Inner South East London is covered in lots of abrupt little hills, and the very circuitous 484 takes in quite a few of these. From Lewisham, buses pass through Ladywell, and then climb Vicars Hill to Hilly Fields before dropping back down to the Brockley Cross, a somewhat hectic junction consisting of two mini roundabouts. Then buses climb Telegraph Hill before wending their way through the estates of Brockley, and a further rise is encountered on Peckham Rye. Buses then cross over past Goose Green to East Dulwich, before climbing Dog Kennel Hill and descending to Camberwell Green. Despite the whole route fitting onto two pages in my A-Z, buses take almost an hour to complete this journey at busy times.

Photo by Robert Munster.

Here Camberwell’s brand new LDP 165 (Y865 TGH) is seen at the top of Vicars Hill, carrying a heavy load of Lewisham shoppers and their wares back home on Tuesday 12 June 2001. The bus in front of this one seemed to have been cancelled, so the overcrowding is excusable! A plan to move existing LDPs from the 345 did not come to fruition, perhaps because of their extra length, as there are some fairly tight turns in the Hilly Fields area. Instead these new short Darts were purchased for the 484, being added to a substantial order of similar buses for routes P5, P13 and C10.

The 484 was formed in 1994 by replacing three routes. The L1 had run from Lewisham via Hilly Fields to Brockley, while the P2 ran from Lewisham via Lewisham Way and Malpas Road (no longer served) to Brockley and East Dulwich (thence to Peckham). Both these operated with Mercedes minibuses every 20 minutes, and the 10-minute frequency 484 effectively amalgamated them. However, the 484 number, and the Camberwell connection, derive from the third route, the 184 which ran from Brockley via East Dulwich and Camberwell to Elephant & Castle. Indeed, the P2 had only been created a few years earlier by replacing the eastern end of the 184!

Initially 10 buses were used, and an order for 11 (to include a spare) unusual East Lancs EL2000-bodied Dennis Darts DELs was therefore placed. However, the timetable quickly proved over-optimistic, especially following closure of the Endwell Road railway bridge to large vehicles. The 484 was diverted via Vesta Road, which was how it came to serve Telegraph Hill which was not served by either L1 or P2. Although this was a significant extension of the route, when the Endwell Road bridge had been repaired and reopened (and indeed the Vesta Road bridge was then closed) buses continued to serve Telegraph Hill. To overcome the reliability problems an extra bus was added to the schedule, but even then the timetable could be too tight, and accordingly the new contract specifies 12 buses.

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See also routes 345, P5, P13, C10