London’s public transport network is one of the most extensive globally, with a whopping 96 per cent of Londoners living within a mere 400 metres from a bus route.
In 2021, Mayor Sadiq Khan announced TfL’s ambitious goal to ensure that 99 per cent of Londoners were within 600 metres of a bus route. The remaining one per cent are essentially farmhouses and rural cottages on London’s very fringes.
However, there’s one tiny village that bucks this trend. Noak Hill, just within the M25 motorway and barely in the borough of Havering, is the exception.
It’s essentially a cluster of houses, businesses, a church, school and temple gathered around a T-junction.
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The ‘village’ is just over 600 metres from the nearest bus stop at Wincanton Drive, which is actually on the furthest edge of Harold Hill.
Despite their proximity, the two areas are vastly different, separated by a country lane (Noak Hill Road) and several fields. The ‘Noak Hill’ bus stop is the terminus of routes 256, 294 and school route 646, which all display ‘Noak Hill’ on their destination screens even though it is not in the village proper, as shown in the map below.
Noak Hill, while not a complete transport desert, does present some challenges for public transportation. A ten-minute walk from the village church will get you to the nearest bus stop, and for those who can’t make the journey on foot, minicabs or a dial-a-ride service are available.
The road layout around the village doesn’t provide a suitable place for a bus to terminate, unlike nearby Havering-atte-Bower, which has a turning point at Passingford Bridge roundabout. This is why Noak Hill remains unserved by buses.
Despite its remote feel, Noak Hill isn’t the most isolated spot in Greater London. There are several villages and hamlets in Bromley borough that are even more rural, but they’re all served by TfL bus routes centred on Orpington, notably the R5, R7, R8 and R10 routes.
These routes only run a few times a day and operate on a ‘hail and ride’ basis, stopping anywhere safe instead of fixed bus stops. Many of the country lanes these routes travel along don’t have pavements on both sides, so fixed bus stops could potentially obstruct traffic.
Just beyond the village, over the M25 in Essex, lie Old MacDonald’s Farm and Fun Park and Weald Country Park, both of which bring road traffic through the area. Apart from this, the village is relatively quiet, and all the homes furthest from the bus stop have off-street parking.
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