Just buying a house in Honor Oak so too late to move to Forest Hill, although I would be interested to hear what the bus is as maybe this would be a good route to go.

Its not a disaster not having a direct bus route, but I also have a four year old who doesn't like journeys that are too long with too much waiting around and the price becomes £8 instead of £4 for a return trip. I'm not expecting London transport to lay on a service just for us, I was just saying in my OP that it would be nice to have a direct bus route! Transport links in HOP are very good actually and I'm looking forward to investigating the area around the docks.