Photograph details

© Transport for London
Collection of London Transport Museum
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Passengers embarking/disembarking from a Thames river bus service.

Photographed by Topical Press, 1948

Location: The Thames

Image no: Y40850

Inventory no: 1998/55313

20th Century London caption: A boat on the Thames used to be one of the most common ways of getting around London. By the 20th century, however, travel on the river had declined. During the Second World War, a river bus service was reintroduced to provide alternative transport when bus and train services were regularly disrupted by bombings. Although it declined again the 1950s and 60s as more people bought cars and drove to work, the river bus remained popular for some years after the end of the war. This picture from 1948 shows a crowd of passengers disembarking from the river bus 'Odelia' in central London. The bridge in the background is London Bridge, and the old Billingsgate fish market can just been seen on the right.

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