As a 60s child living in south London on the A23, I was so used to seeing red, half-cab buses with very many Regent Three’s and Routemasters passing my Dad’s shop. Occasionally, the sea of red was disturbed by sleek green liveried coaches, those going north were close to their Victoria destination, those heading south not long into their journeys to the coast and the seaside.
Family day trips to Eastbourne and Brighton took me to a land where green and cream full fronted double-deckers were shiny and new. Some were open-top, the noise they made was different – I was interested. My Dad had spent the immediate post-war years in Horsham and had stories of the Carfax, ‘dormy sheds’ and winding countryside routes. He encouraged my omnibological interests!
A couple of years later we had moved to the Hampshire/Sussex border and being between Portsmouth and Chichester I regularly travelled on service 31, the 44 to Westbourne and the 49 to Havant. Southern Motorways brought more colour with their service 14 to Thorney Island with the GS saloons thundering through the town. I was hooked on Southdown and built on my interest by starting to take images of the local scene – many of these on my frequent return visits after moving on again in 1972.
This is a ‘hobby’ website which is updated on an irregular basis, so it may be a while before it is fully populated.
The images are not all of fantastic quality (some out of focus, under exposed) and are a mixture of Instamatic 126 and 35mm slides – but I believe that they give a flavour of those changeover years for Southdown and I hope you enjoy them!