Bus Route 15: Blackwall to Charing Cross

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

Route 15 runs between Blackwall station in Docklands and Charing Cross, and the western half of it is the best half-hour of sightseeing in London for £1.75: the Tower, Monument, the Bank junction, St Paul's, Ludgate Circus, the law courts, the Strand and Trafalgar Square, in that order, from an upstairs window. The whole line is 35 stops and about an hour; the part that matters is 14 stops and about half an hour.

Two things to know before you go looking for it. This is an ordinary red double-decker, so you pay by tapping a card, phone or Oyster card once as you board and you do not touch out. And there is no heritage Routemaster on it, whatever older guidebooks say. Our round-up of bus routes worth riding for the view describes what you see out of the window, in order. This page is the operating detail: real journey times hour by hour, first and last buses, the fare for a family, the stop letters, and the listed buildings on the half of the route nobody writes about.

If you came looking for the open-platform Routemaster

There is no heritage service on route 15. The weekend operation that ran preserved Routemasters with an open rear platform between Tower Hill and Trafalgar Square was numbered 15H, and 15H does not appear anywhere in Transport for London's own list of bus routes: we counted 675 routes in that data in September 2026 and it is not one of them. Preserved Routemasters do still appear in London, on private hire and at rallies, and our page on Routemasters and heritage buses tells you where. What you will get on the 15 is a modern double-decker with a front door, a ramp and a staircase you climb yourself.

The last bus is at half past midnight, and the night bus has a different number

Route 15 is not a 24-hour route, which is the most useful thing to know about it if you are out late. Counted out of the timetable for the Blackwall stand, the first westbound journey leaves at 05:30 and the last at 00:30, and the pattern is identical on all five timetabled day types. Eastbound from Charing Cross the window is 05:35 to 00:35. There is nothing at all between about one and half past five in the morning.

What fills that gap is the N15, which runs every night of the week from Romford Market to Oxford Circus and follows the 15's central section exactly: Aldgate, the Minories, Tower Hill, Monument, Bank, St Paul's, Ludgate Circus, Fleet Street, the Strand and Charing Cross, then on past Trafalgar Square and Piccadilly Circus. First departures from Romford are at 00:17 on Friday and Saturday nights and 00:23 on the others; the last leaves at about 04:35.

It is also much faster. TfL's observed speed figures put the N15 at 11.1 to 11.7 miles an hour across the four-week periods from April to August 2026, against 6.4 to 6.7 for the daytime 15. Our guide to London's night buses has the wider network, and what to do when you miss the last Tube matches night routes to Underground lines.

How long the ride takes, hour by hour

We put twelve departures from the Blackwall stand to Charing Cross through Transport for London's Journey Planner for a Wednesday in late September 2026. The 03:30 request returned no service at all.

Most visitors will not ride the whole thing, so here is the stretch that matters on its own. From the Tower of London stop to Charing Cross the same exercise gave 23 minutes at 07:06, 31 minutes at 09:06, 32 minutes at 10:41, 30 minutes at 12:06, 28 minutes at 14:12, 27 minutes at 16:09, 28 minutes at 18:00, 23 minutes at 20:10 and 21 minutes at 22:06. In other words, allow half an hour between the Tower and Trafalgar Square at any reasonable hour, and closer to twenty minutes after eight in the evening.

What Transport for London's own speed figures say

TfL publishes the mean observed speed of every bus route, four-week period by four-week period, separately for the morning peak and for all hours of all days. For the five periods from 1 April to 21 August 2026 the 15 came out at 6.44 to 6.73 miles an hour across the whole day, and 5.72 to 6.50 miles an hour in the weekday morning peak.

That is worth setting against route 24, where the morning peak is marginally the quicker of the two figures. On the 15 the morning peak is consistently the slower, by between a fifth and three quarters of a mile an hour, because its peak hours are spent on Commercial Road and the approach to Aldgate, which has very little bus priority. If you want the faster bus, take it after seven in the evening; if you want the slower one, that is what sightseeing is.

Boarding, and the stop letters that stop you going the wrong way

Every London bus stop has a letter on the flag, and on the 15 the letters are how you avoid a forty-minute ride in the wrong direction. Westbound, towards the West End, the ones to know are Blackwall Station stop P, Aldgate Station stop R, Tower of London / Tower Hill Station stop TA, St Paul's Cathedral stop SJ and Charing Cross Station stop H. Eastbound, back towards Docklands, the departure point is Charing Cross Stn / Trafalgar Square stop F, St Paul's Cathedral becomes stop SK, Tower Hill becomes stop TB, and buses finish at Blackwall Station stop AP.

For the front two seats upstairs, board at or near a terminus while the bus is still empty. Westbound that means Blackwall, Poplar High Street or Bazely Street; they will be gone by Aldgate. Eastbound, board at Charing Cross itself. If you join at Tower Hill in the middle of the day, the best you can hope for is a window seat on the right-hand side, which going west is the side for the Royal Exchange and the law courts. How paying and boarding work covers the rest, including the fact that there is no need to touch out.

Three listed buildings on the half of the route nobody describes

East of Aldgate the 15 stops being a sightseeing bus and becomes a Commercial Road bus, which is why every guidebook cuts the route off at the Tower. These three are all on Historic England's statutory list and all visible from the top deck.

Ibex House, at the Minories. Just before Tower Hill the bus comes up the Minories, and on the corner stands an eleven-storey office block faced in black faience at street level and buff above, with continuous bands of metal-framed windows curving round the centre of each front. Built in 1937 by Fuller, Hall and Foulsham, described in the list as "modernistic", and Grade II since 9 March 1982. If you have read our page on art deco London and wanted a whole building rather than a cinema front, this is it.

The Church of St Mary and St Michael, Commercial Road. Between Watney Market and Stepney a very large brick Roman Catholic church appears on the north side, set back behind railings. It was added to the list, at Grade II, on 1 June 2001. It is the biggest single building on the eastern half of the route and almost nobody looks up at it.

St Anne's Limehouse, and the pyramid in its churchyard. At the Limehouse Town Hall stop, look north. The enormous tower belongs to the Church of St Anne, one of Nicholas Hawksmoor's East End churches, listed Grade I on 29 December 1950. In the churchyard, about twenty-five metres north-west of it, stands a stone pyramid, listed separately at Grade II in November 1997 and unexplained to this day. Limehouse Town Hall opposite is a white brick building of 1879, Grade II since September 1973. Three listings in one stop.

Further east, just before Poplar, the parish church of All Saints with St Frideswide has been listed Grade II since July 1950 and is one of the set pieces of Poplar and Blackwall. At the Aldgate end, opposite the Grade I church of St Botolph, stands the Hoop & Grapes at 47 Aldgate High Street: Grade II*, timber-framed, and visibly crooked. The Food Standards Agency rates it 5, inspected on 21 August 2026.

What the ride costs two adults and two children

A London bus charges the same fare however far you go, so riding the 15 end to end costs £1.75, exactly the same as one stop. From 1 November 2026 that becomes £1.85. The Hopper fare then gives you any number of further bus or tram journeys within an hour of that first tap for nothing extra.

For a family the arithmetic is better still. Children under 11 travel free on London buses with an adult and need no card at all, so two adults and two small children ride the full length for £3.50 between them in September 2026. If the adults keep using buses all day the most they can pay is the bus and tram cap of £5.25 each, rising to £5.55 in November: £10.50 for the family. Our explainer on how the fare caps work covers the trap, which is that a cap only counts journeys made on the same card or device.

What goes wrong

The City is a building site in rotation, and Lower Thames Street, Cannon Street and Ludgate Hill are all periodically dug up, which sends the 15 on a diversion that skips the stop you wanted. Closures on the Strand and around Trafalgar Square do the same at the western end. Buses are also curtailed short of the terminus, and everybody is asked to get off; if that happens your Hopper fare covers the next one.

There is no luggage rack on a London bus, and the top deck of a crowded 15 is a bad place to be holding a suitcase. The eastern half of the route also runs through residential Stepney and Limehouse with few shops open in the evening and no public toilets, so ride out to Blackwall in daylight. Our guide to Whitechapel and the East End explains what is worth getting off for, and step-free transport in London covers wheelchair and buggy priority on buses.

Frequently asked questions

Is there still a heritage Routemaster on route 15?

No. The weekend heritage service numbered 15H no longer exists and does not appear among the 675 bus routes in Transport for London's published route data as of September 2026. Every bus on route 15 today is a modern double-decker with a front door, a ramp and a wheelchair space. Preserved Routemasters appear in London on private hire and at rallies rather than on a scheduled route.

Does the number 15 bus run all night?

No. The first bus leaves Blackwall at 05:30 and the last at 00:30, seven days a week, with the same pattern in the other direction from Charing Cross at 05:35 and 00:35. Between about one o'clock and half past five in the morning the route is covered by the N15, which runs every night from Romford to Oxford Circus along the same central roads.

How long does the 15 bus take from the Tower of London to Trafalgar Square?

Between 21 and 32 minutes, depending on the hour. Journey Planner gave 23 minutes for a 07:06 departure, 32 minutes at 10:41, 27 minutes at 16:09 and 21 minutes at 22:06 on a Wednesday in late September 2026. Allow half an hour in the middle of the day and add ten minutes if the City is being dug up.

Where do I get on route 15 for the front seat upstairs?

Going west, at Blackwall station stop P or one of the next two stops in Poplar, where the bus is still empty. By Aldgate the front row has almost always gone. Going east, board at Charing Cross Stn / Trafalgar Square, stop F. Boarding at Tower Hill in the middle of the day means taking whatever is left.

Which Underground stations on the route have no lifts?

In Transport for London's detailed station data, Monument, St Paul's, Chancery Lane, Temple, Aldgate and Aldgate East have no lifts at all, and Tower Hill has two. Every bus on route 15 has a ramp and one wheelchair space, so along this corridor the bus is the level way to travel rather than the fallback.

Sources

• Transport for London - Unified API, route 15 stop sequence and stop letters (checked September 2026)
• Transport for London - Unified API, route 15 timetable from Blackwall station (checked September 2026)
• Transport for London - Unified API, every London bus route and its termini (checked September 2026)
• Transport for London - Buses performance data, mean observed speed by route to period 5 of 2026-27 (checked September 2026)
• Transport for London - Bus and tram fares, Hopper fare and caps (checked September 2026)
• Transport for London - Detailed station data, lifts and step-free information (checked September 2026)
• Historic England - Ibex House, Minories, list entry 1252467 (checked September 2026)
• Historic England - Limehouse Town Hall, Commercial Road, list entry 1240047 (checked September 2026)
• Food Standards Agency - food hygiene rating for The Hoop & Grapes, 47 Aldgate High Street EC3N 1AL (checked September 2026)