London Buses route 74

Route 74 originally operated from Camden Town to Putney Heath Green Man and Putney Heath Telegraph Inn (Monday to Saturday journeys).

In 1966 it was extended from Putney Heath to Kingston Vale (Monday to Friday peaks) in 1966 with journeys to Telegraph Inn transferred to route 85. At this time, there was a 74A which terminated at Marylebone and a 74B which terminated in Hammersmith. In 1968, a large-scale experiment on bus supervision was carried out with driver-to-controller radios being introduced on route 74.[2] In 1981 it was rerouted via withdrawn section of route 30 to Roehampton Earl Spencer (Sunday) and Bessborough Road (Monday to Saturday).

In 1982, it was withdrawn between Putney and Roehampton on Sundays. It was withdrawn between West Brompton Empress State Building and Roehampton (Monday to Saturday) on 3 August 1985 and Sunday in February 1985, but was extended back to Roehampton in 1987. In 1991, it was rerouted at Baker Street to King's Cross and the withdrawn section was replaced by new route 274.

It was withdrawn between Baker Street and King's Cross in 1993. On 23 November 2002 it was withdrawn between Putney High Street and Roehampton being replaced by route 430 as part of a reorganisation of routes in preparation for the introduction of the London congestion charge. Route N74 was later introduced.

Before it was operated by London General, it was operated from Putney Bridge garage (F), using AEC Regent III RT's. Allocation was transferred to Chelverton Road (AF) and Riverside (R) and RT's were replaced by AEC Routemasters in 1965. Chelverton Road gained the whole allocation and 30-foot Routemaster RMLs replaced RMs in 1967.

Holloway (HT) gained part of the allocation in 1981. MCW Metrobuses replaced the Routemasters in 1987. Chelverton Road (now Putney) (AF) gained the whole allocation in 1991. Northern Counties Palatine bodied Volvo Olympians replaced the Metrobuses in 1998 and Wright Eclipse Gemini bodied Volvo B7TLs were bought to convert the route into low-floor in 2002.

On 20 October 2012, Wright Eclipse Gemini 2 bodied Volvo B5LH and Wright Eclipse Gemini 2 bodied Volvo B9TLs were introduced.