REVIEWS
Title: London Buses – A Living Heritage. Fifty Years of the London Bus Museum
Author: Graham Smith
Publisher: Silver Link Publishing
ISBN: 978-1-85794-475-4
Specification: 235mm x 170mm, 128pp, softback or 160pp hardback
Price: £20 (softback) £34 (hardback
If you attend events hosted by what today is the London Bus Museum, this book is a reminder never to take its achievements for granted. And to acknowledge the magnitude of what it has done to further the cause of preservation.
The museum is open 364 days a year, displaying a selection from almost 50 vehicles in its hands, some of which await the level of exhaustive restoration that has already brought many priceless examples back to their original condition.
But as Graham Smith, one of its most active members, explains in this comprehensively illustrated history, it was not always so. This is an organisation that grew out of the early days of private bus preservation, fulfilling a desperate need for premises where young owners could store safely and renovate their buses. A catalyst for its formation was the decision in 1966 by the London Omnibus Traction Society to concentrate on recording as much information as possible on London’s buses — a serv…
