Routemaster Requiem

Geoff Rixon / Matt Wharmby

Publisher: IAN ALLAN

Publication Date: 30/04/2006

Format: Hardback

A tearful farewell to the Routemaster

Despite opposition from enthusiasts, the local media and countless thousands of Londoners, December 2005 witnessed the final withdrawal from timetabled services of the capital’s iconic Routemaster bus. Geoff Rixon and Matt Wharmby’s sumptuous photographic record is a stirring tribute to the last years of this classic design.

London has witnessed the demise of other popular forms of transport in the past, such as trams in 1952, trolleybuses in 1962 and RTs in 1979, but the withdrawal of the Routemaster eclipsed all of these in terms of public interest. Whilst there are proposals to run two ‘heritage’ routes, these will require only a handful of vehicles. The disappearance of the last traditional half-cab bus in service thus represents the end of an era.

Each chronological section of this book examines the build up to the conversion of each route and how the actual conversion was marked on the day. As such, it provides a poignant portrait of the Routemaster’s gradual elimination from London’s streets.

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