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The big red fun bus!

I just stumbled across this rather interesting story and thought id share it.

In the middle of the 1930s a large red London Bus, bearing a "7" route number harassed motorists in the North Kensington area of London.

The Junction of St Mark's Road and Cambridge Gardens in that area had long been considered a dangerous corner - it was "blind" from both roads and had been the scene of numerous accidents.

The decision of the local authority to straighten out the bend was partially influenced by the testimony of late night motorists. Many claimed that they had crashed while swerving to avoid a speeding double decker bus that hurtled down St Marks Road in the small hours, long after regular buses ceased service.

A typical report to the Kensington Police read " I was turning the corner and saw a bus tearing towards me. The lights of the top and bottom decks and the headlights were full on but I could see no crew or passengers. I yanked my steering wheel hard over and mounted the pavement, scraping the roadside wall. The bus just vanished."

After one fatal accident, during which a driver had swerved and hit the wall head on, an eyewitness told the coroner's inquest that he had seen the mystery bus hurtling towards the car seconds before the driver spun off the road.

When the coroner expressed what was perhaps natural cynicism, hundreds of local residents wrote to his office and to the local newspapers offering to testify that they too, had seen the "Ghost Bus".

Among the most impressing of these witnesses was a local transport official who claimed that he had seen the vehicle draw up to the local bus depot in the early hours of the morning, stand with engine purring for a moment, and then disappear.

Eventually the local council straightened out the road there, and the accident rate was greatly reduced. Thereafter there were no more reports of the ghostly red bus.

I never knew the london buses were old enough to be around in the 1930's. does anyone know any similar storys?

and here's a quick pic of a london bus for those that dont know what they look like!

http://www.mysterymag.com/assets/images/ghostbus.gif
 
Re: The big red fun bus!

mrchopper said:
I never knew the london buses were old enough to be around in the 1930's.

They are that old and they are still in service.
 
They are that old and they are still in service.

...and most of them set off on there journeys then and are still unable to get back to the depot because of traffic:D
 
Are you sure some 1930's vintage buses are still being used? Or is it that the designs we see for the classic buses date from that era but were actually made in the '50s and '60s?
 
This is a well known story, a tv programme interviewed some people who saw it , a few ago ,so it seems to actually still be around . I don't know if it evolves to fit in with the current bus style though - that would be extra spooky !
 
JerryB said:
Are you sure some 1930's vintage buses are still being used? Or is it that the designs we see for the classic buses date from that era but were actually made in the '50s and '60s?

You are right but I never let the facts get in the way of a good story.
 
God I love those old Titan buses. They'll be replacing them soon with those disgusting rattly ones you can't jump off unless the doors are open. If I had the money I'd buy a number 9 bus and put it in my garden. :(
 
...and most of them set off on there journeys then and are still unable to get back to the depot because of traffic

for a moment there i thought you'd written 'Despot'

Ho, Hum, Back to work......
 
I remember hearing this story. It was enlarged upon, to include accounts of late night revellers who had actually boarded the bus, never to be seen again...or something.
 
There's an oblique reference to it in the film "The Mummy Returns" - note the corner taken at speed by the bus? Right by the V&A, in...Kensington.

Next time I see it I'll look to see if it's a number 7 that they hi-jack...
 
I heard exactly the same story as mrchopper; apparently it happened in the early hours of a morning in 1936, in the Ladbroke Grove area (dunno whether this is anywhere near where the other report states).
 
I remember reading about this in a kids' book ofghost stories, there was a spooky photo of a translucent bus at twilight, cabin lights blazing, but no crew or passengers...I wonder if the number 7 had an accident that caused this? Wasn't it a number 7 that was blown up in a failed IRA bomb plot a couple of years ago?
 
I'm doing a bit of research on the "famous" phantom double decker bus that was alledged to have appeared in London in the 1930s, causing some accidents and forcing a local council to perform changes to a local road. Can anyone provide an earliest reference, or a source for this? The earliest I know of it was in the Usbourne Book of Ghosts c.1979, but it must have pre-dated that.
 
Theres these.

Double Decker Bus

Location: W10 (Greater London) - Between Cambridge Gardens and St Mark's Road
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Twentieth century
Further Comments: This phantom variant of the well known large red mode of public transport was spotted several times in the 1930s, fading from view as it reaches St Mark's road. When the road was altered and improved, the bus was thought to have gone, though it began to appear again in the 1990s

link

Route no.7 Cambridge Gardens (The ghost of a bus ?!)

Not all ghosts, that are reported, are human or animal. Occasionally more unusual ‘objects’ become the subject of supernatural sightings, one such example is that of a bright red double-decker bus that, in the mid 1930's, made hundreds of appearances at the intersection of St. Marks Road and Cambridge Gardens, in North Kensington. The road curved sharply there, but it was nothing that the usually excellent London drivers couldn't handle.

According to most popular accounts, it first started in 1934, when a motorist who had crashed his car — but escaped unhurt — told police that he was making the turn when a bright red double-decker bus came hurtling toward him, forcing him off the road. The motorist also reported that the bus lights were on, but that he couldn't see a driver or any passengers.

The authorities set out to track down the offending bus, but were surprised to find that no buses were scheduled in the area at that time or anywhere near that time, even thought the aforementioned driver was not the only person to have sighted the phantom bus.

Then more accidents started happening, and again the story was the same, a red double-decker bus forcing the cars off the road. In every case, witnesses reported that the bus vanished right after it had caused the accidents. However, mainly due to this increase in accidents, the road layout was altered, making the road straighter and safer. Since then the mysterious bus has been seen no more.

http://www.iopr.org.uk/91901.html?*sess ... on*id*val*

Maybe you could get in touch with the webmasters of those sites.
 
There's already a thread on this (surprise!)

link disabled as threads merged - stu
 
I would imagine that there would be few sightings...as it would probably be late (oooh. double pun). Okay, I'm leaving... :lol:
 
www.multimap.com/map/browse.cgi?lat=51. ... 000&icon=x

Map if anyone's interested.

It's actually a crossroad and I can't work out which bit could have been straightened, as it's more-or-less a grid. I'm not far from there but obviously being London it would take me longer to get there than it would to get to the seaside, but if anyone's in the area maybe they can take a look around. See if there are any obviously refigured bits of road.
 
It's going to stick out like a sore thumb, now the RM's have been dropped.
 
Very true. Possibly we'll be able to spot it as crowds of camera-toting tourists gather.

I've got a mental image of it being like the Harry Potter nightbus haring around London.
 
Hmmm, I tried to post images from Photobucket but got nowhere, what's going wrong?
 
lemonpie3 said:
www.multimap.com/map/browse.cgi?lat=51.5178&lon=-0.2127&scale=10000&icon=x

Map if anyone's interested.

It's actually a crossroad and I can't work out which bit could have been straightened, as it's more-or-less a grid.
It looks like it isn't a straight crossroads, more of a psalter arrangement - meaning two corners would be gentle, the other two sharp - one of the accounts says:
...a bright red double-decker bus that, in the mid 1930's, made hundreds of appearances at the intersection of St. Marks Road and Cambridge Gardens, in North Kensington. The road curved sharply there, but it was nothing that the usually excellent London drivers couldn't handle.
... so presumably it made a sharp left into St Marks Road, coming from the direction of St Helens Gardens, or a sharp left coming from the direction of Ladbroke Grove, or a sharp right vice versa in each case.

To straighten it they'd have narrowed pavements, and maybe done some demolition (poss blitz damage may have helped there.) Though the road layout would look the same on the map, the sharp corners would be much blunter, more curved.


escargot1 said:
Hmmm, I tried to post images from Photobucket but got nowhere, what's going wrong?

Should be
. Seems to be working elsewhere.
 
I did that. It could be my wireless connection, I will try on a different PC.

ladye3.jpg


ladye5.jpg


From this book, 1967 -

ladye1.jpg


Photos, sorry, I will scan the pages if anyone interested.
 
escargot1 said:
Photos, sorry, I will scan the pages if anyone interested.

Those photos are good enough for me thanks. :yeay:



edited by TheQuixote: removed images from quote
 
My work here is done. 8)

That book came out in 1967 and nothing new seems to have come to light since then. The inquest is interesting - we could soon track that down! :D
 
Inverurie Jones~ said:
I remember reading about this in a kids' book ofghost stories, there was a spooky photo of a translucent bus at twilight, cabin lights blazing, but no crew or passengers...I wonder if the number 7 had an accident that caused this? Wasn't it a number 7 that was blown up in a failed IRA bomb plot a couple of years ago?

i think i read the exact same book - i remember the photo. a bus like that wouldn't have ncessarily stood out as unusual for a very long time, cos we have all kinds of buses in service on the roadin london. even if we saw it now, we'd assume it was a tourist bus or something, not necessarily a ghost bus, so if it is real, tons of people could have seen it without realising it wasn't supposed to be there.
 
This has fired me up into doing some more research into this story...watch this space!

Apart from contemporary newspapers, where would the transcripts and results of inquests be held?
 
Apparently the Ghost Bus is mentioned in "Ghosts and Poltergeists" by Franky Smythe (1976) - does anyone have a copy of this? I'd like to know more references and sources for this story!
 
Ah... I used to have that one, and yes it was in there. It was also in the "Mysteries of the Afterlife" volume of the Orbis "Mysteries" series (much of which bore a strong resemblance to Smyth's tome, in discussed material rather than tone I should add.)

Unfortunately I lost both books (and a stack of others, now hard to get) a few years ago. It's definitely in there though.
 
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