Around the Outside of London
Part Six
1 November 2025
ABOVE: Thames Valley Buses 681 (YX71 OJE), an ADL Enviro200 MMC, in Yeovil Road, College Town, Sandhurst, working route 194 to Camberley, on Saturday 27 September 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)
Part Five (Tunbridge Wells to Woking)
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)
Part Five (Tunbridge Wells to Woking)
It's 1650 on a Saturday afternoon at the end of May, and I have just arrived into Woking. I am almost at the end of a circuit around the outside of the Greater London boundary that I started two months before (I have been home in between).
I started in Slough, and have been through Buckinghamshire, Hertfordshire, Essex, Kent, Sussex and Surrey. As the crow flies, I am now just 13.5 miles away from the finish line back in Slough. There have only been three 'rules' for this trip - stay off Transport for London (TfL) buses, stay outside the Greater London Authority boundary, and stay outside the M25 motorway, except to cross the River Thames east of London.
My plan now has been to catch the White Bus service 446 into Staines-upon-Thames. White Bus is one of a number of smaller operators that have flourished in Surrey since Abellio walked out of the region some years ago. The service runs to Hatton Cross, and is therefore only the second service on this loop (after the 724 - see Part Two) to run into the TfL area. But there's no rule saying I can't use a non-TfL service that runs into London, as long as I leave it before it crosses the border.
As it happens, I discover, when it turns up, a route 456 that is also heading to Staines, so I board that instead. No risk of crossing the border now as this one doesn't go that far!
The 456 is another small operator, Falcon Buses, and the bus exudes quality. It's a clean, well-presented 24-reg ADL Enviro200 MMC, in a bright and attractive livery with some discreet branding for the route. I've been a little lucky to catch this as it's the 1650 departure, running seven minutes late, and that's about how long I've been here.
Having done a circuit of Woking in order to get to the Railway Station (which acts as the main bus interchange), I now do almost another complete circuit to get out again! The journey takes us through West Byfleet, where another circuit to serve the railway station is also hindered by roadworks, and Addlestone, home to an ancient Crouch Oak tree, under which it is said Queen Elizabeth I picnicked.
ABOVE: Station Road, Addlestone, on Saturday 31 May 2025
We then come to Chertsey. Chertsey Abbey was founded in AD 666 by St Erkenwald, and gained a market charter from Henry I.
We pass under a motorway, which is the point at which I become concerned that I may have breached one of my rules. But it isn't the M25, it's the M3. Phew!
We then come to the entrance to Thorpe Park, but we don't call in. Instead, we take a deviation the opposite way, to Penton Hook Marina - very picturesque, but difficult to capture from a single-decker side window.
ABOVE: Taken on Saturday 31 May 2025
Despite the late start, we reach Staines Bus Station on time, at 1803.
ABOVE: Falcon Buses 129 (YX24 OUS), an ADL Enviro200 MMC, on stand in Staines Bus Station, on Saturday 31 May 2025
From here, I am heading to Slough, my final destination for this trip, on First Berkshire route 8. This starts at Heathrow Airport Terminal Five, but takes the long way round to get from there to Slough.
ABOVE: First Berkshire & Thames Valley 63316 (SM65 LNN), a Wright Streetlite DF, arrives into Staines Bus Station on route 8 (Heathrow Terminal 5 to Slough), on Saturday 31 May 2025. Note the route branding - partially missing - for route X74 (Slough to High Wycombe)
The 1814 departure is a long, rattly Streetlite DF, branded for route X74 (Slough to High Wycombe). The drop in quality from the previous service is noticeable. We leave three minutes late and head out to Egham. It's around here that we genuinely do cross the M25. So I have definitely breached one of my rules.
But I'm confused. We seem to have crossed the M25 to the outside. So when did we go in? A check on the map suggests that it was all the way back before Addlestone. That was ages ago!
The bus continues past the Royal Holloway College. This research university was formed from two colleges, Bedford College, founded by Elizabeth Jesser Reid, and Royal Holloway College, founded by Thomas and Jane Holloway. These colleges were among the first places in Britain where women could access higher education.
The main building is stunning. The Founder’s Building is one of the world’s most spectacular university buildings. Opened by Queen Victoria in 1886, it is, unsurprisingly, Grade-I listed. It has been used as a filming location on numerous occasions, for productions as varied as Howard's End, Call the Midwife, Antiques Roadshow, Midsomer Murders and Celebrity Masterchef.
The bus picks up a number of students here, and it's noticeable that most of them do not claim the tickets that are issued for them - suggesting that ticket inspections don't happen in these parts.
From this spectacular sight to an even more spectacular one, as we get our first view of Windsor Castle from the Long Walk:
ABOVE: Taken on Saturday 31 May 2025
Again, the lost time has been recovered as we come back into Slough. I leave the bus at 1918, alighting at the same stop that I had boarded the 107 to Amersham from all those weeks ago. There's a TfL bus on route 81 from Hounslow to welcome me in:
ABOVE: A Metroline West Volvo B9TL Wright Eclipse Gemini 2, in Wellington Street, Slough, between trips from and to Hounslow on TfL route 81, on Saturday 31 May 2025
I have completed the circuit, but... I have inadvertently broken the 'rules' that I set myself, and I wonder whether I should have done the last section differently.
It's not a big deal. I don't have to report to anyone about this or 'fess up. Even when it's time to go to the great Bus Station in the sky, I doubt it will be held against me as a condition of entry.
But it's an itch that won't quite go away... Even as I start recording the story in these pages, which I have been doing since July, I have the feeling that the ending isn't quite going to be right.
And there's really only one way to sort the matter out...
And that's why, four months later, I'm heading back to Woking, to re-do the last section by a different routing. Summer has been and gone, but it's still a lovely morning at a very crowded Waterloo station as Rugby fans head to Twickenham for the Women's Rugby World Cup Final (which England will win). Fortunately, Woking is on a different route, and my train is nice and quiet.
I reach the interchange outside Woking Station. This time, it will be different. This time, there won't be a mistake...
I'm starting off on route 34. In the original circuit, I caught it from Guildford to Woking, but I should have stayed put for Camberley, which is where I am now heading. The 1132 departure comes into the interchange in good time. It's a Stagecoach South ADL Enviro200, and is extremely rattly when stationery, which it is for three minutes before we set off. The lady driver has perfectly-manicured fingernail extensions that I consider to be incompatible with the job of driving a bus (what if she has to open the engine cover and fiddle about with the oil or something)?
ABOVE: A Stagecoach South ADL Enviro200 MMC that might well be 26123 (SN67 XDF) is at Woking Railway station heading for Guildford. This, and all subsequent photos in this article, were taken on Saturday 27 September 2025.
There's an interesting building with a clock tower as we approach the "Kiln Bridge" across the River Wey in the suburb of St John's Lye, although the bus stop here is just described as "Co-op".
Our driver runs a couple of red lights in the Bisley area, and progress becomes slow after Lightwater as we approach the M3 roundabout. At least this time I am on the appropriate side of the M25 as we pass the M3!
Bagshot is the next port of call. The village served as an important staging post between London, Southampton and the West Country, as is evidenced by the original coaching inns still present in the village. The "King's Arms" was one of these. The date of the current building, built back from the edge of the High Street, is uncertain, but many of the inns in the area have historical links to highwaymen, weith nearby Bagshot Heath having been a notorious spot for attacks on the road to Exeter.
We reach Pembroke Broadway in Camberley at 1231, four minutes late. A good selection of buses is on offer here.
ABOVE: Stagecoach South 10772 (SN66 VYT, left) starts a journey on route 1 from Pembroke Broadway, Camberley, to Aldershot. Passing through on the other side of the road is Falcon Buses 143 (YX75 KWD, centre), on local route 12 to Frimley. Stagecoach South 27617 (GX10 HCE, centre), an ADL/TransBus Enviro300, and another Stagecoach South ADL Enviro400 MMC on route 1 (right) complete the selection.
From Camberley, I am taking the half-hourly route 194 to Bracknell. Thames Valley Buses, a subsidiary of Reading Buses, was previously known as Courtney Buses. The company generally uses a fleet of branded ADL Enviro200 MMCs for the route, but my treat for the day for the 1255 departure is an ADL Enviro400 MMC, giving me an unexpected top deck front seat! We have a really friendly driver too!
The 194, like many other services in this area, calls in at "The Meadows", an out-of-town shopping complex housing a Tesco Extra and equally-large Marks and Spencer. Technically this is the start of Sandhurst, and we have crossed into Berkshire.
Sandhurst is the home of the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst. All British Army officers are trained here, alongside others from overseas. One curiosity is that, whilst the Academy is located in Sandhurst, its ceremonial entrance is in Camberley.
We pass through Sandhurst town and on into Crowthorne. This had been the home of the Transport Research Laboratory (TRL) for almost 70 years, but, in October 2025, it moved to Wokingham. Many years ago, I worked with people from TRL when I was (peripherally) involved in some of their research projects about transport users, but I never got to visit the site. Pity.
ABOVE: Thames Valley Buses 683 (YX22 OJG), exits Crowthorne High Street on a Camberley-bound working of route 194.
There's one strange occurrence on this journey. We have proper next stop announcements on this bus, in a male voice, but they suddenly switch to a female voice as we approach Goodwood Terrace. However, looking around, the whole area that we are passing through looks very new, so perhaps this is a new section and the owner of the original voice wasn't available to record the new announcements?
ABOVE: Buckler Ride, at the junction with Hunt Way, near Crowthorne
This area does indeed seem to be a new housing development called Buckler's Park / The Heights, on the edge of Swinley Forest. And it looks ike we're using a new road right through a part of the forest as we head towards another development site. The temporary traffic lights here have a very helpful sign about waiting times:
We join a road called Nine Mile Ride, which runs west-to-east from the California Country Park, Finchampstead, to the Bagshot to Bracknell road (the A322), a distance of ... 6.7 miles. It was built for King George III as part of an expansion programme to the rides built for Queen Anne to more easily facilitate hunting in Windsor Forest. Nine Mile Ride runs almost parallel with the Roman road known as the Devil's Highway, which was between Londinium and Calleva Atrebatum (Silchester).
And right in the middle of the strecth that the 194 covers is a thatched public house, the Golden Retriever:
The male voice returns to take over the remaining next stop announcements as we head into Bracknell.
This has been a lovely ride, with the top deck bonus allowing me to fully appreciate it! But all good things must come to an end, and we reach Bracknell Bus Station, on time, at 1353.
ABOVE: Left to right at Bracknell Bus Station finds Reading Buses 248 (YX73 PHY), an ADL Enviro400 CIty, on route 4a to Reading, Thames Valley Buses 686 (YY73 OYN), an ADL Enviro200 MMC, on local circular route 172, and Thames Valley Buses 796 (YY67 HDO), the ADL Enviro400 MMC that has just brought me from Camberley on route 194.
I can take a breather here as I have nearly an hour in hand before my next bus, Thames Valley Buses route 53 to Maidenhead. The bus pulls into the Bus Station a few minutes before departure time. I take a photograph but completely fail to register that it is a 75-reg vehicle (so brand new within the last four weeks)!
The ADL Enviro200 MMC takes me on a countrified and rural journey through a number of villages. The largest of these is Warfield, where men in one particular ward, Warfield Harvest Ride, had the highest life expectancy at birth of any ward in England and Wales in 2016 (90.3 years).
Jealott's Hill, a suburb of Warfield, is home to the global agricultural techology company Syngenta's largest research and development site, which includes a large agricultural research greenhouse at 43,000 square feet, and a 640-acre farm.
North of Holyport is a sign pointing to "Stroud Farm Shops" which, at first glance, seems to comprise in total of a Londis and a hair salon! However, a circuit of this area reveals more shops further down.
It only takes 36 minutes to Maidenhead and we arrive, on time, at 1521. There's a timetable leaflet on board for the local Thames Valley services in the Maidenhead area, and I pick one up. I've already used this to plan a day out in this area, on some of these local services, so printed publicity definitely works! The 53 will continue to the Wexham Park Hospital, which I passed on the first part of my circuit from Slough, so I suppose I could have started and finished the circuit there!
ABOVE: Thames Valley Buses 691 (YX75 LDA), an ADL Enviro200 MMC, pulls out of the Maidenhead Railway Station stop on route 53 towards Wexham Park Hospital, having just dropped me off.
I came through Maidenhead towards the end of my "Richmond to Richmond" journey a couple of years ago (it starts here if you want to revisit it). And the concluding part of this journey will follow the same route to Slough as I took on that occasion - First Berkshire route 6. (There is now a rival service provided by Thames Valley - route 704 - but it's not due for almost an hour - 1620 - so I will stick to route 6.)
The 6 is due at 1558. I'm not sure how easily that can be gleaned from the timetable in the bus stop at Maidenhead Railway Station, which would probably be better presenting departures in route order:
The bus turns up on time - a Volvo B7RLE Wright Eclipse Urban. The cove panels on board have been decorated with some local facts about the area. One about the creators of Thunderbirds stands out:
The huge Slough Trading Estate stretches for what seems like miles along this route. Not all of it is in active use, though, and some is being demolished:
It's interesting to note that route 6 has still not made it onto the local bus stops round here, two years after the service changes that also saw route 4 renumbered A4. According to Google Maps, the buses that serve the Windmill Road stop just outside Slough Town Centre are the 6, 13, 103, 583, 701, 704, A4 and X74. That's not what it says on the stop:
ABOVE: Mind the gap between the bus stop and the reality! Bus stop details at Windmill Road, alongside the Google extract of what stops here.
A group with a normal pushchair and a double pushchair are refused admission on the basis that there are already two pushchairs on board (although one doesn't have an occupant, which always feels a bit selfish). Other than that, it's not a particularly busy service, and we arrive into Slough Town Centre, on time, at 1637.
ABOVE: First Berkshire 69394 (HY09 AZC), a Volvo B7RLE Wright Eclipse Urban, in Bath Road, Slough Town Centre, working route 6 from Maidenhead, which now continues to the Wexham Estate, an area to the north-east of the Town Centre
As when I arrived here four months earlier, there's a TfL bus on route 81 from Hounslow to greet me:
ABOVE: A Metroline Travel Volvo B5LH MCV EvoSeti turns from Wellington Street into William Street, passing The Curve, a "professional performance studio in the heart of town".
And that brings me to the end of the circuit - and this time, I'm happy! It's been a stimulating journey, even if the likes of Amersham, Ongar or Tunbridge Wells now feel a long way away...
Not including the two buses that took me on my erroneous path via Staines, the journey has required 20 buses (should have been 19 as I could have taken the 34 straight from Guildford to Camberley). I estimate the mileage covered as 282 miles (including my usual 10% extra to allow for deviations and double-runs), and £59.70 in bus fares, with the X80 across the river between Lakeside and Bluewater being the only one not charged at three pounds (£2.70).
There's a stark contrast between the services that are offered inside the Greater London Authority boundary compared to those just a few miles outside. True, many of the services I have used have been every half-hour or better, and none have been worse than hourly, but, on the other side of the boundary, that would be viewed as poor indeed. It would be nice to see some efforts made to make buses just outside the capital as attractive as those within.
Would I do it again? If I had time I would love to reverse the trip, but there's so much else to see, and to tell you about!
As I head to the station for my quick train ride home, I check again on Slough Bus Station, damaged by fire three years ago. As on my last visit, it remains abandoned. Unloved, untouched, unoccupied. Will it ever reopen, I wonder?
ABOVE: Slough Bus Station
BELOW: An approximation of this part of the journey, showing both the "erroneous" and "correct" routes from Woking to Slough
BELOW: The entire journey
