Bus Route 11: Fulham Town Hall to Waterloo

Published 28 September 2026 · Updated 9 November 2026 · By the Guide to London editorial team · Editor: Terje Moy

Route 11 runs from Fulham Town Hall to Waterloo: 26 stops eastbound, a scheduled 43 minutes, and one flat fare of £1.85. In practice it takes anything from 29 minutes at half past eleven at night to 53 minutes in the middle of a weekday morning, and TfL's own speed figures make it the slowest of the four central London bus routes worth riding for the view. It also does not reach Liverpool Street, whatever older guides say.

What you see out of the window, in order from Chelsea to Westminster Bridge, is already on our page about the red bus routes that beat a sightseeing tour, and there is no point repeating it. This page has the numbers: the measured journey time hour by hour, the hours and frequency, the stop letters, the listed buildings out of the window, what it costs a family, and what goes wrong. If you have not used a London bus before, how paying and boarding work comes first: contactless or Oyster, no cash, touch in once and never touch out.

It ends at Waterloo, and it has for years

Start with the correction, because it is the thing most likely to send a visitor the wrong way. Transport for London's own route sequence for the 11 runs Fulham Town Hall, Chelsea, Sloane Square, Victoria, Westminster Abbey, Westminster Bridge, Waterloo, and stops there at a stand on Waterloo's Upper Taxi Road. Twenty-six stops eastbound. It does not serve the Strand, it does not pass St Paul's, and it does not reach Liverpool Street.

Plenty of guidebooks still describe the 11 as a Fulham to Liverpool Street route, because for years it was. Board it expecting the City and you will be put off at Waterloo. What survives of the old eastern half is the night route, below.

How long it takes, hour by hour

We put eleven eastbound departures from Fulham Town Hall through TfL's Journey Planner, for a Wednesday at the end of September 2026, plus one on the Sunday. The shape is not what most people expect:

The slowest hours are not the peaks. They are from mid-morning to late afternoon, when Victoria Street, Parliament Square and the King's Road are full of vans unloading, coaches manoeuvring and cars waiting to turn right, and a bus can do nothing about any of it. The evening peak at 17:38 is two minutes quicker than midday. Westbound the numbers are flatter: 49 minutes leaving Waterloo at 08:38 and 50 minutes at 17:38.

Against the scheduled 43 minutes, the timetable is optimistic by ten minutes for most of the working day. Allow an hour between 10:00 and 17:00, and treat anything before 07:00 or after 21:00 as a quick run.

The slowest of the four, and TfL says so

TfL publishes mean observed speeds for every bus route, four-week period by four-week period, separating the weekday morning peak from the all-day average. For route 11 in the five periods from 1 April to late August 2026, the all-day figures were 6.24, 5.83, 6.09, 6.25 and 6.24 miles per hour, and the morning-peak figures were 6.20, 5.74, 5.94, 6.23 and 6.20.

Two things follow. First, the 11 has almost no peak penalty at all: the morning peak runs within a twentieth of a mile an hour of the all-day average, because the bus lanes and the traffic-light priority earn their keep at exactly the hour everyone assumes the route is worst. Its problem is the middle of the day. Second, it is the slowest of the four routes with pages of their own on this site. In the period to late August 2026 the 15 averaged 6.73 mph, the 88 6.62 and the 24 6.48, against the 11's 6.24.

That is not an argument against riding it. At six miles an hour you get a good look at everything, which is the point of a sightseeing bus. It is an argument against using it to be somewhere at a fixed time.

Hours, frequency, and the night route that goes further

The 11 is not a 24-hour route, which catches people out because several of the routes near it are. TfL's timetable for the Fulham Town Hall stand gives a first bus at 05:10 and a last at 00:25, with nothing at all between about 01:00 and 05:00. From Waterloo it is 05:15 to 00:30.

Frequency is five or six buses an hour for most of the day, rising to seven in the 08:00 hour on Monday to Friday and dropping to a flat five an hour all day on Sunday. Ten to twelve minutes is a normal wait, and in practice two buses arrive together after a twenty-minute gap often enough to be annoying.

Overnight the corridor is covered by route N11, which runs from Ealing Broadway to Horse Guards Parade and picks up the 11's line from Fulham Town Hall onwards through Chelsea, Sloane Square, Victoria and Westminster. TfL's timetable gives nine N11 journeys a night from Fulham Town Hall, from about 00:47 to 04:47, every night of the week, which is roughly one every half hour. The important difference: the N11 stops at Horse Guards Parade and does not cross Westminster Bridge, so it will not take you to Waterloo. Our guide to London night buses covers the wider network.

The stop letters, and the two places people board the wrong side

Every London bus stop has a letter on the flag, and on the 11 the letter is the only reliable way to tell which direction you are about to be carried in:

• Eastbound: Fulham Town Hall stop R, Chelsea Old Town Hall stop KL, Duke of York Square stop KP, Sloane Square Station stop M, Victoria Coach Station stop W, Victoria Station stop E, Westminster Abbey stop S, Waterloo Station Upper Taxi Road stop C.
• Westbound: Waterloo Station Upper Taxi Road stop A, Parliament Square / Westminster Abbey stop P, Victoria Station stop R, Victoria Coach Station stop V, Sloane Square Station stop K, Duke of York Square stop G, Chelsea Old Town Hall stop KC, Fulham Town Hall stop T.

Two places go wrong. At Waterloo the terminus is on the Upper Taxi Road, which is the ramp up the side of the station rather than the bus station on the other side, so people wait in the wrong place entirely; our Waterloo station guide has the exits. And around Victoria the eastbound and westbound stops are on different streets rather than opposite kerbs, because the route threads through the one-way system; see Victoria station and Victoria Coach Station, which each get their own stop.

One asymmetry worth knowing. Eastbound the bus calls at Westminster Abbey and then at Westminster station on Bridge Street. Westbound it uses a single stop called Parliament Square / Westminster Abbey instead. Eastbound is also the direction that calls at Hobury Street and Old Church Street in Chelsea, while westbound calls at Royal Hospital Road and Walpole Street: 26 stops one way and 24 the other.

The listed buildings out of the window, in order

Reading the route against Historic England's list turns the 11 into something better than a sightseeing bus. Going east, these are the protected buildings the bus stops beside or passes within a few metres of:

The ones nobody points out are the smallest. The pair of red K6 telephone kiosks outside the Royal Court Theatre have their own listing, as do two more outside County Hall, and from the top deck you look straight down on them. Victoria Coach Station, which most passengers treat as an inconvenience, has been listed since 2014.

For the big ones, our pages on Westminster Cathedral, Westminster Abbey and the Palace of Westminster cover what you are looking at, and the bus puts you at the door of each. The London Eye is two minutes from the County Hall stop.

What it costs two adults and two children

Every London bus journey is £1.85 however far you go. Because of the Hopper fare, everything else you board in the hour after that first tap is included, so stepping off at Sloane Square, walking part of the King's Road and picking up the next 11 costs nothing.

The daily bus and tram cap is £5.55. Children under 11 travel free with no card at all. So two adults and two young children can ride the 11 and every other bus in London all day for £11.10 between them (November 2026), which is less than one adult ticket on a sightseeing coach. Children aged 11 to 15 need the Young Visitor discount added to an Oyster card by station staff, which halves adult fares and caps for up to fourteen days.

The trap is the cap: it only counts journeys made on the same card or device, so paying by phone before lunch and by plastic card afterwards leaves you with two half-days and no cap on either. Our explainer on how the caps work has the rest.

Which end to board for a seat at the front

Fulham Town Hall stop R is the eastbound terminus and the bus starts empty there, which is the only reliable way to get the front row upstairs. By Sloane Square the front has gone. Coming the other way, Waterloo stop A does the same job.

Fulham Town Hall is a few minutes from Fulham Broadway station on the District line, whose former entrance building and train shed are themselves listed Grade II. From there the western half of the route is the best continuous look at Chelsea available from a seat, and the shops are covered in the King's Road and Chelsea.

What goes wrong

Ceremonial events are the main problem, and they hit this route harder than most because it runs through Parliament Square and past the Abbey. State occasions, remembrance services and security incidents all divert the 11 away from the part you boarded for. Check the status page that morning if Westminster is the point.

The second recurring problem is curtailment: at busy times buses are turned short of the terminus and everybody is asked to get off, usually at Victoria. Your Hopper fare covers boarding the next one, so it costs time rather than money.

The third is the route's shape. Five or six an hour means bunching, and there is no luggage rack on a London bus, so a suitcase upstairs is a bad idea on a fifty-minute ride. Every bus has a ramp and one wheelchair space.

Frequently asked questions

Where does the number 11 bus go in London?

From Fulham Town Hall east through Chelsea and the King's Road, Sloane Square, Victoria, Westminster Cathedral, Westminster Abbey and over Westminster Bridge to Waterloo. Twenty-six stops eastbound. It does not go to the Strand, St Paul's or Liverpool Street, although older guidebooks say it does.

How long does the number 11 bus take end to end?

Scheduled at 43 minutes, and measured on TfL's Journey Planner at 29 minutes late at night, about 52 minutes in the morning peak and 53 minutes in the middle of a weekday morning, which is the slowest time of day. Allow an hour between 10:00 and 17:00.

Does the number 11 bus run all night?

No. The last 11 leaves Fulham Town Hall at 00:25 and Waterloo at 00:30. Overnight the corridor is served by route N11, about every half hour from 00:47 to 04:47 every night, but the N11 ends at Horse Guards Parade and does not cross Westminster Bridge to Waterloo.

How much does the number 11 bus cost?

£1.85 for any journey, with unlimited further bus journeys within the hour under the Hopper fare. The daily bus cap is £5.55. Children under 11 travel free without a card, so two adults and two young children pay £11.10 for a whole day of buses.

Where do I board the 11 bus at Waterloo?

At the stand on the Upper Taxi Road, the ramp along the side of Waterloo station, not at the bus station. Stop A is the westbound departure point towards Fulham and stop C is where eastbound buses arrive. It is the single most common mistake made on this route.

Sources

• Transport for London Unified API - route 11 stop sequence, termini and stop letters, eastbound (checked September 2026)
• Transport for London Unified API - route 11 timetable from Fulham Town Hall, first and last buses and frequency (checked September 2026)
• Transport for London Unified API - route N11 night bus, Ealing Broadway to Horse Guards Parade (checked September 2026)
• Transport for London - buses performance data, mean observed bus speeds by route to period 5, 2026-27 (checked September 2026)
• Transport for London - bus and tram fares, the Hopper fare and the daily cap (checked September 2026)
• Mayor of London - MD3517, bus and tram fares from 1 November 2026 (checked November 2026)
• Historic England - Victoria Coach Station, list entry 1418262, Grade II (checked September 2026)
• Historic England - Fulham Town Hall, list entry 1191939, Grade II* (checked September 2026)
• Historic England - The South Bank Lion, list entry 1068742, Grade II* (checked September 2026)