Victorian Turkish Bath

In amongst the large modern office blocks in the City of London is this Turkish Bath  built in 1895. This Moorish style entrance survived  the Blitz when this area was heavily bombed. Once inside you go down a winding staircase to the baths below. The baths remained open until 1954.

In more recent times the building has been used as a restaurant but it is currently closed.

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More weekend reflections from the Olympic Park

These giant reflective letters are outside the Copper Box, which is now used as a multi purpose sports hall.

 This is the velodrome where all the indoor cycling events took place. You can now go and try it out but looking at the curviture of the walls, I won't be doing that.

 Walking around the velodrome you could see the rest of the Park reflected in the windows.

One way of crossing the river

 Walking alongside the river Lee in East London, I saw this swan carrying two cygnets on her back. This was a first for me.

 They were safely transported to the other side of the river where they copied their Mum's actions and had a good preening session.

The year of the bus

This was Regent Street in London on Sunday. It was taken over by a display of buses dating back to 1829. It was to celebrate 'The Year of the Bus'. I have included as much information as I can but I cannot be certain I have all the facts correct so I apologise in advance to any transport experts out there.

This was the Horse bus. In service from 1829-1914. At one time there were 4000 horse drawn buses in London. They last ran in 1914 as the horses were then needed for WW1 duties.

Leyland X2 Motor bus. In service 1908 - c1014.

This was London's first mass produced motorbus. In service 1914-1922. Many were used during the war to transport men to the front line.

In service 1920-1932

Increased the seating capacity to 54 passengers. This AEC S type was in service from 1922-32

1924-1934

1926-1937

1930-1949

1931-1950

1936-1953. The buses now have a fully enclosed cab and a full length upper deck.

1937-1954. Known as the standard war time bus

1938-1954.

These were commandeered for use as an ambulances in WW2

Trolley bus. 1948-1962

 A standard RT that went to USA and Canada to promote trips to Britain.

 1953-1973. Bought by BEA to transport passengers from London to Heathrow airport.

This was  a prototype Leyland Routemaster RML3 and was  in service from 1958-59. Routemaster RM5 were in service from 1959-2004 and are the most recognised of the London buses.

 Metrobus 1978-2005

This bus shelter is made entirely of lego bricks.

 These are the new routemasters which are already on the road but by 2016 there will be 600 of them carrying passengers around London.

Last year there were 2.4 billion journeys on the London bus network!



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