Buses - London Transport (up to 1970): books - history

The London Bus Story

Buses have been operating on London's streets since 1829, originally with horse-drawn omnibuses, and the London Omnibus Company was founded in 1855 to regulate the various services. The first motorised buses made an appearance in 1902 with the LGOC beginning to manufacture the buses itself two years later. For six decades London went its own way with specially designed buses.

More recent innovations such as the 'bendy' bus have not been popular, but today practicality of pushchair and wheelchair access has consigned the Routemaster to a nostalgic, but much-loved, position.
With full-colour photographs, this book comprehensively tells the story behind London's famous red buses.

London's 1950s Buses - A Class Album

This is a book about a period seen by many as a golden age of London buses. Those who have worked on it have been fortunate to find a good number of colour photographs from the 1950s, which we present here along with some recollections of the time from people who worked for London Transport as drivers, conductors or head office staff. Most of the colour illustrations are previously unpublished.

London Transport: 1949-74

London Transport was formed in 1933 to bring together all the public transport operations (except national railways) that served the capital, the suburbs and the surrounding countryside. Previously, these had been in the hands of a myriad of operators, some more dependable than others.

Containing some 120 color photographs, including rare images from the postwar period, and detailed captions, this album shows the transition from prewar standards, which initially continued after the Second World War, to the modernization that was essential to encourage continued use of London's transport systems by the public in the face of increasing car ownership.
Rekindling memories of the postwar period, this nostalgic colour portrait looks at London Transport's buses, trolleybuses, trams and underground trains (both surface and tube stock) operating between 1949 and 1974.

London Transport Buses in the 1960s: A Decade of Change and Transition

Just as life in Britain generally changed dramatically during the 1960s, so did London Transport's buses and their operations. Most striking was the abandonment of London's trolleybuses, once the world's biggest system, and their replacement by motorbuses. Begun in 1959 using surplus RT-types, it was completed by May 1962 using new Routemasters, designed specifically to replace them. They then continued to replace RT types, too.

Traffic congestion and staff shortages played havoc with London Transport's buses and Green Line coaches during the 1960s, one-man operation was seen as a remedy for the latter, shortening routes in the Central Area for the former. Thus the ill-fated "Reshaping Plan" was born, introducing new O.M.O. bus types. These entered trial service in 1965, and after much delay the plan was implemented from September 1968 onwards. Sadly, new MB-types, also introduced in the Country Area, soon proved a disaster!
Unfortunately, owing to a government diktat, Routemaster production ended at the start of 1968, forcing LT to buy "off-the-peg" vehicles unsuited to London operation and their in-house overhaul procedures. The decade ended with the loss of LT's Country Area buses and Green Line coaches to the National Bus Company.

Photographer Jim Blake began photographing London's buses towards the end of the trolleybus conversion programme in 1961 and continued dealing with the changing scene throughout the decade. He dealt very thoroughly with the "Reshaping" changes, and many of the photographs featured herein show rare and unusual scenes which have never been published before.

London Buses : A Living Heritage - Fifty Years of the London Bus Museum

On 4th October 1966 eleven young bus enthusiasts met in Central London to look for ways to develop their shared interest in preserving some old London buses. They couldn't know then that their meeting was the beginning of a volunteer-run organisation which would grow to a membership of around 800 owning a world-class museum.
This is the London Bus Museum at Brooklands in Surrey with its unique collection of buses spanning more than a century.

This book describes the first 50 years of the London Bus Preservation Group/Trust, including the many years at its Cobham Bus Museum premises, and also shows how the London bus developed from the horse-bus through many stages to today's latest all-electric double-deckers.
It's a fascinating journey through time as, indeed, are many of the stories about the vehicles in the London Bus Museum's collection.