London Buses route 43 is a Transport for London contracted bus route in

London London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...

, England. Running between

Friern Barnet Friern Barnet is a suburban area within the London Borough of Barnet, north of Charing Cross. Its centre is formed by the busy intersection of Colney Hatch Lane (running north and south), Woodhouse Road (taking westbound traffic towards North ...

and

London Bridge station London Bridge is a central London railway terminus and connected London Underground station in Southwark, south-east London. It occupies a large area on three levels immediately south-east of London Bridge, from which it takes its name. The m ...

, it is operated by

Metroline Metroline is a bus company operating services in Greater London and south Hertfordshire. It is a subsidiary of ComfortDelGro Corporation and operates services under contract to Transport for London. As at March 2021, the fleet consisted of 1,5 ...

History

London Buses route 43 Muswell Hill Rd (1)

Route 43 commenced operating in August 1912 as a daily route between Archway station and

via Holloway Road,

Upper Street Upper Street is the main street of the Islington district of inner north London, and carries the A1 road. It begins at the junction of the A1 and Liverpool Road, continuing on from Islington High Street which runs from the crossroads at Pentonv ...

Angel In various theistic religious traditions an angel is a supernatural spiritual being who serves God. Abrahamic religions often depict angels as benevolent celestial intermediaries between God (or Heaven) and humanity. Other roles ...

City Road City Road or The City Road is a road that runs through central London. The northwestern extremity of the road is at Angel where it forms a continuation of Pentonville Road. Pentonville Road itself is the modern name for the eastern part of Lon ...

Moorgate Moorgate was one of the City of London's northern gates in its defensive wall, the last to be built. The gate took its name from the Moorfields, an area of marshy land that lay immediately north of the wall. The gate was demolished in 1762, bu ...

, Bank station and

London Bridge Several bridges named London Bridge have spanned the River Thames between the City of London and Southwark, in central London. The current crossing, which opened to traffic in 1973, is a box girder bridge built from concrete and steel. It re ...

, and was quickly extended to Muswell Hill Broadway via

East Finchley East Finchley is an area in North London, immediately north of Hampstead Heath. Like neighbouring Muswell Hill it straddles the London Boroughs of Barnet and Haringey, with most of East Finchley falling into the London Borough of Barnet. It ...

and Fortis Green Road. The route along which the 43 operates was designated as London's first Red Route bus priority scheme in 1992. In late 1999 the route became one of the first in London to be operated by low-floor double-deck buses, when new

Plaxton President The Plaxton President was a low floor double-decker bus body built at Northern Counties plant in Wigan, England and branded as a Plaxton product for its main production run. It was first unveiled in 1997 on the longitudinal Volvo B7L chas ...

bodied

Dennis Trident 2 The Dennis Trident 2 is a 2-axle low-floor double-decker bus chassis originally manufactured by Dennis, which was unveiled in 1997 and replaced the Dennis Arrow. It was built by TransBus after Dennis was incorporated into the group in 2001, t ...

s were introduced. In July 2019,

Alexander Dennis Enviro400EV The Alexander Dennis Enviro400 City is a low-floor double-decker bus produced by the British bus manufacturer Alexander Dennis since 2018, produced as an alternative to the standard Alexander Dennis Enviro400 MMC bodywork. The Enviro400 City is ...

battery electric buses entered service on the route, making it the first route served solely by zero emission double-decker buses. In 2021, the frequency of the service was reduced from 9 buses per hour to 7.5 during Monday-Friday peak times, and from 8 buses per hour to 7.5 during Monday-Saturday daytimes.

Variants

In 1992 a peak hour route X43 was introduced to supplement route 43 in connection with the Red Route bus priority scheme introduced at the time. It used specially liveried Scania N113 double-deckers branded as ''Red Express''. London Northern, the subsidiary of London Buses which had taken over operation of the route in 1989, stated that passenger numbers along the route increased by 8,700 in the year following its introduction.

In popular culture

Alexander Dennis Enviro400 The Alexander Dennis Enviro400 is a twin-axle low-floor double-decker bus that was built by the British bus manufacturer Alexander Dennis between 2005 and 2018. It replaced the Alexander ALX400, Dennis Trident (from which the Enviro400 was d ...

operating on route 43 was used in the 2007 film ''

The Bourne Ultimatum ''The Bourne Ultimatum'' is the third Jason Bourne novel written by Robert Ludlum and a sequel to ''The Bourne Supremacy'' (1986). First published in 1990, it was the last Bourne novel to be written by Ludlum himself. Eric Van Lustbader wrote ...

''. Route 43 is mentioned in the song ''Bros'' by North London

alternative rock Alternative rock, or alt-rock, is a category of rock music that emerged from the independent music underground of the 1970s and became widely popular in the 1990s. "Alternative" refers to the genre's distinction from mainstream or commercial ...

band Wolf Alice. A route 43 bus is shown at the very end of the

music video A music video is a video of variable duration, that integrates a music song or a music album with imagery that is produced for promotional or musical artistic purposes. Modern music videos are primarily made and used as a music marketing devic ...

for the song.

Current route

Route 43 operates via these primary locations:Route 43 Map
Transport for London *

''Library'' * Muswell Hill Broadway * Highgate Wood * Highgate station * Archway station * Upper Holloway station * Holloway Road station * St Mary Magdalene Church *

Highbury & Islington station Highbury & Islington is a London Underground and National Rail interchange station in the London Borough of Islington, north London. It is served by the London Underground's Victoria line and the Great Northern's Northern City Line, as well as t ...

* Islington Town Hall * St Mary's Church *

Angel station ''Angel Station'' is the ninth album released by Manfred Mann's Earth Band, released in 1979. Several line-up changes were made for this album. Ex-Wings drummer Geoff Britton replaced founding drummer Chris Slade and Steve Waller replace ...

* Moorfields Eye Hospital * Old Street station *

Finsbury Square Finsbury Square is a square in Finsbury in central London which includes a six-rink grass bowling green. It was developed in 1777 on the site of a previous area of green space to the north of the City of London known as Finsbury Fields, in the pa ...

Moorgate station Moorgate is a central London railway terminus and connected London Underground station on Moorgate in the City of London. Main line railway services for Hertford, Welwyn Garden City, Stevenage and Letchworth are operated by Great Northe ...

* Bank station * Monument station *

London Bridge bus station London Bridge bus station serves the London Bridge area of the city of London and is situated at the London Bridge tube and rail station. There are three stands at the station which are situated on the station forecourt. London Buses routes ...

for

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:043, London buses route Bus routes in London Transport in the London Borough of Barnet Transport in the London Borough of Hackney Transport in the London Borough of Haringey Transport in the London Borough of Islington Transport in the London Borough of Southwark Transport in the City of London