[Vwoolf] Pirate omnibuses

[Danell Jones]

I LOVE this Stuart!

I knew there were competing bus companies.  Weren't they painted 
different colors?  But I didn't know there were "pirates"!

Thanks so much for sharing.  It helps us see just how daring Elizabeth is.

Danell



On 9/3/2013 7:54 AM, Stuart N. Clarke wrote:
> Elizabeth Dalloway gets on an "irregular" 'bus in Victoria St, nr the 
> Army and Navy Stores:
> "She took a seat on top. The impetuous creature---a pirate---started 
> forward, sprang away; she had to hold the rail to steady herself, for 
> a pirate it was, reckless, unscrupulous, bearing down ruthlessly, 
> circumventing dangerously, boldly snatching a passenger, or ignoring a 
> passenger, squeezing eel-like and arrogant in between, and then 
> rushing insolently all sails spread up Whitehall."
> Then into Trafalgar Sq, along the Strand.  She gets off at Chancery 
> Lane, just past the Royal Courts of Justice where the Strand becomes 
> Fleet St.
> The most famous bus route in London is the no. 11.  The savvy (and 
> economical) tourist choses that bus rather than a tour bus, as the no. 
> 11 goes past so many famous sights, inc. St Paul's, on its way to 
> Liverpool St Station.  The new London bus starts on that route on 21 Sept:
> http://www.tfl.gov.uk/corporate/projectsandschemes/15493.aspx
> "The very first 'pirate' bus to operate in central London began work 
> on route 11 ... on 5 August 1922, and by the end of 1923 there were 70 
> such operators.", Michael H. C. Baker, "London Transport in the 1920s" 
> (Hersham, Surrey: Ian Allan Publishing, 2009), p. 8.
> The no. 11 goes past the Army & Navy Stores.
> The ref. to a pirate bus is yet one more post-war ref. in "Mrs. Dalloway":
> "Some young men, having acquired skills in a war which was described 
> as the first truly mechanical one, bought a war-surplus bus or lorry 
> ... and set up business.  A downpayment of £100 was all that was 
> necessary; the Metropolitan Police had to approve the roadworthiness 
> of the vehicle, but, that done, it could operate wherever its owner 
> chose. ... At the beginning of 1920 the demand for buses far 
> outstripped the number available, and there was plenty of scope for 
> those who were prepared to take up the challenge.   Very few of these 
> enterprises were long lived ..." ("London Transport in the 1920s", pp. 
> 7-8).
> Stuart
>
>
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