City - London State - U.K Country - United Kingdom
About
Friday 9th December, I was fortunate enough to be asked by David Morris (Senior Projects Manager at the Greater London Council GLA) to cover the Last day and last journey of the 'Route Master' (Big Red London Bus!) I was on the only official press buss following its journey along the route it had been taking for over 50 years, on the bus was other journalists/camera crews & photographers all top pros within their field. I took hundreds of images and must say am very happy with them although not sure what to do with such large numbers a friend recommended writing a book on its final journey, telling the history the lives of those who rode upon them and giving an insight into why they could no longer serve the London community, well we will see if that first page gets started.
What you see here is the bus (The 159) pulling into its first stop along Oxford street, many of the people you see in this picture have been waiting over six hours to get the chance to be part of London history only around five people managed to be given places here much to the dismay of the crowd at one point it looked as though they (the crowd) were going to try to storm on, it was a good job five police officers were riding on board and a cavalcade of around 15 police motorcyclists following its journey clearing traffic and clearing the crowds from the roads.
As someone professionally interested in such things, I have read a lot about the demise of the Route Master and about whether it was a Good Thing or a Bad Thing. However, I have not previously seen any shots like this of its last journey. Fascinating.
(And your own bus - was it open top? This does not look as though it was shot through glass.)
This is reminiscent of the old Picture Post images from decades past. A book is a good idea, I read somewhere that the composer Michael Nyman is also a fan of the routemaster and was going to write a piece in it's honour - perhaps a collaboration might be the go. Regards, Gary
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{K:49168} 6/24/2007
