Early Years

Contraflow Bus Lanes as Part of One-way Systems

The first contraflow bus lanes weren't conceived by their creators as bus lanes. They were expedients to allow buses to make smaller changes to their routes when one-way schemes were introduced than would otherwise have been the case. Passengers would either continue to be served at the bus stops they were used to, or would have to walk only a short distance to the replacement bus stop.

Berkeley Street, Mayfair, London

On 14 October 1962, Berkeley Street, opposite The Ritz, became the improbable location of Britain's first bus lane, a contraflow 50m long.

This photograph shows a number 25 bus turning left from Piccadilly into Berkeley Street (red ring on map) on 20 March 1963. There is a pre-Worboys No Entry sign (the words NO ENTRY across the white bar ceased to be used after 1964). Beneath it is a smaller white bar with the words EXCEPT BUSES. In the middle of the road there is a series of pyramid-type movable bollards with flashing beacons and KEEP LEFT signs.

On 26 July 1963 Commercial Motor ran a report: LONDON TRANSPORT IN 1962 which contained these paragraphs:

Concern was expressed at the effects of some one-way traffic schemes, particularly the Piccadilly-Pall Mall one-way scheme. ... westbound buses. forced to detour via Pall Mall, took two minutes longer for the journey, at an additional cost estimated at £60,000 a year. 

One notable concession was the exemption of buses on services 25 and 32 from the ban on the left turn into Berkeley Street where a one-way scheme was introduced. Here buses are running for a short distance against the flow of traffic in a special reserved lane, which includes an important bus stop. The Board hopes the success of the innovation will pave the way for further experimental traffic engineering measures. 

What was happening was that the underpass at Hyde Park Corner was set to open on 17 October 1962. In anticipation, various changes were made to ease expected congestion. These included making Bond Street one-way southbound. This was used by number 25 and 32 buses, so they had to be rerouted northbound via Berkeley Square. With London Transport smarting from Piccadilly's having been made one-way eastbound between St James's Street and Piccadilly Circus, the southernmost end of Berkeley Street was opened to northbound buses so that they could have a bus stop there, closer to those lost in the rerouting. 

In Buses Against the Traffic Flow in Commercial Motor, Derek Moses described the operation of the bus lane in detail, with photographs. The contraflow only extended to Mayfair Place; beyond that, the road was made two-way, with taxis being allowed to continue to drop their fares and pick up on both sides of the road. By 1966, the bus lane was no more: Berkeley Street was one-way southbound again from Stratton Street to Piccadilly.

Orpheus Street, Camberwell, London

In 1964 Orpheus Street in Camberwell, South London, contained two factories and a warehouse. It became the site of bus-only restrictions and may have been another contraflow bus lane before becoming a one-way bus-only road.

It lay near the junction between:

• A 202 South Circular Road running from west (Camberwell New Road) to east (Camberwell Curch Street)l

• A 215 running from north (Camberwell Green) to south (Denmark Hill).

The A 2217 (Coldharbour Lane) runs south-west from Denmark Hill about 100m south of the main junction. Opposite it lies Daneville Road, which was classified, along with a short section of Grove Lane, as B 239. All the classified roads were then two-way.

Because of the involvement of the South Circular Road, this system of junctions was under the control of the Ministry of Transport. 

On 7 February 1964 The London Gazette carried a Notice about The Experimental Traffic (Various Roads) (Camberwell) Order 1964. The effect of this was that:

• Camberwell Green became one-way clockwise;

• all traffic (except buses and from the south) which wanted to go along Coldharbour Lane had to use the B 239, with Daneville Road becoming one-way towards Coldharbour Lane.

Buses remained able to reach Coldharbour Lane from Denmark Hill southbound, but had to turn left (red ring on map) along Orpheus Street and then right into Daneville Road. This enabled them to remain on the main roads with their bus stops.

While the traffic order didn't prohibit right turns from Denmark Hill into Orpheus Street, the No Left Turn sign which was used in 1964 didn't lend itself to having "Except buses" added. As on Berkeley Street, it seems entirely possible that a modified No Entry sign was used, which would have made Orpheus Street a contraflow bus lane.

The subsequent history of Orpheus Street lends weight to this. On 30 January 1967 the London Evening News reported "Car park - for buses only". The gist was that a car park had been created at one end of Orpheus Street but that the only access was from the other end, where there was a "Buses only" sign. This suggests that, by 1967, Orpheus Street had become one-way buses-only, i.e. at its junction with Denmark Hill there were No Entry signs with "Except Buses" either written on the sign or on a plate below.

Orpheus Street remains one-way today, but is no longer restricted to buses. It contains two bus stands which are used by buses terminating at Camberwell Green. Daneville Road is now two-way and blocked to all traffic at its eastern end.

The First Bus Gates

Bessborough Gardens, Pimlico, London

The first bus gate in the UK was created in 1964 as part of a one-way scheme between Vauxhall Bridge and Victoria. The map below shows the configuration of roads as it was in 1960. 

Bessborough Gardens was then used as the name of the roads on the SW, NW and NE sides of the gardens. Bessborough Street ran one-way E to W across the gardens from the junction with Millbank and Vauxhall Bridge. To avoid ambiguity, I shall refer to the road on the NE side of the gardens by the name which it had before 1880, Vauxhall Bridge Road.

Vauxhall Bridge Road was (and is) part of the Inner London Ring Road. In 1938, the Bressey Report said of the junction at the north-west end of Vauxhall Bridge:

A straight "cross-over" with one additional street (now made one-way) leading away from the junction. The place works tolerably under signal control, but congestion is frequent ...

By the 1960s, congestion was worse. The fundamental problem was that Vauxhall Bridge Road was only wide enough for three lanes of traffic. 

Some traffic to Victoria went west along Bessborough Street and then north-west along Belgrave Road. The plan was to force all traffic to Victoria and beyond to use this route during the rush hour, except for buses, which would be able to continue to use Vauxhall Bridge Road. 

To achieve this, The Stopping up of Highways (London) (No. 24) Order 1963 authorised the removal of the diagonal section of road across the gardens and its replacement by a new road, Bessborough Way, parallel to the roads at the NW and SE sides of the gardens and midway between them. The road on the NE side of the gardens was widened and split into two carriageways between Vauxhall Bridge and just beyond Bessborough Way:

This 1967 photograph is looking north-west towards the bus gate (red ring on map). The bus gate forced traffic towards Victoria to turn left into Bessborough Way. During the rush hour, only buses could continue towards Victoria. Note the road marking BUSES ONLY for the bus gate.

The No Entry signs on either side of the bus gate have the words NO ENTRY in black across the white bar. This makes them pre-Worboys: they could not legally be installed after 31 December 1964. Extraordinarily, the words "Except buses" have been added in white Worboys-style text beneath the white bar. 

This photograph from 1963 shows the sign at the entrance to the contraflow bus lane on Berkeley Street, Mayfair. It demonstrates that pre-Worboys No Entry signs could have exceptions written on them, but that text was in upper-case on a white background. Such signs would have been specially-authorised by the Ministry.

Another photograph of the junction taken in 1967 shows the advance direction sign before the bus gate. This sign uses three colours, which appear as different shades of grey:

• black for the prominent arrow showing which way traffic should go;

• blue for the vertical line representing the road, the border of the sign and for the words ALL ROUTES;

• red for the No Entry sign, the horizontal line separating the main panel from the narrow panel at the top and for the text above it.

The use of:

• the pre-Worboys No Entry sign with the words NO ENTRY in black;

• words written on the No Entry sign itself rather than on a separate plate;

• blue and red for text and for lines on a sign

are all features of road signs before the Worboys reforms. 

They imply that the signs were created and placed before the end of 1964, when TSRGD 1964 came into force. 

The use of the Worboys-style font with mainly lower-case lettering for the words "Except Buses" on the No Entry signs implies that the Worboys Report had been published, i.e. that the signs were created during 1964. This is corroborated by the date of the stopping-up order.

Although the photographs are from 1967, these pre-Worboys features date the signs to 1964. With the signs dating from 1964, the bus gate must also date from 1964.

Tyburn Way, Marble Arch, London

Tyburn Way is a bus-only short-cut across the roundabout at Marble Arch, London. 

The Marble Arch was built in 1827 as a grand entrance to Buckingham Palace. Moved in 1851, it became the north-eastern entrance to Hyde Park. This is open to the public during daytime and evening, when vehicles could use the East Carriage Drive in both directions, passing in and out through gates either side of the Arch. 

In 1900 Marble Arch tube station opened nearby, giving rise to the use of "Marble Arch" as the name of the area. In 1908 a two-way road was created immediately to its south and west. This connected Park Lane to Edgware Road and Bayswater Road but separated the Arch from the Park, putting it in the middle of a road junction (see this 1919 map).

In 1924 the architect H.V.Lanchester proposed gyratories as a means of easing congestion in London squares and at complex junctions. Traffic would flow clockwise rather than taking the shortest route between entry and exit. It was adopted from 1926, with Marble Arch one of the first applications. The road to the south of the Arch was now named Tyburn Way.

Between 1961 and 1962, the road system around Marble Arch was remodelled as part of a larger scheme. This included turning Park Lane into a dual carriageway by making the existing Park Lane one-way southbound and converting the East Carriage Drive into the northbound carriageway. 

This aerial view shows the resulting roundabout and its surrounding roads as they are today.

The roundabout is elongated and consists of straight sections with rounded corners and exits. Tyburn Way is now a south-to-north short-cut across it. The elongation arises because Edgware Road, which joins it from the north west, lies some way west of Park Lane, which joins it from the south. 

In January 1965, the police applied to close Tyburn Way. They assessed that it was causing congestion and accidents where traffic left Tyburn Way and that the whole scheme would work better without it. A subsequent assessment confirmed this and the closure was extended and then made permanent. 

At this time, there was no general rule about who had priority on roundabouts. From 1956, some local authorities had introduced the rule to give priority to traffic which was already on the roundabout. This was found to work better than the old practice under which some drivers courteously gave way to vehicles seeking to join the roundabout. Trials of "Give way" signs by the Ministry of Transport began in 1963 and would lead in 1966 to the introduction of "Give way" road markings at the entry to roundabouts ("Give way" signs came later).

In 1966 London Transport introduced Red Arrow buses. These provided "express" services but with fewer seats and more standing. The flagship was the 500 service between Victoria and Marble Arch, which was extended during shopping hours to Oxford Circus. To speed this service up, in August 1966 London Transport proposed opening Tyburn Way to the Red Arrow 500 service only: other London Transport buses would continue to go the long way round when turning right from Park Lane to Oxford Street.

The City of Westminster (Restriction of Traffic) Order 1966 duly reopened Tyburn Way for this very limited purpose. A 1967 photograph shows it to have had No Entry signs with the words "Except for Buses" in white on the red beneath the white bar (i.e. very similar to the signs on Bessborough Gardens). 

In October 1973, Tyburn Way was opened to all scheduled buses by The City of Westminster (Restriction of Traffic) Experimental Traffic Order 1973.

The bus gate remains in use 60 years after the first Red Arrow buses. It continues to use No Entry signs, but with "Except buses" plates rather than text written on the signs. There is now a road marking: BUS ONLY rather than BUS GATE. 

High Street, Watford

Another early bus gate was photographed in Watford in December 1966. It used Motor Vehicles Prohibited signs ("flying motorcycle") with "Except for buses" plates and a BUSES ONLY road marking to ban all but buses and cycles from turning left from the High Street to Market Street. The view below shows the location in 2019. 

Bollards across the full width of High Street beyond the junction meant that other vehicles had to do a U-turn and return the way they had come.

The First with-flow Bus Lanes and their Signage

All of the bus-only facilities listed above (and there may have been more, not recorded in photographs held by London Transport Museum) allowed buses to go where other vehicles could not. The bus gates had BUSES ONLY at their start, so were catalogued as "Buses only" lanes. 

The first with-flow bus lanes in the UK were introduced on Park Lane and Vauxhall Bridge in London on 26 February 1968.  These were the first bus lanes to have the term "Bus Lane" in the title of the traffic order: Park Lane's wasn't numbered (because it was the first); Vauxhall Bridge's was "No. 2".  Unlike previous bus-only facilities, they ran parallel with other lanes which were open to all vehicles. Their purpose was to allow buses to move faster than other traffic in the same direction. 

The previous bus-only facilities had needed signage only at the point of entry. The new bus lanes also needed signage (i.e. road markings) to keep other vehicles out of the bus lane as it ran beside other lanes. The traffic orders specified that the bus lanes had transverse broken single white lines at their start and end. 

Park Lane

The bus lane on Park Lane was originally intended to come into force during December 1967 (see notice of 17 November 1967). There must have been some hitch, because The Greater London (Bus Lane) Experimental Traffic Order 1968 (GLC 1968/46) was not made until 15 February 1968 with it coming into force on 26 February 1968. The traffic order specified that it was to extend southbound for 180 yards from Curzon Street to just beyond Achilles Way, with a solid white line on its offside and transverse broken white lines at each end. It applied 4 p.m. - 7 p.m., Monday - Friday. The white lines were specially authorised under section 54 of Road Traffic Regulation Act 1967.

The photographs below show the bus lane as it appeared looking south from the junction with Curzon Street in 1969 and 2023 (when it occupied the two inner  lanes and had started further north, with a break at Curzon Street). 

The 1969 photograph shows the transverse broken white line at the start of the bus lane to be on a taper, as with the markings at the start of bus lanes today. However, the white line was either the same width as the standard lane marking (100mm) or possibly a little more, rather than the wide line (250 or 300mm) used from 1975. Th photograph shows a further circular sign with a (presumably red) border beside the end of the taper. Beneath it is a plate which reads "No vehicles // Left hand lane // Mon-Fri 4-7 pm // Except buses ". What lay inside the red border is hard to make out, but the contemporary bus gate in Watford used a Motor Vehicles Prohibited sign with the plate "Except for buses" and the road marking "BUSES ONLY". It seems likely that this bus lane used similar signage but with a different plate.

The use of the BUSES ONLY road marking is confirmed by the Daily Express's report on 27 February 1968: about both the bus lanes which came into force on 26 February 1968:

'Buses only’ leads to chaos 

... Despite the presence of three policemen at the beginning of the bridge, motorists ignored the large blue-and-white signs on the kerb and the “buses only” instruction painted on the road... At Park Lane, where there is a 175-yard section reserved for buses, the result was inconclusive.

Another photograph of the bus lane, looking north, shows its end outside the Hilton Hotel. This image shows the solid white line on the outside of the bus lane and the broken white line across its end.

One issue, which arose with the bus lane on Park Lane, was what to do where there was a nearside junction with a side road. The solution adopted was to have the bus lane continue legally across the side road but to break the continuous white line and write the traffic order to permit vehicles going to and from side roads to cross the bus lane.

Other issues concerned what vehicles beyond buses should be allowed to use a bus lane. The answer, as expressed in the traffic order was:

• emergency services vehicles;

• vehicles delivering or collecting post from adjacent premises or pillar boxes;

• refuse collection vehicles operated by the local authority;

• vehicles which disabled people were boarding or from which they were alighting, provided the vehicle stopped for no more than two minutes.

Cycles were not permitted, but the use of the Motor Vehicles Prohibited sign could be regarded as . These subsequently became part of a model traffic order issued by the Department and were standard for with-flow bus lanes.

Vauxhall Bridge

The notice for the bus lane on Vauxhall Bridge was published on 2 February 1968. The Greater London (Bus Lane No. 2) Experimental Traffic Order 1968 (GLC 1968/47) was made on 19 February 1968 and came into force on 26 February 1968. The traffic order specified that the bus lane lay between two continuous single white lines (so it lay in the middle of the road), with broken transverse white lines at each end. These white lines were stated to be specially authorised under section 54 of Road Traffic Regulation Act 1967.

The Daily Express's report of 27 February 1968 identified precisely where the lane was and how space for it had been created:

At Vauxhall southbound buses use a centre lane created by removing the central refuges. Despite the presence of three policemen at the beginning of the bridge, motorists ignored the large blue-and-white signs on the kerb and the “buses only” instruction painted on the road. In addition, there was trouble at traffic lights at the south end of the bridge as buses rejoined other traffic. 

This photograph is taken from Vauxhall Cross and shows the bus lane at its eastern end.

First substantial Contraflow Bus Lane

King's Road, Reading

The first substantial contraflow bus lane in the UK was King's Road, Reading, which came into effect on 16 June 1968. The road is four lanes wide and had been two lanes in each direction, with trolley-buses using the nearside lanes. 

Trolleybuses were due to be scrapped on 3 November 1968, to be superseded by diesel buses. The plan was to make King's Road eastbound with the adjacent London Road westbound. 

To maintain the bus service, the westbound lane used by trolley-buses was converted to a contraflow bus lane. 

Whereas with-flow bus lanes required specially-authorised signage (longitudinal single white lines and transverse broken white lines) to separate the bus lane from the rest of the carriageway, contraflow bus lanes did not. They could use the standard double white line.

Access to the bus lane at its start required the specially-authorised "Except for buses" plate in conjunction with a standard No Entry sign. The road marking BUSES ONLY would presumably have been used as well. Access at other junctions was prohibited by standard No Left Turn or No Right Turn signs. 

Photographs from the early 1970s indicate that at junctions with side roads, the BUSES ONLY road marking was placed in the contraflow lane facing against the direction of travel. This was to discourage drivers from entering the lane going the wrong way.

The experiment proved so successful that it was made permanent for use by diesel buses. It remains in use today.

Physically-separated lanes for Buses

While bus lanes were usually created using white lines, this wasn't the only way to create them. Physical separation was another possibility. This involved creating a kerbed structure (i.e. a very long traffic island, or a series of them) instead of a white line. Such kerbed structures weren't traffic signs, so did not require special authorisation from the Ministry. 

Without special authorisation, a council couldn't (legally) use any of the signage for bus lanes, but it could use psychological measures to discourage traffic from entering the bus lane.

High Road, Tottenham

London Borough of Haringey appears to have been the first to propose a physically-separated bus lane. It seems likely that the signage was specially authorised. On 5 July 1968 it published a Notice of The Haringey (Various Roads) Experimental Traffic Order 1968. 

High Road, Tottenham forms part of the A10. The plan was to make ½ mile of High Road northbound-only except for buses, which would use a physically-separated southbound bus lane. Other southbound traffic would be diverted along Chesnut Road, Tottenham Hale and Broad Lane. As there were northbound lanes for all vehicles but only a bus lane southbound, the bus lane was contraflow.

The start of the bus lane can be seen in this high-angle photograph. Lane markings before its start indicate that vehicles have to turn left. There is a broken white line across the start of the bus lane with the marking BUSES ONLY beyond it. The signs at the start of the lane can be seen in this photograph looking south. On each side of the bus lane there is a No Entry sign with an "Except for buses" plate.

There have been many changes to Tottenham High Road since the 1960s. The physically-separated bus lane survived between Monument Way and Broad Lane until 2013. The photograph below shows the same location as this photograph looking north; it is just north of the junction with Colsterworth Road. In 1970 the road marking BUSES ONLY lay across the bus lane in the direction of travel and NO ENTRY facing north. By 2008 the bus stop bay had expanded to become a second bus lane and the road marking on the outer bus lane was BUS LANE in both directions.

Written 13th November 2025; last updated 4th April 2026.    See copyright notice