Another year to celebrate

2014 is the Year of the Bus with a range of events and activities being run by the Museum and its partners.

The show piece of the year will be a historical cavalcade of buses in central London, whilst the celebrations will commence with the 75th anniversary of the RT with two activities in April. Special journeys to be operated by RTs over part of route 22 in Central London on Saturday 12th, and a line-up of RTs will be at the London Bus Museum on Sunday 13th as part of their Spring gathering.

Celebrating 60 years since the Routemaster first appeared, there will be a major event in Finsbury Park in July with some 100 buses attending.

Throughout the year there will be a series of bus garage open days and local running events that the Museum is developing with the six bus companies who are sponsoring the Year. It is hoped that the restored B-type Battle Bus will be at many of them.

Said Museum Director, Sam Mullins: “The major exhibition for the year is Goodbye Piccadilly, which tells the story of London in the First World War through the lens of its transport. Opening in May, it will demonstrates the massive social change accelerated by the outbreak of the First World War, its impact on London life and the surprising role London’s bus drivers and their buses played on the Western Front.”

The B-type bus restoration – partly funded by the Friends - will be the focus of the Museum’s commemoration of the outbreak of the First World War from August. Together with the loan of Ole Bill from the Imperial War Museum, the programme of exhibition and events will offer an insight into civilian Londoners’ key roles in the war.

The Battle Bus - as it has been named - will be publicly converted from its restored red LGOC livery to War Department khaki and depart on a tour of France and Belgium, returning for the Remembrance Festival.

More information on events at the Museum, click here.