We are trying to understand how to plan on using a bus to get from Paddington Station to:
Churchill War Museum
Buckingham Palace
Imperial War Museum
Is there a bus route that will go straight with stops to these locations?
Thanks for all of your advice.
Best to download the Transport for London Journey Planner app. You can enter your start point and destination, what date and time you want to travel, and edit the result to show you bus routes, how much walking you want to do etc. Londoners live by it!
Google "bus spider maps, paddington".
Then look for the Borough of Westminster, and select both Paddington-https://content.tfl.gov.uk/bus-route-maps/paddington-a4-290423.pdf
and Victoria- https://content.tfl.gov.uk/bus-route-maps/victoria-a4.pdf
and Lambeth North- for the IWM-https://content.tfl.gov.uk/bus-route-maps/lambeth-north-a4-290423.pdf
The clue to this is route 36 to Victoria. That drops you round the corner from Buckingham Palace. Stay on to Victoria and change there for both Parliament Square (for the war rooms) and the IWM. Whatever method of payment you use gives you a bus hopper fare- as many free transfers as you can manage within 62 minutes (officially 60). Paddington (Elizabeth line exit) to Victoria takes you 25 minutes (I did that 10 days ago).
Victoria to Parliament Square is 5 minutes and to the IWM about 15 to 20 (I used to do the IWM from Euston on the direct bus regularly in 30 minutes or less when going to volunteers meetings there).
On the 36 last week there were a lot of roadworks in the Paddington and Park Lane areas which slowed us up, so it should normally be a bit faster than 25 minutes.
There are several apps you can use. As Amanda mentioned, the TFL (Transport for London) app will let you plan your route quickly.
You could also try the Citymapper app, which many travelers here swear by. Or use just plain Google Maps, which is what I typically use. Just set it for public transport and it will show you the various routes you can take.
I like to uses this schematic map of the central London bus routes to get the big picture:
https://content.tfl.gov.uk/bus-route-maps/key-bus-routes-in-central-london.pdf
You will see that 2 buses serve Paddington Station itself. Of those the # 23 is useful for getting to Trafalgar Square if you have sightseeing plans in that area.
If you walk 10 minutes down to Hyde Park, Lancaster Gate area, you can catch the 148 which runs along Bayswater Road and then heads to Westminster Abbey, passing Buckingham Palace on the way. The Westminster Abbey stop is a short walk from the Churchill War Rooms, which are right by Horse Guards Parade. After this stop the 148 crosses the river and may get you close to the imperial War Museum, but I cannot tell from this map.
Once you understand the overall route plan and know the bus number, you can use TFL and the spider maps to see real-time departures and find the actual bus stop for your bus. Most locations have different stops for different bus numbers, and they are indicated by round signs with a letter—-C, or R, or S, for example. That will be specific to the bus you want AND the direction of travel.
Thank you all so very much for providing so much very helpful information.
Since TfL no longer produces hard-copy maps (or detailed whole-city digital maps) I would strongly recommend buying the unofficial map available through https://www.shop.busmap.co.uk/. They also have historical maps available if you're interested in the past.
I can’t stress just how useful and helpful Citymapper is. It works in major cities all over the world. It’s nice when one app covers so much.
