RETURN TO CHISWICK
MARK LYONS reports from the Routemaster Association’s RM70 event
The week-end of July 20/21 saw the Routemaster Association stage a rally to mark the 70th Anniversary of the first public appearance of a Routemaster bus.
Although the initial plan had been to hold the event at Finsbury Park, where the association had celebrated the 50th and 60th anniversaries, this proved impossible and an alternative venue was sought.
The site eventually chosen was the Chiswick Business Park in west London, an identikit late 20th century office development. It does, however, have a particular relevance in the long Routemaster story for it was previously the site of Chiswick Works, opened in 1921 by the London General Omnibus Company to repair and maintain its bus fleet. It subsequently was also home to London Transport’s development and design teams which, in the late 1940s, started work on plans for the bus of the future. The first prototype of what was still simply referred to as London Transport’s new double deck bus was assembled at Chiswick Works and shown to the trade press there on August 25, 1954. By the time that bus appeared at the 1954 Commercial Motor Show a few weeks later it had been …
