Photograph details

© Transport for London
Collection of London Transport Museum
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Favorite garden seat horse bus in service between Stoke Newington and Victoria. Passengers look into the camera from upper deck, and a man stands on the stairs. The bus runs via the Agricultural Hall, Strand, Islington and Charing Cross.

Unknown photographer, 1901-1903

Image no: 220

Inventory no: 1998/82876

20th Century London caption: This image shows a 'garden seat' bus with forward-facing seats on the top deck. It was run by the London General Omnibus Company, which had taken over the route of the Favorite buses between Stoke Newington and Victoria, but retained the popular name. Most buses were drawn by pairs of horses, but express buses favoured by City businessmen had three or even four horses harnessed to them. A pair of horses usually worked between four and five hours a day, whereas the men who worked on the buses worked more than double that time. The advert is for Hunyadi Janos mineral water from Hungary, which supposedly possessed 'cathartic' properties. Even then there was a market for imported mineral water!

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