transported

Just think. Today Trafalgar Square, tomorrow Harlesden, and who knows where the day after? Mitcham, maybe?

I made a detour by tube and bus to the London Transport Museum today, though sadly not on a tube train featuring straps to hang from or adverts with telex numbers, or on a bus that you can hop and off while it's in motion. Though I was able to step into and onto vintage tube carriages and double-decker buses in the museum itself. Which is, of course, one of the main reasons for going.

I loved the long, long bus blinds that are hanging from the ceiling (look at this fantastic photo that shows just how well travelled a London bus is). They make London look so exciting; no wonder John Betjeman waxed lyrical about place-names in many of his poems. For years I got the no 9 bus to school (with warnings about not falling under a proverbial no 9 bus ringing in my ears) and when we reached the terminus, the driver would get out and wind the bus blind back to the beginning. It didn't take long; there weren't exactly many notable destinations along the way in our part of the North West. No wonder I thought London with its roll-call of alluring bus routes and tube stations with famous names was the bee's knees and couldn't wait to get down here. By any mode of transport.

Comments

[m]

Heaton Moor, Heaton Mersey, Parrs Wood??? I was brave enough to jump off the no 9 while it was still in motion, I'd probably break my neck or my ankle today! Wonder if I was ever in the seat in the front.

[m]

The seat in front of you, I mean. Why do I never see mistakes before I press send!

[trashalou]

Was desperately excited to see a 'proper' bus along The Strand last time I was up in town. Perhaps there is hope for Boris yet!

[Lucille]

I love the Transport museum although it has got a bit too tidy for me in its latest incarnation. I want the buses and tubes to smell old. I remember the smell disappeared from the Geoffrye Museum too!

[Gemma]

I work in Mitcham now, trust me the Transport museum is a far nicer place!

[Kay]

The bus blinds would make such a nice quilt.

Can't wait for the new book to ship!

xo Kay

[martha in mobile]

I drove double-decker busses for a small town transport service during college (in California, of all places). I thought them so romantic, if a little scary going round corners. I still love the smell of diesel fumes...thanks for reminding me.

[frances]

Oh, I do love that Museum. It's been many years since my last visit, yet everyday in my apartment, I see a postcard reproducing an old poster, and the deck of cards that featured those marvelous graphics.

Just the classic Tube map itself is pretty marvelous.

Thank you for the memories!

[Glenda Childers]

I love the postcards in the museum's gift shop. I have one that is always on my refrigerator at Christmas.

[janice]

I miss my commuting days and regret I hadn't developed my knitting and stitching obsession then. All those hours wasted all those years staring into bedrooms from upstairs on the number x!

[kim]

I love the Transport Museum and meant to get there over half term but failed. Did you see the Suburbia exhibition? I've been spotting lots of those old bus signs for sale recently, they do immediately transport you back to when you were younger.. do you remember the old purple printed bus tickets?

[paintdropskeepfalling.wordpress.com]

Red London buses are the things I miss most about not being a Londoner anymore! I have particularly nostalgic memories of the no 45, old style bus that you could run and jump onto if you were threatening to arrive late at school. Thanks for the reminder.

[mathea]

I love those destination blinds, and wouldn't mind having one on my wall, (no. 72 would be my first choice - my local bus during my London days), but apparently they have become collectors' items now, and hard to come by. And sadly a lot of them are being cut up and made into individual, framed signs, which just loses the whole point, I think - it's the journey, not just the destination that matters, isn't it?

[Rachel]

LOVE the photo of the bus you linked to - as a South East Londoner all those destinations are on my doorstep. If only it were as fun as it looks to hop on a bus to Catford!

I'm off to the London Transport Museum tomorrow as it happens - to see the Suburbia exhibition. The LTM is my favourite museum in London after the V&A because it's about so much more than transport and never fails to fascinate me with its revelations about the everyday lives of Londoners over the past century or so. Plus the gift shop is amazing!

[Jane]

Spent my schooldays travelling 10 miles back and forward through Essex countryside - though the bus route was nearer 20 as it had to weave through all the villages. Red buses always looked so much more exciting than our boring green ones.
London destinations have a romantic ring which often disappoints - who wouldn't want to catch a bus to Crystal Palace? having lived in the area I can assure everyone that Mitcham and South Croydon aren't thrilling.

[Jane]

Spent my schooldays travelling 10 miles back and forward through Essex countryside - though the bus route was nearer 20 as it had to weave through all the villages. Red buses always looked so much more exciting than our boring green ones.
London destinations have a romantic ring which often disappoints - who wouldn't want to catch a bus to Crystal Palace? having lived in the area I can assure everyone that Mitcham and South Croydon aren't thrilling.

[Petit Filoux]

Taking the bus is definitely my favourite mode of transport in London - always try and avoid the tube at all costs!!

[Thomas at My Porch]

I love the Transport Museum although I haven't been there is several years. I always seem to get into fights with little kids who are monopolizing all the hands on stuff. I guess as an adult I should know better, but who can act like an adult at the London Transport Museum.

And the gift shop is one of the best.

[kath]

I know our capital is a wonderful exciting history packed place, but I do everything in my power to avoid it!

Kath ;~)
x

[isabella]

wow i just clicked on the feed for the blog today, I lived in Forest Hill so what a coincidence that the busblind pictured should be where i grew up.

Dulwich, Forest Hill, Camberwell

I live now In New Jersey, USA

[fibrefairy]

I love the LTM too - I grew up in SW London and remember school trips on buses with the conductor churning out 30+ tickets from his machine strapped round his neck. (and pink card tickets on BR trains, that got clipped with fab fancy punches that most scrappers now would die for!!)
I live in rural Hampshire now and the bus routes get truncated by the year - Winchester to Southsea now terminates in Fareham - totally not the same,
I'd love a London bus blind to hang in my sitting room.. anyone making replicas?!

[Annie]

A friend in Australia has some wonderful prints on her wall showing the destination boards of Sydney transport. The typography is really striking.
An interesting site is ilovetypography.com