The R8 runs between Orpington Station and Biggin Hill via Green Street Green and Downe with the route mostly traversing very narrow rural roads. With an end to end journey time of just over 30 minutes and a scheduled bus every 70-90 minutes the whole route can be served by a single bus. There are 12 services each way a day and no service on Sundays or Public Holidays. The R8 is one of 13 TfL routes with an R prefix, with these numbered R1-R11, R68, and R70. The R1-R11 all operate in and around Orpington with the R68 and R70 operating around Richmond. Intriguingly all 11 R prefixed buses in Orpington stop at High Street / Orpington War Memorial in central Orpington. ...

London has over 19,000 bus stops, several hail and ride sections , and (to my knowledge) two bus stops that are not a bus stop. Bus stops that are not a bus stop are common outside of TfL's remit with them usually seen as a way to save money and only erect one bus stop not two. Interestingly, whilst served by a TfL operated bus route both of these stops are actually located in the county of Surrey (outside of Greater London) with one in the borough of Epsom and Ewell, and the other in Reigate and Banstead. ...

The congestion charge as its name suggests charges drivers £15 a day to drive in Central London. Currently these fares operate between 07:00 and 18:00 Monday to Friday and 12:00 to 18:00 on Weekends and Bank Holidays but during the pandemic the times of operation were increased to between 07:00 and 22:00 everyday. The charges and fines are recorded using several hundred cameras in and on the border of the zone. The Zone The Congestion Charging Zone is roughly similar to zone 1 on the Tube Map (but the Congestion Charge Zone spans less far west than Zone 1). With it, roughly, bounded by the A5, A4202, and Vauxhall Bridge Road on the west and the A3204, A201, and Tower Bridge Road on...

Bees, through being pollinators, are vitality important in fertilising many flowers which grow into plants for us to eat (and for other animals to eat which we then eat). This is why the declining bee population is so concerning with some people believing that bee extinction will be the cause of human extinction. Bees are small animals and are the right size to fly into a flower, collect pollen, and then play their role in fertilisation by releasing their pollen into another flower. But bees are just like humans and they need to get something out of their work which is fertilising plants. This is the role of nectar which has a sweet smell that invites the bees to a flower and when consumed the pollen of the flower is unknowably transferred onto the bees body. T...

BT (British Telecommunications) is a telecommunications company based in Britain and it used to be owned by the public sector (which meant that the government directly oversaw its operation). But in 1984 it was privatised under Margaret Thatcher's reign with all the government's shares sold by 1993. British Telecommunications (that is an eighteen character word and the reason why the company is almost always shortened to BT) owns a lot of street infrastructure and a few famous towers leftover from its public sector days. BT has towers in Birmingham, Bristol, Cardiff, London, Manchester, and Swansea. Cardiff’s and Swansea’s towers are just tall office blocks, Bristol’s and Manchester’s are actual telecommunication towers. But Birmingham’s and London’s to...

London has a lot of famous buildings with most of them known by normal unremarkable names. Examples of normal names include the Houses of Parliament which is home to parliament, and Tower Bridge which is a bridge with two famous towers located on its length and is next to the Tower of London. But Londoners have a good imagination and have consequently given interesting names to many of London's buildings. These are not usually their official names but are well recognised by the majority of Londoners. The Cheesegrater The Cheesegrater is located proximally to the Gherkin and the Walkie T...

The entrance to Shoreditch Shoreditch station (not to be confused with Shoreditch High Street station) was the terminus of the East London Line. The East London Line was London's twelfth tube line and operated between New Cross/New Cross Gate and Whitechapel with occasional extension to Shoreditch. But the East London Line closed on December 22 2007 with Shoreditch...