In the previous post, I linked to The Special London Bridge Special from 1972, which features Tom Jones travelling on a No 13 bus to Lake Havasu City, Arizona, where London Bridge had just been sold. Incredibly, that bus is still in Arizona but it isn’t in quite the same condition as the bridge.
Thanks to Travis Elborough for the picture. Travis – who has just published London Bridge In America: The Tall Story of A Translantic Crossing – also pointed me in the direction of this marvellous song by Cilla Black, lamenting love and the loss of London Bridge.
I don’t think its the same bus , the film appears to show only JXN 325 (RT 935 ) and this bus is RLH 39 , last recorded change of ownership March 2002 McCulloch Realty (countrybus.org – website down so from cache )
It is a shame that the bus is now in such a poor state. In its working life this bus operated on the 230 route between Kenton and Rayners lane in North London. The RLH bus was designed with a lower top deck and was used on routes with low bridges. How do I know this? Because my grandfather Stanley Adams was employed by London transport and was a driver on the 230 route for many years.
G
The 230 was one of the London Transport’s two Central Area ‘red’ routes, the other one being the 127 which ran from Morden Station to South Wimbledon, via Worcester Park (where the low bridge was)..