Stop Flags

Bus stop flags had their own coding system (as did everything in London Transport). A basic flag would be B(C) or B(R), standing for Bus (Compulsory) or Bus (Request). Coaches were C(C) or C(R), Coach (Compulsory) etc. “A” was the code for Red Arrow stops. A compulsory flag with “E” plates below would be B(C)E3 (or 6 or 9) with the numeral standing for the numbers of “E” plates that could be fitted. Bus and Coach could be mixed on the same flag, normally B(C)C(R) being Bus (Compulsory) Coach (Request). A real rarity was B(R)C(C). Similarly, “G” plates below would be B(C)G3 (or 6 or 9) with the numeral representing the size of the “G” plate. A maximum of three rows were available below the flag, and could be used by any combination of “E” and “G” plates, with the “G” plates affixed at the bottom.

The price of a stop flag varies greatly, depending upon its style, condition and scarcity. I have started tracking the sale of stop flags on ebay, and they are tabulated here.

London Transport’s first standard design for a stop flag was this blank “bullseye”. It is not believed to have been used for very long. There was also a BY REQUEST version which was rejected. It is interesteing to note that the arrow motif of the second coach request stop was used for stop finials.

The tram-only versions were very uncommon, having been put up in just a few places right at the end of the life of the trams. I am certain that the request version did not come in a version with a black bar, but the London Transport Museum sells a miniature reproduction of one, so I have illustrated it anyhow. (At least one with a white bar has been preserved.) Some other “what if” designs are illustrated on their own page. Initally, trolleybus stop flags were the same colours as tram ones, except that they (naturally) had the word TROLLEYBUS instead of TRAM on them. However, after World War II trolleybus stops were simply marked with regular red BUS STOP flags. I could be wrong, but I think that trams never shared stopping places with buses or trolleybuses because there would have been a conflict between passengers trying to board trams in the middle of the road and buses pulling up at the kerb.

In some instances, the name of the terminal was on the bus stop sign or adjacent shelter. The type with the name of the stop across the bar of the roundel is a 1980s innovation, contemporary with vinyl “E stickers”. The earliest photo I have of one is dated 1989. I believe the names were vinyl labels stuck onto the bar of the plain red roundel compulsory flags and (if memory serves) also on the white Request stop roundels, obliterating the word REQUEST on the latter. The effect was therefore similar to the erroneous souvenir miniature request stop plates produced for the Museum (though the latter have the word REQUEST at the bottom instead of BUS STOP). The use of these stickers was widespread in Central London. Their function has since been replaced by—as it were—“G plaques” (though they are located above the “E plaques”) on current stops.

Kim Rennie writes
“I’m sure there was an LT COACH STAND stop at Baker Street in Allsop Place for the 709 until this came off. Also, I think the last LT compulsory coach stop was on the Embankment eastbound just east of the Underground station. Being only used by commuter services, it was only replaced a couple of years ago. In fact, the modern TfL COACHES stop with their orange ring and dark bar look more ‘pukka’ than the current TfL all-red BUSES design!”

In the late 1940s shared stops began using a single flag split horizontally with smaller bullseyes above and below. (Interestingly, this idea is very similar to the bus/Red Arrow stops from the 1960s.) The vertically-divided bullseye signs for multiple services were introduced in 1949 when trams had only a two or three years left in service.

This is a rather poor extract from an uncredited picture in Andrew Colebourne’s collection, showing a horizontally-split B(C)C(R) stop flag which had survived as late as 1975. →

↑ Keith Williams writes, “A dual compulsory Green Line/bus request was on the Uxbridge Road, Hanwell for the 607 (later 207), 709, 710 & 711 eastbound, one bus stop before Hanwell LT depot [HL], west of Hanwell clock tower. This is because the next bus stop was immediately outside of the bus garage which of course was a bus compulsory and where there were crew changes and thus parked buses. Hence, the Green Line stop was about 500 yards away at the preceding bus request stop so that stopping Green Lines didn’t interfere with bus movements. I am 100% certain of this fact, because I used that stop myself. I never saw another stop like it, until one day sometime around the mid ’60s, whilst on a 725 in Beckenham on a journey to Kingston, I am 90% certain I saw another one ([in the] Kingston direction).
“With more thought, I feel the Hanwell one was more to get unimpeded coach access to kerb space rather that what I originally said about not interfering with bus movements. After all, outside of Hanwell garage where there were always parked buses, the need to keep a space clear for a Green Line coach that hardly anyone would have used at that stop would have led to them re-siting that stop to an ‘out of the way’ place—hence it being located west of Hanwell Clock Tower.
“Now you know of a second, but I feel certain that some Beckenham locals will be able to confirm a third from contemporary photos. The reason I am so confident (90%+) about the Beckenham one is because having seen it whilst on the 725 (in 1964 or ’65 I think). I was in a car in Beckenham a few (eight?) years later, and I am sure I saw it again which is how I knew where I was in otherwise unfamiliar territory. From the picture in my memory I think the Beckenham one did have “E” plate runners. My memory is fading, but I am fairly confident that the Hanwell one had no runners.”

Another B(R)C(C) was in Edgware High Street, northbound. Keith wonders, “Was that [one] perhaps [also] one bus stop before the garage too, which wouldn’t have been a bus compulsory because the next stop would have been the major bus stop for the garage, or would all buses have then turned into the garage whereas the coaches wouldn’t? If so, [it] seems there is a pattern here.”

This larger type of sign was fixed to wooden shelters and was therefore more common in outer suburban and country areas. Their use was widespread, and were in addition to the Bus Stop sign which would be erected alongside the shelter.

This was probably the largest permanent enamel sign used for London Transport buses (apart from the red TO BUSES sign in Turnpike Lane booking hall). There had been two of each on each side of Minories bus station, but the west side one survived longest, I think. Unfortunately, this image is from a faded slide of what was then a faded sign in poor condition. Up to the mid-80s so many of these oddities were still remaining in both the LT and London Country areas. Of course now it’s all too late!.

Keith Williams writes:

“On the Uxbridge Road Ealing, westbound between Ealing Broadway and West Ealing, was a coach stop in LT mode, and almost certainly from the same manufacturer, but it was for non-LT coaches such as the Crosville overnight service to Liverpool and the South Midland services to Oxford, both of which I caught from that stop. It was identical in shape to the LT standard issue, but it was in black and white only. I’m afraid it was so long ago now that I cannot remember any more about it. For the return London-bound services the stop was nearer to Ealing Broadway, but as I only ever got off there, I didn’t spend any time studying it.

“I think it had the LT roundel (memory is failing me) in white on a black or very dark background, and I think the bar read UNITED COACH SERVICES (which would make sense if it was used by both South Midland and Crosville) with a plate underneath stating words to the effect that LONDON TRANSPORT SERVICES DO NOT SERVE THIS STOP, but I assumed it had the LT roundel as it was within the LT area and this stop was only used for scheduled services. Also, I think where the timetable would have been, the same message was posted.

“What was in Ealing in the ’50s and ’60s was something which looked as if it had been manufactured by LT attached to an LT concrete post, although there were of course no other signs on it as LT vehicles didn’t use it. I last used it in 1967 [at the] latest, if not ’66, and moved down to Sussex so never saw it again. I do wish my memory was better.

“I know the plate had black letters on a white background, (although your drawing looks better [than] it did in reality) and I also think the plate was separated from the stop sign by a gap of about 2 inches. From memory, London-bound services set down nearer Ealing Broadway and in the timetable it said ‘Ealing Broadway, Christ Church’. I am not sure there even was a stop sign there, as it was just a setting down point; services from Oxford and Liverpool would never have been allowed to pick up there for routes terminating in London. Does anyone have a 1960-era Crosville or South Midland timetable?”

I am reliably informed that only four of these were ever made: London Transport enamel flags, but made solely for National Express coach stops. On regular stops LT used National Express “E” plates, but this flag is from a point on the Old Kent Road (in southeast London) exclusive to National Express coaches only. Being within the Greater London boundary, LT obviously thought it appropiate to have the flag in their own distinctive style. The flag shown below retains its unique LT bus stop reference plate, still screwed into the recess on the underside: the number is 35060.

Andrew Colebourne found this photograph by Nick Bailey on the Webshots site. It is of RF79 in 1977 at the Wood Street stand in Kingston, next to the station. Of interest is the BOARDING POINT FOR BUSES sign on the left, mounted on a Birmingham Guild pole. It is an interesting variation on the bus stop flag, and has space for six “E” plates, though none were fitted at the time of the picture.