Added co our in the King's Road
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• An added touch of colour has been brought to the King's Road, C elsea—a nd other tourist parts of central Land n -as the result of a remarkable joint exer ise by the London Transport Board and Sil xine Paints Ltd.
To advertise its wide range of p the same time, create an additi attraction, Silexene asked London it could paint one of the latter's (red) double-deck buses with a special design. After some deliberation, LTB agreed, and a standard 64-seat Routemaster double-decker, Leyland-engined R M1737, was ch sen.
Silexine decided to give stud nts at five London art colleges an opportu ity of decorating a bus to say "Welco e" to the capital's 5m visitors this year. A out 50 entries were received and first pri e went to David Tuhill, a final year stude t from the Royal College of Art, whose design was ern
$ ployed and whose name appears on the usedticket box on the platform of the br. The design features familiar si hts of London, with a parade of brightly coloured guardsmen against a white background (lower saloon} and pale blue (upper saloon and roof). On the offside of the bus the guardsmen have
ints and, at nal tourist ransport if entre! area
their backs to onlookers, while gaily coloured balloons float about the "sky".
London Transport prepared the bus in primer and the design, which covers the entire vehicle, was painted by Walter Hyde, of Magnet (Clapton) Ltd., working at Aldenham. Silexine paints were used throughout, including the final coat of varnish, and the job was completed in just over three weeks.
The bus will operate on the No. 11 route of London Transport, which passes more tourist attractions than any other service through central London, for a period of one year. It is based at Riverside garage, and has been operating mainly between Hammersmith and Aldvvych (which takes in the King's Road, Chelsea) this week, with occasional runs to Liverpool Street.
What with the appearance of this bus on London's streets, and a livery experiment in the shape of the familiar circle and bar appearing on the offside staircase panel of one of LTB's 50 Leyland Atlanteans, together with delivery due next year of 117 Daimler Fleetfine double-deckers, the double-deck type of bus has perhaps a more promising future in London now than has seemed the case during the past three years.