current route 281 as far as Twickenham, thence via Richmond and Kew to the current route at Turnham Green. At Camden Town buses ran to Archway and Muswell Hill. The end to end time was just over two hours – not bad for a route nearly 3 times as long as it is now! A bewildering array of garages provided buses – AV (Hounslow), AB (Twickenham), V (Stamford Brook), R (Hammersmith Riverside), X (Middle Row), CF (Chalk Farm) and J (Holloway).

There was also a route 27A running from Hampton Court (Vrow Walk) to Archway via Bushy Park, Waldegrave Road, Twickenham and the main 27. Indeed after the 33 was extended from Richmond to Hounslow in March 1937 the 27 became Sundays only with the service north of Archway thus lost. The numbers were swapped over in the 1950s, so that the 27 became the main route once again, and the 27A to Hounslow disappeared shortly afterwards. The route was cut back to Richmond on Mondays to Fridays in 1970, with a new localised 270 (which later became the R70) replacing the service to Teddington, although the weekend service continued to run through until 1982. The route was finally cut back to Turnham Green and Camden Town in 1992, with the new 391 indirectly taking over the Richmond service and no replacement for the Archway section. The short extension to Chalk Farm Safeway took place in 1995.

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