Route 243

Route 243
6 July 2011

Trunk route 243 owes its high number to the Trolleybus replacement programme of the 1960s. Route 543/643 ran Wood Green to Holborn Circus, terminating in a loop working there (with the two routes going opposite ways round), on Mondays to Saturdays only, with the Sunday service being numbered 649A and running to Liverpool Street instead, and arrangement daying back to 8 May 1940! The routes were renumbered 243 and 243A respectively in 1962.

The 243A ran to London Docks via Aldgate, but subsequently reverted to Liverpool Street. The main reason for the differing route on Sundays was to serve the Sunday markets in the Shoreditch area, and the arrangement survived right until 2000, the 243A being withdrawn after operation on 13 August after just over 60 years. This route was notable as being the very last of a long line of "Sunday suffixed" bus routes in London, i.e. routes where the Sunday service differed slightly from the Monday to Saturdays and was numbered with a suffix letter. This tradition thus narrowly failed to survive into the 21st century, although a similar but undistinguished arrangement lasted a few years longer on the 43.

Changes introduced from 19 August 2000 saw the Sunday service re-numbered 243 and diverted to Old Street, which was also the terminus on Saturdays, and the Monday to Friday service extended to Waterloo replacing Red Arrow route 505, which was withdrawn, also ending the Holborn Circus terminal loop which dated right back to when the 643 replaced tram route 43 on 5 February 1939. The service now runs to Waterloo at weekends too, and all night, the N243 having recently been replaced by a night service on the 243.

The 243 has been operated by a mixture of double deck types in recent years, one of the more numerous being the Wright Eclipse Gemini bodied Volvo B7TLs as previously featured on this page. However Tottenham garage has now been cleared of the type, and the 243 is now nominally in the hands of older ALX400 bodied DAF DB250LFs, such as DLA288 seen in the Aldwych by Somerset House on 24 January 2011, on the final part of the journey to Waterloo.

Photo © Michael McClelland.

Tottenham garage does still have some Volvo B7TLs, but with ALX400 bodywork, which are nominally for route 123, but can also be found on the 243. Conversely the DLAs from the 243 are frequently to be found on the 123, much to the annoyance of some of its passengers – the DLAs, whilst only around 10 years old, are now quite "old" in London terms. New buses are believed to be on order for the 243 for a new contract which started in August 2010; however, delivery has been delayed, as they will initially be used on route 29 to effect its conversion from bendy buses. When the new 29 contract begins in January 2013 the buses should migrate to the 243.

Anyhow, VLA91 was photographed en route to Wood Green passing the old Kingsway Tram Subway, while turning from Southampton Row onto Theobald's Road at Holborn on Tuesday 4 November 2008. The destination and via points are enormous!

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Chronologically 195 162

Numerically 242 244
See also routes 43, 123, 29

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