London Buses route 215 is a Transport for London contracted bus route in London, England. Running between Lee Valley Campsite and Walthamstow Central, it is operated by Stagecoach London.
History
Route 215 was introduced on 19 November 1988 between Walthamstow Central and Yardley Lane Estate via Yardley Lane. It was initially operated from Walthamstow (WW) garage using Leyland Titans. The route was introduced to replace the withdrawn section of route 212 between Walthamstow Central and Yardley Lane.
On 17 June 1989, the route was extended from Yardley Lane to Lee Valley Campsite during Summer Sundays.
On 14 September 1991, the route passed to Ensignbus operating from their Northumberland Park (NP) garage using Mark 2 MCW Metrobuses and Northern Counties bodied Leyland Olympians and Dennis Dominators.
On 23 November 1991, Ensignbus was renamed Capital Citybus.
On 21 March 1998, the Sunday allocation was transferred to Hackney (H) garage.
On 26 February 2000, the route was retained by First Capital using Leyland bodied Leyland Olympians and Northern Counties Palatine 2 bodied Dennis Arrows and the Sunday allocation was transferred back to Northumberland Park (NP) garage.
In 2002, the Leyland bodied Leyland Olympians and Northern Counties Palatine 2 bodied Dennis Arrows were replaced by Northern Counties Palatine 1 bodied Volvo Olympians.
In 2003, the extension to Lee Valley Campsite was withdrawn.
In 2004, the route was converted to low floor operation using Plaxton President bodied Dennis Tridents.
On 5 March 2005, the route was retained by First London.
On 30 April 2005, the service to Lee Valley Campsite during summer was resumed with the whole service running instead of just hourly.
On 6 March 2010, the route passed to East London operating from their Leyton (T) garage using brand new Scania OmniCity's.
On 4 March 2017, the route was retained by Stagecoach London. At the same time, the existing Scania OmniCity were replaced with existing Alexander Dennis Enviro 400s and the route was fully extended to Lee Valley Campsite.
On 24 January 2019, Alexander ALX400 bodied Dennis Tridents were introduced alongside the existing Alexander Dennis Enviro 400s.
In June 2019, the route was converted to a full Alexander Dennis Enviro 400 operation.
In August 2019, the route was temporarily withdrawn between Lee Valley Campsite and Yardley Lane due to water roadworks.
On 20 August 2019, the route was restored to Lee Valley Campsite.
On 24 November 2023, existing New Routemasters were introduced alongside the existing Alexander Dennis Enviro 400s.
On 1 February 2024, the route converted to a full New Routemaster operation.
On 2 March 2024, the route was retained by Stagecoach London.
Current Route
Route 215 operates via these primary locations:
- Lee Valley Campsite Sewardstone Road
- Yardley Lane Estate
- Mansfield Park
- Ridgeway Park
- Chingford Old Church
- Chingford Mount
- Walthamstow Stadium
- Walthamstow Crooked Billet Roundabout
- Walthamstow Bell Corner
- Walthamstow Central Bus Station