On 29 Feb, 14:25, Reg M wrote:
Is there a route involving just one bus from Embankment Gardens, along
the Chelsea Embankment to the Royal Albert Hall? From what I can
gather from Internet maps etc., the nearest bus for that seems to be
the 360. Can you advise?
Reg M


The number 9 bus from directly outside Charing Cross station (stop S)
goes direct to the Royal Albert Hall. If you are starting from
Victoria Embankment Gardens then you just need to walk the very short
distance up Villiers Street - see this street map:
http://www.streetmap.co.uk/newmap.srf?x=530322&y=180447

The green area to the north of Villiers St and west of Victoria
Embankment (the road) is Victoria Embankment gardens.

You need to have a ticket before you board if you are starting from
Charing Cross - if you do not have an Oyster card or a Day Travelcard
or other pass then you need to buy a ticket before you board. You can
buy a single ticket from the roadside ticket machines next to the bus
stop, they cost £2 - if you are making a return journey then you
should buy a Day Bus Pass at a cost of £3.50.

Note that the roadside ticket machines do not give change and only
take coins. However if you are buying a Day Bus Pass then you can buy
this from the ticket office in any Underground station (e.g. at
Embankment or Charing Cross stations).

The number 9 bus operates regularly - "every 4-8 minutes" according to
the timetable - and the off-peak journey time to the Royal Albert Hall
is 20 minutes.

Note that there are also "heritage" Routemaster buses that operate on
the number 9 route - these are the classic and much loved London buses
with a conductor and an open platform at the back. These run every 15
minutes between about 9.30am and 6.30pm (first bus from Charing Cross
to Royal Albert Hall at 09.51). You can pay cash for your fare on
board these buses.

On Feb 29, 3:56*pm, Mizter T wrote:
On 29 Feb, 14:25, Reg M wrote:

Is there a route involving just one bus from Embankment Gardens, along
the Chelsea Embankment to the Royal Albert Hall? *From what I can
gather from Internet maps etc., the nearest bus for that seems to be
the 360. *Can you advise?
Reg M

The number 9 bus from directly outside Charing Cross station (stop S)
goes direct to the Royal Albert Hall. If you are starting from
Victoria Embankment Gardens then you just need to walk the very short
distance up Villiers Street - see this street map:http://www.streetmap.co.uk/newmap.srf?x=530322&y=180447

The green area to the north of Villiers St and west of Victoria
Embankment (the road) is Victoria Embankment gardens.

You need to have a ticket before you board if you are starting from
Charing Cross - if you do not have an Oyster card or a Day Travelcard
or other pass then you need to buy a ticket before you board. You can
buy a single ticket from the roadside ticket machines next to the bus
stop, they cost £2 - if you are making a return journey then you
should buy a Day Bus Pass at a cost of £3.50.

Note that the roadside ticket machines do not give change and only
take coins. However if you are buying a Day Bus Pass then you can buy
this from the ticket office in any Underground station (e.g. at
Embankment or Charing Cross stations).

The number 9 bus operates regularly - "every 4-8 minutes" according to
the timetable - and the off-peak journey time to the Royal Albert Hall
is 20 minutes.

Note that there are also "heritage" Routemaster buses that operate on
the number 9 route - these are the classic and much loved London buses
with a conductor and an open platform at the back. These run every 15
minutes between about 9.30am and 6.30pm (first bus from Charing Cross
to Royal Albert Hall at 09.51). You can pay cash for your fare on
board these buses.

Thanks for the response but unless I have misread the map the
Embankment Gardens I referred to is just west of Chelsea Bridge, the
north side of the river on Chelsea Embankment. It appears on the map
just below the Royal Hospital Chelsea.

Reg M

On 2008-02-29, Reg M wrote:
On Feb 29, 3:56*pm, Mizter T wrote:
On 29 Feb, 14:25, Reg M wrote:

Is there a route involving just one bus from Embankment Gardens, along
the Chelsea Embankment to the Royal Albert Hall? *From what I can
gather from Internet maps etc., the nearest bus for that seems to be
the 360. *Can you advise?
Reg M
snip

Thanks for the response but unless I have misread the map the
Embankment Gardens I referred to is just west of Chelsea Bridge, the
north side of the river on Chelsea Embankment. It appears on the map
just below the Royal Hospital Chelsea.

Reg M

If you walk along Chelsea Embankment towards Chelsea Bridge, there is a
sort of roundabout at an entrance to the grounds of the Royal Hospital.
There is a bus stop there for the 360 towards the Albert Hall. It
terminates in Prince Consort Road behind the Albert Hall - get off the
bus and walk further along the road, you will see the hall on your left.

When returning it is probably best to use the stop in Queensgate just
south of Kensington Road. You will need to get off in Chelsea Bridge
Road at the Lister Hospital, as the bus in that direction does not enter
Chelsea Embankment at all, but turns left just before the bridge into
Grosvenor Road.

hth

Eric

On 29 Feb, 18:04, Eric wrote:

On 2008-02-29, Reg M wrote:

Thanks for the response but unless I have misread the map the
Embankment Gardens I referred to is just west of Chelsea Bridge, the
north side of the river on Chelsea Embankment. It appears on the map
just below the Royal Hospital Chelsea.

Reg M

If you walk along Chelsea Embankment towards Chelsea Bridge, there is a
sort of roundabout at an entrance to the grounds of the Royal Hospital.
There is a bus stop there for the 360 towards the Albert Hall. It
terminates in Prince Consort Road behind the Albert Hall - get off the
bus and walk further along the road, you will see the hall on your left.

When returning it is probably best to use the stop in Queensgate just
south of Kensington Road. You will need to get off in Chelsea Bridge
Road at the Lister Hospital, as the bus in that direction does not enter
Chelsea Embankment at all, but turns left just before the bridge into
Grosvenor Road.

hth

Eric


Does the 360 really only serve stop CH - that's the bus stop outside
the entrance to the Royal Hospital that you describe - only in *one*
direction? I have to say I think it's very silly if it does! One gets
the impression that this stop is provided for the benefit of the
Chelsea Pensioners at the Hospital, but this would mean that they can
only benefit from northbound buses serving it.

On 29 Feb, 18:47, Mizter T wrote:
Does the 360 really only serve stop CH - that's the bus stop outside
the entrance to the Royal Hospital that you describe - only in *one*
direction? I have to say I think it's very silly if it does! One gets
the impression that this stop is provided for the benefit of the
Chelsea Pensioners at the Hospital, but this would mean that they can
only benefit from northbound buses serving it.

It's nowhere near the hospital buildings though - you want bus 170 at
the north end of the grounds. I wouldn't be surprised if it's some
sort of service they're legally obliged to provide.

U

--
http://londonconnections.blogspot.com/
A blog about transport projects in London

On 29 Feb, 19:15, Mr Thant
wrote:
On 29 Feb, 18:47, Mizter T wrote:

Does the 360 really only serve stop CH - that's the bus stop outside
the entrance to the Royal Hospital that you describe - only in *one*
direction? I have to say I think it's very silly if it does! One gets
the impression that this stop is provided for the benefit of the
Chelsea Pensioners at the Hospital, but this would mean that they can
only benefit from northbound buses serving it.

It's nowhere near the hospital buildings though - you want bus 170 at
the north end of the grounds. I wouldn't be surprised if it's some
sort of service they're legally obliged to provide.

U


Yes, the fact that it wasn't close to the hospital buildings had
indeed crossed my mind - might be good for the summer if the
Pensioners are all out in the grounds though! But only for the
outbound trip of course.

It does sound a bit like the so-called "parly" train services that are
provided grudgingly, sometimes only in one direction, so as to avoid
going through the closure procedures for a station or section of line.

I wonder if it helps meet an in-house TfL target of ensuring
everywhere in London is within x distance of a bus stop? Or is it
something else? It seems pretty silly however you look at it, but
maybe there's something we're missing...

On 29 Feb, 18:47, Mizter T wrote:

On 29 Feb, 18:04, Eric wrote:

On 2008-02-29, Reg M wrote:

Thanks for the response but unless I have misread the map the
Embankment Gardens I referred to is just west of Chelsea Bridge, the
north side of the river on Chelsea Embankment. It appears on the map
just below the Royal Hospital Chelsea.

Reg M

If you walk along Chelsea Embankment towards Chelsea Bridge, there is a
sort of roundabout at an entrance to the grounds of the Royal Hospital.
There is a bus stop there for the 360 towards the Albert Hall. It
terminates in Prince Consort Road behind the Albert Hall - get off the
bus and walk further along the road, you will see the hall on your left.

When returning it is probably best to use the stop in Queensgate just
south of Kensington Road. You will need to get off in Chelsea Bridge
Road at the Lister Hospital, as the bus in that direction does not enter
Chelsea Embankment at all, but turns left just before the bridge into
Grosvenor Road.

hth

Eric

Does the 360 really only serve stop CH - that's the bus stop outside
the entrance to the Royal Hospital that you describe - only in *one*
direction? I have to say I think it's very silly if it does! One gets
the impression that this stop is provided for the benefit of the
Chelsea Pensioners at the Hospital, but this would mean that they can
only benefit from northbound buses serving it.


OK, I failed to spot this the first time I looked but now I can see
it...

(Also, stupidly, I previously referred to Kensington-bound buses as
'northbound', where really in terms of the whole bus route they are
westbound - likewise 'southbound' buses towards the Elephant & Castle
are really eastbound. V. sorry for all the confusion! I will avoid
creating any more by not using compass point directions.)


I have obtained the PDF timetables for route 360 - both the northbound
and southbound - from the TfL Journey Planner [1], and indeed, "Bull
Ring Gate" - which (as I now remember) is the name of that bus stop
marked on the spider map as stop CH [2] - only appears on the
Kensington-bound timetable (between Westmoreland Terrace and Lister
Hospital) and is conspicuously absent from the Elephant-bound
timetable...

Route 360 northbound timetable (PDF):
http://mizter.t.googlepages.com/Rout...Kensington.pdf

Route 360 northbound timetable (PDF):
http://mizter.t.googlepages.com/Rout...s_Elephant.pdf


This is further confirmed by querying the Journey Planner for bus
timetables for the bus stop at "Bull Ring Gate", which returns the
single result of the route 360 Kensington-bound only.

Therefore I presume that there is a no right turn rule southbound from
Chelsea Bridge Rd into Chelsea Embankment that prevents the bus
calling at Bull Ring Gate in the Elephant-bound direction. I suppose
something is better than nothing, even if it is only in one direction!


-----
[1] To get PDF bus timetables click on "Timetables" under the "See
also" heading on the right hand page of the TfL Journey Planner
here...
http://journeyplanner.tfl.gov.uk/

....or otherwise go straight there from this long link...
http://journeyplanner.tfl.gov.uk/use...reSel=tfl:63:*

....then scroll down to "Bus timetable - route number" or "Bus
timetable - stop name" and put in the route number or stop name as
appropriate.

[2] Bus spider map for Chelsea Bridge:
http://www.tfl.gov.uk/tfl/gettingaro...ital-13620.pdf

On 2008-02-29, Mizter T wrote:
On 29 Feb, 18:04, Eric wrote:

On 2008-02-29, Reg M wrote:

Thanks for the response but unless I have misread the map the
Embankment Gardens I referred to is just west of Chelsea Bridge, the
north side of the river on Chelsea Embankment. It appears on the map
just below the Royal Hospital Chelsea.

Reg M

If you walk along Chelsea Embankment towards Chelsea Bridge, there is a
sort of roundabout at an entrance to the grounds of the Royal Hospital.
There is a bus stop there for the 360 towards the Albert Hall. It
terminates in Prince Consort Road behind the Albert Hall - get off the
bus and walk further along the road, you will see the hall on your left.

When returning it is probably best to use the stop in Queensgate just
south of Kensington Road. You will need to get off in Chelsea Bridge
Road at the Lister Hospital, as the bus in that direction does not enter
Chelsea Embankment at all, but turns left just before the bridge into
Grosvenor Road.

hth

Eric


Does the 360 really only serve stop CH - that's the bus stop outside
the entrance to the Royal Hospital that you describe - only in *one*
direction? I have to say I think it's very silly if it does! One gets
the impression that this stop is provided for the benefit of the
Chelsea Pensioners at the Hospital, but this would mean that they can
only benefit from northbound buses serving it.

I've never seen a Chelsea Pensioner use it - I always thought the
routing was to avoid a banned turn from Grosvenor Road to Chelsea Bridge
Road, and that the stop was more-or-less incidental. It's actually quite
a long way across the grounds from the hospital buildings. There are
often Chelsea Pensioners on the 239 (now 170) which goes along the other
side of the hospital.

E

On 29 Feb, 19:41, Eric Junkermann wrote:

On 2008-02-29, Mizter T wrote:

On 29 Feb, 18:04, Eric wrote:

On 2008-02-29, Reg M wrote:

Thanks for the response but unless I have misread the map the
Embankment Gardens I referred to is just west of Chelsea Bridge, the
north side of the river on Chelsea Embankment. It appears on the map
just below the Royal Hospital Chelsea.

Reg M

If you walk along Chelsea Embankment towards Chelsea Bridge, there is a
sort of roundabout at an entrance to the grounds of the Royal Hospital.
There is a bus stop there for the 360 towards the Albert Hall. It
terminates in Prince Consort Road behind the Albert Hall - get off the
bus and walk further along the road, you will see the hall on your left.

When returning it is probably best to use the stop in Queensgate just
south of Kensington Road. You will need to get off in Chelsea Bridge
Road at the Lister Hospital, as the bus in that direction does not enter
Chelsea Embankment at all, but turns left just before the bridge into
Grosvenor Road.

hth

Eric

Does the 360 really only serve stop CH - that's the bus stop outside
the entrance to the Royal Hospital that you describe - only in *one*
direction? I have to say I think it's very silly if it does! One gets
the impression that this stop is provided for the benefit of the
Chelsea Pensioners at the Hospital, but this would mean that they can
only benefit from northbound buses serving it.

I've never seen a Chelsea Pensioner use it - I always thought the
routing was to avoid a banned turn from Grosvenor Road to Chelsea Bridge
Road, and that the stop was more-or-less incidental. It's actually quite
a long way across the grounds from the hospital buildings. There are
often Chelsea Pensioners on the 239 (now 170) which goes along the other
side of the hospital.

E


That has to be it, thanks v. much for clearing up that little mystery
- I must admit I was stumped by it, but it all makes a lot of sense
now!

Exempting buses from banned turns is an option in places, but
Grosvenor Road/ Chelsea Embankment is a major thoroughfare, and UIVMM
the 360 is operated by a small and agile single decker so it can make
use of the Bull Ring Gate 'roundabout' to turn around with ease.

On 29 Feb, 16:59, Reg M wrote:

On Feb 29, 3:56 pm, Mizter T wrote:

On 29 Feb, 14:25, Reg M wrote:

Is there a route involving just one bus from Embankment Gardens, along
the Chelsea Embankment to the Royal Albert Hall? From what I can
gather from Internet maps etc., the nearest bus for that seems to be
the 360. Can you advise?
Reg M

The number 9 bus from directly outside Charing Cross station (stop S)
goes direct to the Royal Albert Hall. If you are starting from
Victoria Embankment Gardens [...]

(snip mistaken advice for a journey from the Embankment!)


Thanks for the response but unless I have misread the map the
Embankment Gardens I referred to is just west of Chelsea Bridge, the
north side of the river on Chelsea Embankment. It appears on the map
just below the Royal Hospital Chelsea.

Reg M


Right, yes, as Laurence Payne points out upthread the critical clue
that both I and Paul Corfield missed was that you want to get there
from Chelsea Embankment!

Take a look at this bus spider map for Chelsea Bridge (PDF):
http://www.tfl.gov.uk/tfl/gettingaro...ital-13620.pdf

You're quite right to say that the 360 would do the job, and as as
Laurence says, the 452 is another.

Both will stop on all ths bus stops along Chelsea Bridge Street or
Lower Sloane Street, both a short walk from Embankment Gardens.

The map also shows the 360 stopping at stop CH on a little loop of
road just off Chelsea Embankment - this is the location of some gates
that lead into the Royal Hospital. Very confusingly, the map indicates
that the 360 only stops here when going northbound - I have to say
that I do strongly suspect this is a mistake and that the bus calls
here in both directions, but I cannot find anything to confirm my
suspicion.

The 360 will take you to the southern side of the Royal Albert Hall on
Prince Consort Road, whilst the 452 goes along the north side of the
Royal Albert Hall (on Kensington Gore). Whilst the Royal Albert Hall
is the last stop on the 360, so it would be literally impossible to
miss it, it would be pretty difficult to miss it on the 452 as well -
look out to your left for the Hall itself, and to the right for the
large and very grand Albert memorial, or ask the driver to give you a
shout.

The 452 is slightly more frequent during the day, though in the
evening the frequency of the 360 drops substantially (every 20 minutes
after 8pm). The 360 might look more attractive if any of the
travellers are less mobile, though I cannot guarantee it calls at stop
CH on the southbound run.

Otherwise I'd suggest that you make the short walk up to Chelsea
Bridge Road, possibly via Royal Hospital Road if you don't mind going
a tiny bit further to avoid the busy road that is Chelsea Embankment
(though you do miss the river views this way), and take the first bus
that comes - either the 360 or 452. On the way back I would head to
Kensington Gore to catch the 452 back to Chelsea Bridge Road - but
again I don't know what considerations you need to make, so the 360
might be preferable *if* it stops at stop CH going southbound.