London Buses route 37 is a

Transport for London Transport for London (TfL) is a local government body responsible for most of the transport network in London, United Kingdom. TfL is the successor organization of the London Passenger Transport Board, which was established in 1933, and His ...

contracted bus route in

London London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...

, England. Running between

Peckham Peckham ( ) is a district in south-east London, within the London Borough of Southwark. It is south-east of Charing Cross. At the 2001 Census the Peckham ward had a population of 14,720. History "Peckham" is a Saxon place name meaning the vi ...

and

Putney Heath Wimbledon Common is a large open space in Wimbledon, southwest London. There are three named areas: Wimbledon Common, Putney Heath, and Putney Lower Common, which together are managed under the name Wimbledon and Putney Commons totalling 46 ...

, it is operated by

London Central The London Central Bus Company is a bus operator brand under London General Transport Services Limited, trading as Go-Ahead London. It is a subsidiary of the Go-Ahead Group and primarily operates services in South London under contract to Tran ...

, a subsidiary of

Go-Ahead London Go-Ahead London is a major bus operator in Greater London. The name first appeared in August 2008, before which the company had traded under separate names and brands. It is currently (as of April 2025) the largest bus operator in Greater Londo ...

History

During

World War I World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...

it was operated with

naptha Naphtha (, recorded as less common or nonstandard in all dictionaries: ) is a flammable liquid hydrocarbon mixture. Generally, it is a fraction of crude oil, but it can also be produced from natural-gas condensates, petroleum distillates, and ...

powered vehicles. The route was the first in London to be staffed by a female conductor from 1 November 1915. Five

AEC Regent I The AEC Regent I was a double-decker bus chassis manufactured by AEC from 1929 to 1942. History The AEC Regent was a bus chassis introduced by AEC in 1929. Twelve pre-production examples had been completed by July 1929, with mainstream produc ...

double-decker bus A double-decker bus is a bus that has two storeys or decks. Double-deckers are used primarily for commuter transport, but open-top models are used as sightseeing buses for tourists, and there are coaches too for long-distance travel. They app ...

es with open tops were ordered by Charles Pickup for route 37 on weekdays in 1932, now running between Peckham and Richmond. It was later extended to

Hounslow Hounslow ( ) is a large suburban district of West London, England, west-southwest of Charing Cross. It is the administrative centre of the London Borough of Hounslow, and is identified in the London Plan as one of the 14 metropolitan cen ...

. In April 1997, the route gained a

night bus Night service, sometimes also known as owl service, is a mode of public transport service operated during the night hours. As an intermediate approach – between providing full service around the clock and stopping services altogether – it p ...

variant, route N37. It was the 50th night bus route to begin operation in London. This route was withdrawn when the 37 became a 24-hour service in April 2004. Route 37 was selected by Transport for London to be the trial route for the operation of two

Wright SRM The Wright SRM (Son of Route Master) is a twin-axle double-decker bus body manufactured by Wrightbus in 2016, designed for the Volvo B5LH and Volvo B5LHC hybrid chassis. The design is based on the New Routemaster, sharing the majority of bod ...

double-deckers on Volvo B5LHC

hybrid electric A hybrid electric vehicle (HEV) is a type of hybrid vehicle that couples a conventional internal combustion engine (ICE) with one or more electric engines into a combined propulsion system. The presence of the electric powertrain, which has i ...

chassis in 2018. These buses were equipped with roof-mounted

pantograph A pantograph (, from their original use for copying writing) is a Linkage (mechanical), mechanical linkage connected in a manner based on parallelograms so that the movement of one pen, in tracing an image, produces identical movements in a se ...

chargers that could charge the B5LHC's batteries when attached to Volvo 'OppCharge' opportunity charging gantries, scheduled to be installed at the 37's termini at Peckham bus station and Putney Heath, which would allow for the SRMs to run for each direction in

battery electric bus A battery electric bus is an electric bus that is driven by an electric motor and obtains energy from on-board batteries. Many trolleybuses use batteries as an auxiliary or emergency power source. Battery electric buses offer the potential for z ...

mode. However, the trial SRMs eventually entered service on 1 August 2018 as conventional hybrids after TfL abandoned plans to install the opportunity charging gantries, stating there was insufficient space at Peckham bus station and Putney Heath.

Current route

Route 37 operates via these primary locations:Route 37 Map
Transport for London *

''bus station'' * Peckham Rye station *

East Dulwich East Dulwich is an area of South (London sub region), South East London, England in the London Borough of Southwark. It forms the eastern part of Dulwich, with Peckham to the east and Camberwell to the north. East Dulwich is home to the Dog Kenn ...

* North Dulwich station * Herne Hill station *

Brixton Brixton is an area of South London, part of the London Borough of Lambeth, England. The area is identified in the London Plan as one of 35 major centres in Greater London. Brixton experienced a rapid rise in population during the 19th century ...

* Clapham Common station *

Clapham Junction station Clapham Junction () is a major railway station near St John's Hill in south-west Battersea, in the London Borough of Wandsworth, England. It lies from and from . Despite its name, Clapham Junction is not in Clapham, a district to the south- ...

Wandsworth High Street Wandsworth High Street is the main shopping street in Wandsworth, London, England. It forms part of the London inner ring road, the South Circular Road, London, South Circular Road; it is also part of the westbound A3 road (Great Britain), A3 (t ...

* East Putney station * Putney station *

''Green Man''

References

External links

*
Timetable
{{DEFAULTSORT:037, London buses route Bus routes in London Transport in the London Borough of Lambeth Transport in the London Borough of Southwark Transport in the London Borough of Wandsworth