London Buses

The red double-decker bus is part of London’s personality, and is famous all round the world as an icon of a great city. Tracing nearly 200 years of history this book places the classic Routemaster in its context.

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The bright red double-decker bus has become an icon of London. It is now a unique and instantly recognisable international symbol of Britain’s capital city. But its origins go back nearly 200 years to a quite different single-deck vehicle. This was George Shillibeer’s Omnibus, which he first put on the streets in 1829. A reliable motor bus, the B-type, first appeared in 1910, and had replaced all the city’s horse buses by 1914. A succession of ever-improving buses followed. The final design for London Transport was the classic Routemaster (RM), introduced in the late 1950s and not finally retired from normal service until 2005. By this time London’s modern buses were essentially almost identical to buses everywhere else.

However, in 2010 the Mayor of London held a competition to find a distinctive successor to the RM. The winning design by Thomas Heatherwick Associates, built by Wrightbus, was launched in 2012. The New Routemaster combines the curved elegance and comfort of the original RM with essential modern features such as low floor access and a hybrid diesel-electric drive unit.

This book is part of the Britain’s Heritage series, which provides definitive introductions to the riches of Britain’s past, and is the perfect way to get acquainted with London buses in all their variety.