The 357 is one result of a recent drive by London Transport to eliminate route numbers with suffix letters — now all but completed, with just routes 77^A and 77^C retaining this status — although, strangely, there is no comparable grudge against prefix letters. In this case the route was previously numbered 97^A, not illogically as it has a fairly substantial common section with route 97 between Chingford Mount and Leyton Bakers Arms.

The 97^A had originated as the replacement for the western wing of the circular flat-fare Walthamstow route W21, linking the Chingford Hatch area into Walthamstow. It also ran via Friday Hill to Chingford, linking this area to Chingford Mount, and had a brief extension to Hackney Central in the 1980s. Capital Citybus, as it was then, took the route over in September 1991 after London Forest, which had originally won the tenders for the Walthamstow area network, collapsed.

The route was soon extended to Whipps Cross, and from 1995 was extended on Sunday afternoons into the Hospital there. Due to a low bridge within the hospital campus, the Sunday service therefore had to be single deck.

From February 2000 a new contract was started, and the opportunity was taken to alter the number, as explained previously. In this case the number chosen probably reflects a previous routing of the 257, which used to run further north than Walthamstow to Chingford Mount and the Fantaseas Leisure Centre on New Road, in parallel with the 97^A. Although this section no longer runs, the 357 does still parallel the 257 on the short section between Whipps Cross and Walthamstow Central.

However, the route was also withdrawn on the section between Friday Hill and Chingford, since the 212 provides an alternative service from this area to Walthamstow. The 212 was increased in frequency at the same time, while direct links from Friday Hill to Chingford Mount were maintained by new route 397 (albeit not during evenings or Sundays).

The new contract also specified low floor double deckers, and unusually these were not brand new ones but examples from a batch originally purchased for routes 25/N25. They were quickly found to be inadequate in capacity and the opportunity was taken to replace some with longer wheelbase versions, with the short versions coming off onto the 97 and 357 where capacity was not thought to be such an issue. However, due to the low bridge mentioned above, the Sunday service is operated with Dennis Darts.

Photo by John Gillespie.

Here the normal Monday to Saturday type for the 357 is demonstrated by TN 813 (T813 LLC) on 16 November 2000 at Chingford Mount, about to branch off its long common stretch with the 97. Since Capital Citybus took on the 97^A, the company has changed ownership several times, and is now in the hands of FirstGroup. The corporate influence has seen a new livery introduced for low floor buses, and the TNs were the first buses so treated. The cream and yellow “swoosh” on the sides is a London version of the corporate magenta shades, designed to be more sympathetic to the obligatory red base. The frontal appearance is spoilt somewhat by the stickers in the upper deck windscreen — as the windscreen reaches almost up to the ceiling on this type there is nowhere else to put them!

The new livery is also applied to single deckers, though in the case of DML 726 (W726 ULL) much of the swish effect is obscured by an advert! The bus is seen on the Sunday extension to Whipps Cross Hospital on Bank Holiday Monday 7 May, about to turn around in one of the car parks for the journey back to Chingford Hatch.

Photo by Robert Munster.

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See also routes 87, 97, 257, 212, 397, 25, N25