Celebrating a British icon 37
part of its hinterland was owned
by the Earl of Oxford. However,
it was in the 19th century that
it became recognised as an
entertainment and shopping
venue. Nowadays it is reported
to be home to 300 retail stores,
including big names such as
Selfridges, Debenhams, House of
Fraser, John Lewis and Marks &
Spencer, and to be visited by more
than 100million people a year.
The Routemasters that plied
the street for so many years
were more than just a backdrop;
they were also highly practical.
As shopping streets go, Oxford
Street is long. Suppose you
wanted to speed your progress
from the M&S store near the
western end to John Lewis,
halfway along; you could hop on
almost any bus.
They might not all serve every
bus stop, but with frequent
traffic lights and the slow pace
of traffic, it was easy enough to
board one almost anywhere. The
same applied with the RT and
STL types and others that came
before them.Ever-changing
Routemasters
Over the years the Routemasters
gradually changed in
appearance. Originally a largely
uniform red, they gained new
fleetnames during the 1980s,
when London’s buses were
divided into area-wide operating
units – South London and
London United, for instance.
Then, as those units were
privatised, new livery variants
were introduced: still red, but
with distinctive company logosand splashes of additional colour.
Perhaps the Routemasters’ high
point was in the early 1990s.
In their twilight years they
had come in for an unexpected
refurbishment campaign,
and their new private-sector
owners were rather proud of
them. Liveries like Stagecoach’s
respectful red with gold-leaf
fleetname positively gleamed.
Looking back, the torrent
of Routemasters that defined
Oxford Street for so long gave
a slightly deceptive pictureOxford Street
LEFT: Feeding
pigeons by Marble
Arch as an
eastbound New
Routemaster slips
past.BELOW:
Refurbished
Routemasters
pass outside
Debenhams
in April 2004.
Heading towards
the Aldwych on
route 13 is RM331,
refurbished with
a new engine
and gearbox
for Transport
for London and
allocated to
London Sovereign.
A badge on the
back of RM2109 on
route 12 advertises
that this Go-Ahead
vehicle has a Scania
engine. MARK LYONS