Trivia: Strangest bus stop names.

[Forty29]

London has many close to the knuckle bus stop names a whole website is devoted to it.
I do know of a Hoe lane on route 69!

 

[Kubes]

"Hope in the Valley" just off the Kingston roundabout on the route from Brighton to Lewes always made me smile. Even at half past seven on the way to work!

 

[BeijingDave]

Ho' is really a comparatively recent term of abuse adopted from the inner cities of the USA. To anyone my age (40s) or older, the first time we heard the word hoe was in most cases when our parents were gardening.

 

[joieman]

Ho' is really a comparatively recent term of abuse adopted from the inner cities of the USA. To anyone my age (40s) or older, the first time we heard the word hoe was in most cases when our parents were gardening.

I probably didn't know about the pejorative sort of hoe until my late teens, so I'd say that even for younger people that interpretation isn't necessarily universal.

 

[Deerfold]

Ho' is really a comparatively recent term of abuse adopted from the inner cities of the USA. To anyone my age (40s) or older, the first time we heard the word hoe was in most cases when our parents were gardening.

If you think the 15th century is comparatively recently, yes - it existed in middle English, long before the US was so popular.

 

[BeijingDave]

If you think the 15th century is comparatively recently, yes - it existed in middle English, long before the US was so popular.

'Whore' was of course in use then.

'Ho' (a contraction of 'whore') sounding very similar to (garden) 'hoe' is American slang, probably LA or New York origin.

I do stand to be corrected, but I'm fairly confident people in 15th century England weren't calling promiscuous women 'Hos' like a Compton Crip.

NB Street names were a lot more vulgar back then, and any 'Grape Street' in an old English city was usually a renaming of 'Grope' or even 'Gropec*nt' Street/Lane (where the prostitutes would have once hung out) by later prudes.

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 17 Aug 2026 ==

Wiki is not the greatest source, but will do in this case:

Grape Lane - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

Bristol also had a Hoor Street (note pronunciation is closer to 'whore' than 'ho').

 

[SCH117X]

Prince of Wales Roundabout, in Harrogate. might not seem odd as a name but for a short period a new shelter at the stop abbreviated Prince of Wales to PoW.

 

[EYFanatic]

'Ho' (a contraction of 'whore') sounding very similar to (garden) 'hoe' is American slang, probably LA or New York origin.

One can only wonder about the NatEx stop of Westward Ho!

 

[SargeNpton]

One can only wonder about the NatEx stop of Westward Ho!

Westward Ho! is a village in north Devon with a population of around 2,100. It takes its name from the Westward Ho!-tel and accompanying holiday villas, around which the village grew.

The hotel in turn takes its name from the 1855 Westward Ho! Novel by Charles Kingsley.

The village is the only settlement in the UK to have an exclamation mark in its name and, as far as I can tell, the only one to be named after a work of fiction.

 

[Deerfold]

The village is the only settlement in the UK to have an exclamation mark in its name and, as far as I can tell, the only one to be named after a work of fiction.

Though the town of Nelson is named after a pub.

 

[The exile]

NB Street names were a lot more vulgar back then, and any 'Grape Street' in an old English city was usually a renaming of 'Grope' or even 'Gropec*nt' Street/Lane (where the prostitutes would have once hung out) by later prudes.

Wikipedia seems remarkably vague about when Street naming ceased to be “what people called the Road” and became “what the Road is called on a map / official register”. A few of those double names must still exist (everyone calls it “x” though its official name is “y”) - though the last one I’m aware of coming across was Reading’s “Smelly Alley” - does that name still survive?

 

[billio]

I like the 'The Ham & Cheese' bus stop on the Leeds-bound Coastliner journey.
It is of course named after the adjacent pub.
I always mean to leave the bus and sample the beer and perhaps a sandwich, but I never do. perhaps tomorrow.

 

[EYFanatic]

Westward Ho! is a village in north Devon with a population of around 2,100. It takes its name from the Westward Ho!-tel and accompanying holiday villas, around which the village grew.

The hotel in turn takes its name from the 1855 Westward Ho! Novel by Charles Kingsley.

The village is the only settlement in the UK to have an exclamation mark in its name and, as far as I can tell, the only one to be named after a work of fiction.

I am aware but given what @Beijingsaid about the etymology, i thought it was a good joke

 

[BuhSnarf]

'Whore' was of course in use then.

'Ho' (a contraction of 'whore') sounding very similar to (garden) 'hoe' is American slang, probably LA or New York origin.

I do stand to be corrected, but I'm fairly confident people in 15th century England weren't calling promiscuous women 'Hos' like a Compton Crip.

NB Street names were a lot more vulgar back then, and any 'Grape Street' in an old English city was usually a renaming of 'Grope' or even 'Gropec*nt' Street/Lane (where the prostitutes would have once hung out) by later prudes.

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 17 Aug 2026 ==

Wiki is not the greatest source, but will do in this case:

Grape Lane - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

Bristol also had a Hoor Street (note pronunciation is closer to 'whore' than 'ho').

Fairly sure Jon from Auto Shenanigans has a video on this exact topic. How the devil are you, hope you've had a good week etc.

 

[SWRtrainfan]

Rifle Volunteer, on the 4/X4 between Wokingham and Reading. Was utterly confused when I first heard it said on the bus it's named after a pub.

 

[EYFanatic]

With its new extension to Anlaby Road, the EYMS 78 now runs to "Silver Cod" - named after a pub

 

[Sealink]

Talking of pub names, the CR6 in Bridport still serves a stop called The Boot Inn, although the pub closed years ago, as well as Bradpole The Kings Head, which also closed, albeit more recently.
The X51 and other local routes has Radipole: The Famous Old Spa, also a pub, named after a mineral spring which became Radipole Spa.

 

[Galactic142]

I don't think it's been mentioned yet but I always liked the Squareabout in Three Bridges - it's a large roundabout that's square-shaped.

Crooked Usage in Finchley is another odd one - it's named after a road which is the old course of Hendon Lane before they rebuilt a straighter route to bypass it.

Always thought Grisleymires Lane in Milnthorpe was an interesting name - although the new Stagecoach automated onboard announcement system can make a mess of pronouncing it!

 

[Wolvercoter]

Squitchey Lane, Oxford

 

[em81]

Sibson in Leicestershire has bus stops at "Cock Inn"

Carlton also in Leicestershire has stops named "Gate Hangs Well"

What about The Cock (Henbury, Macclesfield) and if you stay on a 87 bus afterwards you'll end up at Privet Superior School before being taken to the Whipping Stocks.

87 - Knutsford - Macclesfield

D & G Bus

bustimes.org

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: Monday at 17:48 ==

I know it's because of the name of the area, but "Sudden Tesco" near Rochdale amused me today.

Argosy Way amuses me on the 288 bus to Manchester Airport

 

[Whisky Papa]

Argosy Way amuses me on the 288 bus to Manchester Airport

I'm old enough to remember once seeing an Armstrong Whitworth Argosy at Manchester Airport, courtesy of freight airline Air Bridge Carriers. I didn't think it a significant enough event to name a road after it though .

 

[izvor]

I don't think it's been mentioned yet but I always liked the Squareabout in Three Bridges - it's a large roundabout that's square-shaped.

That's a good'un. The stop used to be named "Paymaster General's Office" (unusual but boring) but as everybody knew it as the Squareabout it eventually got renamed officially.

 

[weepingwillowb]

Always thought Grisleymires Lane in Milnthorpe was an interesting name - although the new Stagecoach automated onboard announcement system can make a mess of pronouncing it!

It's even got a plaque.