166 Chatham – Luton – Princes Avenue – Lordswood – Gleaming Wood Drive

The 166 is one of those resolutely local routes that turns out to be surprisingly scenic, mostly because of the way it climbs. From Stop A1 at Chatham Waterfront Bus Station, the bus pulls out beside the tidal Medway, with the cranes and quayside of the Universities at Medway visible across the water, and almost immediately tilts upward past Upbury Way and into the streets of Luton.

This is old Chatham, the dense, hilly hinterland that grew up behind the dockyard. The bus threads between rows of brick terraces, past Bank Street, Castle Road and Albany Road, with quick glimpses down side streets towards the river and the chalk cliffs of Fort Pitt. Luton Junior School marks the point where the gradient really bites; the engine drops a gear, the rooftops of Chatham fall away behind, and on a clear day you can pick out the Hoo Peninsula on the horizon.

Past the Hen and Chickens pub the route reaches Upper Luton Road and the landscape shifts. Suddenly there are hedges, verges and the first proper trees as the bus enters Lordswood at North Dane Way. The estate was laid out in the 1970s on the high ground south of Chatham, and the road layout is generous, looping, and full of birch, oak and rowan. Princes Park comes next, with its own little parade of shops, a Morrisons, and the sweep round Maundene School.

From here the 166 takes on the character of a proper neighbourhood ramble, dipping into Walderslade via Downland Walk and Scotby Avenue, then climbing again past Lordswood School and the Kestrel Shopping Centre. The names alone tell you something about the setting: Copper Tree Walk, Autumn Glade, Golden Wood Close, Timber Tops. The houses sit back behind grass banks and the bus often has glimpses across to the dark line of the North Downs and the woodland of Boxley Warren beyond.

After looping around Lordswood Close, the high point of the route, the bus retraces a slightly different path back through Walderslade and Princes Park, returning down the long descent through Luton with Chatham spread out below. The final stops are at Chatham Railway Station and then back to the Waterfront, completing a circuit that, for the price of a single fare, gives you a proper tour of the Medway hills behind the dockyard.