A new exhibition commemorating the role of London’s motor buses and their drivers in the First World War will open at the London Transport Museum in May.
Entitled Goodbye Piccadilly – from Home Front to Western Front, the exhibition will explore how WW1 accelerated social change, its impact on the lives of Londoners and the “essential” role of bus service staff and buses in the war effort, both at home and abroad.
The exhibition will bring together objects from several collections including ‘Ole’ Bill’, a 1911 B-type bus No. B43 – one of 1,000 B-type buses to be requisitioned by the War Department in 1914 for use on the Western Front.
The vehicle is being loaned for the exhibition by the Imperial War Museum.
Other highlights include First World War recruitment posters, rarely seen propaganda posters specially designed to be displayed in army billets overseas as a reminder of home, and a 1914 female bus conductor’s uniform.
‘Goodbye Piccadilly’ opens on May 16th and forms part of the Year of the Bus celebrations announced by Mayor Boris Johnson in January.
For more details visit: www.ltmuseum.co.uk
