Around the Outside of London
Part Five
11 October 2025
ABOVE: Metrobus 6908 (BJ63 UJP), a Volvo B9TL Wright Eclipse Gemini 2, was originally Brighton & Hove 486, and moved to Metrobus in 2024. It is seen here near Florance Corner, Groombridge, working route 291 towards Tunbridge Wells. All photographs in this article were taken on Saturday 31 May 2025.
Earlier parts of this journey:
Part One (Slough to Hatfield) Part Two (Hatfield to Chelmsford)
Part Three (Chelmsford to Bluewater) Part Four (Bluewater to Tunbridge Wells)
Earlier parts of this journey:
Part One (Slough to Hatfield) Part Two (Hatfield to Chelmsford)
Part Three (Chelmsford to Bluewater) Part Four (Bluewater to Tunbridge Wells)
Two weeks after I got here from Maidstone (see Part Four), I've come back to Royal Tunbridge Wells to resume my trip around the outside of London. The "rules" I have imposed on myself are to stay outside of the Greater London Authority border, avoid using Transport for London services and, unless impossible, stay outside the M25 Orbital Motorway.
There's a lot of ground still to cover, but I should, in theory, be able to get back to Slough on this day out, and therefore complete my circuit. But Slough is still a long way away, and first I need to climb K2...
ABOVE: Arriva Kent & Surrey 1657 (GN64 DXU), a Wright Streetlite WF, passes along Mount Pleasant Road in Tunbridge Wells Town Centre, working route 281 (High Brooms to Rusthall). On the left is the town's Millennium Clock, installed to celebrate the year 2000, and reportedly a big divider of opinion over its suitability and appearance.
Well that's a slight exaggeration, maybe - it's not the K2 mountain, but the climb from the station into the Town Centre of Tunbridge Wells is quite steep, and it so happens that the bus stop I need at the end of the climb is stop K2!
I'm heading out of town towards Crawley on route 291. This hourly run is operated by Go Ahead Metrobus. My 1052 departure, in a Scania N270UD OmniCity, is driven by a very friendly young lady driver.
We have barely got going when I spot a bus on route 402 (Sevenoaks to Tunbridge Wells). If there had been an easier way to get from Bluewater to Sevenoaks (I described my woes in that respect in Part Four), the 402 would have been an absolute shoe-in for the trip I am doing!
ABOVE: Arriva Kent & Surrey 2982 (YJ09 MLE), an Optare Versa, in Mount Pleasant Road, Tunbridge Wells, on route 402 to Sevenoaks
My notes record that it is slow "as usual" getting out of Tunbridge Wells. Once we manage to do so, the village of Langton Green is just two miles outside. The football game "Subbuteo" was invented and produced here for many years, and "The Hare" public house looks inviting:
Just a few hundred yards on is All Saints Church, built in 1862/3 by George Gilbert Scott and now Grade-II* listed:
It takes less than three minutes to move on to Groombridge, a village that straddles the Kent / East Sussex border, with the main part of the village sitting in East Sussex, and the older part sitting in Kent.
ABOVE: Groombridge Hill sits on the Kent side of the village
As we cross into East Sussex, things become very rural. We're in the High Weald Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty, and close to the Forest Way Country Park, which stretches 10 miles from Groombridge to East Grinstead along an old railway line.
An unusual and well-kept bus shelter can be found next to the War Memorial in Hartfield - it even has a clock on the top of it (albeit not working when I pass).
Cotchford Farm, near Hartfield, was the home of A.A. Milne (1882–1956), author of the Winnie the Pooh books. We pass a shop in the village, Pooh Corner, dedicated to the stories.
We reach the village of Forest Row, which draws its name from its proximity to the Ashdown Forest, a royal hunting park. The Forest borders the village on three sides.
We're now on what might be termed the north-west corner of East Sussex. The centre of Forest Row is a major junction where the A22 London to Eastbourne road passes through - it's a junction I have driven through on numerous occasions over the years.
But it's worth having a look (when not driving!) at what's around this junction. On one side is the Grade-II listed Forest Row Parish Church, dating from the early 19th century. Just opposite, alongside the War Memorial, is the Village Hall.
The inscription above the door of the Village Hall, not legible from my photograph below, reads:
Erected by Henry Ray Freshfield of Kidbrooke Park
Anno Domini MDCCCXCII (1892)
In Memoriam
The Great British Life website tells us that the Freshfield family, which founded a law firm in the 18th century, was successful enough for the founder’s son, Henry Ray Freshfield, to buy a 200 acre estate, Kidbrooke Park, on the outskirts of the village in 1874.
Tragedy struck the family in 1891 when Henry’s 14-year-old grandson died suddenly. The Freshfields chose to commemorate his life with a gift to the village of the village hall. The original hall burnt down a couple of years later but was rebuilt exactly as was, after the original plans.
ABOVE: Forest Row, with the Parish Church (left) and Village Hall (right).
There's clearly plenty going on here, and the village has also featured in a list of the poshest villages in Britain, but we need to move on, in a north-westerly direction now towards East Grinstead. I last brought you here a few months ago when I described an earlier day out with Metrobus.
ABOVE: High Street, East Grinstead
ABOVE: Go-Ahead Metrobus 6965 (YP58 UGF), a Scania N270UD OmniCity, in Copthorne Road, Felbridge, working route 281 towards Lingfield. This bus has since been sold on to West Midlands operator "Bus Link"
The 291 dips into Crawley Down, a village just a mile from the Surrey border, and then into Copthorne, which lies very close to Gatwick Airport.
ABOVE: Station Road, Crawley Down
This has been a long run - an hour-and-three-quarters - but the end is now in sight as we enter the town of Crawley. One of Metrobus's new Hydrogen-powered Wright GB Kite Hydroliners is heading out of town:
ABOVE: A Go-Ahead Metrobus Wright GB Kite Hydroliner, in Crawley Town Centre on route 100 to Maidenbower. The vehicle MIGHT be 6411 (LV74 BZR), which was, according to BusTimes.org, in this vicinity at the right time...
We reach Crawley Bus Station at 1240, 13 minutes behind schedule. I'm not sure where we have lost the time, as progress has been steady all the way. I get a cheery wave from the driver as she pulls away.
THere are more hydrogen vehicles in evidence here than on my previous visit, with some of the previous depot Hydrogen storage concerns having been resolved, enabling stored buses to enter service. I note an upgrade to the 460 (Epsom to Crawley), for example:
ABOVE: 6803 (LV74 CDK, a Wright StreetDeck Hydroliner, on route 460 in Crawley Bus Station
I have a couple of options now to get me to Guildford. I can go via Redhill and route 32, or via Horsham and route 63. Timings lend themselves to the latter, so I'm now catching the 1305 departure on route 23 to Horsham.
Another Metrobus service, this runs every half-hour as far as Horsham, with an hourly service continuing to Worthing Pier. The section after Horsham is probably the more interesting part, and this bit, for me, is just a mmeans of getting from A to B. There are a lot of people about for this Volvo B9TL Wright Eclipse Gemini 2. Not all journeys on this route are double-deckers, so I am grateful that this one is, as a single-decker would have been very overcrowded and uncomfortable.
The route passes through Kilnwood Vale, a "community" that opened in 2016. The development is based on the "Garden Village" concept (as per Letchworth, Welwyn and Hampstead Garden Suburb).
ABOVE: Kilnwood Vale
This busy service arrives into Horsham three minutes late, at 1349. Again, it isn't obvious where the time has been lost.
ABOVE: Three Metrobus vehicles in Horsham Bus Station
Whilst it's always nice to have a Bus Station, as a 'focal' point for services in a town, it has to be said that the Bus Station at Horsham is rather cramped, both in terms of only having five stands, and in terms of the passenger waiting area, which gets very congested especially when an incoming service is unloading.
It's also interesting to note that timetables for all operators are displayed in their own styles, so Stand A has Metrobus services listing departure times only, as well as Stagecoach and Compass Bus, which have full end-to-end timetable listings (and the Styagecoach panel for route 63 includes the 53, the nearest point of which is eight miles from here)!
The "Where to Catch Your Bus" signage underneath, however, is only for Metrobus services:
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In this crowded place, having had lunch, I am awaiting the 1440 departure on Stagecoach South route 63 to Guildford, which should leave from Stand A. The stand is currently occupied by a Compass Bus route 100, which is due to set off for Burgess Hill at 1438. There are signs around the place warning people to be vigilant, as buses may not be able to get onto the correct stand. With my bus due in a few minutes before its departure time, I wonder where it might pull up...
As it turns out, the 63 arrives just as the 100 is pulling off the stand:
ABOVE: A Stagecoach South ADL Enviro 200 on route 63 is coming into view (centre), just as a similar vehicle belonging to Compass Bus pulls out on route 100. The notice warns passengers to check the other stands for their bus "if the stand that your bus usually uses is being used by another bus"
I see that the 63 has been retimed since my visit, and now leaves at xx25 instead of xx40. Hopefully that makes life easier...
Despite only appearing a moment before, there is minimal delay and we are soon heading out of Horsham, en route for Guiildford. There's a sign as we leave the town saying "Thank you for visiting Horsham - Time well spent".
The village of Rudgwick, about six miles to the north-west of Horsham, saw the doiscovery, in 1985, of a new species of the Polacanthus genus of dinosaur, which became known as the Rudgwickosaurus. Rudgwick was also where Eric Thompson (1929-1982) grew up. He created and performed the English narration for the French children's TV programme "Le Manège Enchanté", which we know as "The Magic Roundabout".
It's not quite "time for bed" as we cross from West Sussex into Surrey and reach Cranleigh. It is suggested that the village was known as Cranley until the mid-1860s, when the Post Office persuaded the vestry to use "-leigh", to avoid misdirections to nearby Crawley!
Founded in 1859, Cranleigh’s cottage hospital was the first in England to provide accessible healthcare in a rural area. It was also the first to provide free medical services to those who couldn’t afford it – an ethos that paved the way for other cottage hospitals and later contributed to the origins of the NHS (source: Heritage Fund).
We are joined here by route 53, which has started from nearby Ewhurst, and the two routes provide a half-hourly frequency from here into Guildford - not bad for a highly-affluent area in rural Surrey! There's a Grade-II listed obelisk here, which was erected in 1794 by Dr. Jacob Ellery, to commemorate the opening of the turnpike road through Cranleigh from Guildford to Horsham. My pictures are blurred so have a look at Google Streetview instead.
ABOVE: There are a number of waterways along route 63, including the Rivers Wey and Tillingbourne. I'm not quite sure which one this is, but we're somewhere in the Cranleigh / Bramley / Shalford area!
We pass the villages of Wonersh and Bramley. Right between them is the former Bramley & Wonersh Station. Closed in 1965, it stood on the Guildford to Horsham line (the whole line closed under Beeching cuts that year).
The trackbed through the station was relaid as a bridleway, but, between 2003 & 2005, the platforms were restored and replica level crossing gates were installed. There are aspirations to re-open the line, at least as far as Cranleigh. Waverley Borough Council has protected the line from development, and the alignment is still visible from an aerial view. Again, I don't manage to get a decent picture so I would refer you to Streetview!
We're now on the outskirts of Guildford, and it doesn't take long to work our way in to the Town Centre.
ABOVE: Crossing the River Wey in central Guildford.
Guildford is surrounded on three sides by the Surrey Hills National Landscape, which severely limits its potential for expansion to the east, west and south, so recent development has been focused to the north of the town. Guildford also officially forms the southwestern tip of the "Greater London Built-up Area", as defined by the Office for National Statistics, although we are over 12 miles from the nearest part of Greater London (Malden Rushett).
We reach the Friary Bus Station two minutes early, at 1600. This gives me time for a quick comfort break before boarding the Stagecoach South route 34 towards Woking, at 1610. It is already loading as I get to the stand and we're soon on our way.
It might have been quick getting into Guildford but it's a lot more of a slog to get out the other end... There's a queue for the roundabout that acceses the key A3 London to Portsmouth road.
Another ADL Enviro200, the 34 is a straight-forward run as far as Woking, with the arguably more-interesting section being the bit out to Camberley, which I am not undertaking today (the bus I am on is only going as far as Lightwater anyway - a symptom of the start of the evening wind-down of service for the day).
Buses run every 20 minutes on weekdays - a frequency that I believe may have been a fairly recent enhancement, if the message on the back of my bus is anything to go by:
ABOVE: Stagecoach South 37292 (YY14 WGE), an ADL Enviro200, stands at Woking Railway Station , part-way through its run from Guildford to Lightwater.
Whilst the journey from Guildford to Woking is simple enough, the bus has to do pretty much an entire circuit of Woking to get to the Railway Station stops on The Broadway, which act as the focal point for the Town Centre's buses. There are roadworks as well which don't help, and we arrive at 1650, two minutes down.
The Woking Railway Station bus "interchange" (my choice of word) is a simple row of six bus stops, with a few stands beyond. A basic interchange, but it does the job.
ABOVE: In a rather quiet Woking, White Bus 52 (YX70 OHP) awaits its next run on route 73 to Chobham.
With my arrival in Woking, the finish line in Slough is very much in sight. It all feels achievable, and it should be possible to finish the circuit this very day. Surely nothing can go wrong now?
TO BE CONTINUED...
BELOW: An approximation of the route covered in this article, also showing the M25 Motorway and the Greater London boundary
