London Buses In Colour - 1970s

If you think the 1970s were sepia, slightly blurry, and faintly apologetic, London Buses in Colour – 1970s (1999) by Kevin McCormack is here to correct you in glorious, unapologetic pigment. This is a book that looks you straight in the eye and says: yes, the decade was complicated, but the buses were magnificent.

Because whatever else the 1970s brought — power cuts, flares, and a national mood best described as “making do, but with determination” — London’s buses kept rumbling on. Not quietly, not modestly. They trundled, roared, hissed, and clattered through the capital like big red declarations of civic stubbornness, hauling commuters, schoolkids, tourists, and the occasional person who had no idea where they were going but felt the bus would at least take them somewhere.

McCormack’s book is basically transport nostalgia with the volume turned up. It’s not just “here is a bus.” It’s “here is a bus, in colour, in its natural habitat, surrounded by street furniture, signage, buildings, and haircuts that practically deserve their own conservation status.” The real joy isn’t only the vehicles (though they’re the stars). It’s the accidental time travel: the backgrounds, the adverts, the shopfronts, the street scenes — all those tiny details that make you go, “Oh wow, London used to look like that.”

And the buses themselves? Oh, they are peak London. Icons on wheels. Big, practical, slightly grumpy-looking machines that somehow manage to be both workaday and romantic. There’s a particular joy in seeing routes and liveries, the variations and oddities, the sense of a living system constantly changing while still remaining reassuringly familiar: red, boxy, and full of people trying not to make eye contact.

Published by Ian Allan — a name that will make any transport enthusiast sit up straighter — this is the sort of book that can be enjoyed in two equally valid ways:

1. casually, by flipping through the photos and thinking, “That’s lovely,” or

2. intensely, by muttering things like “Ah, yes, that’s a proper one,” while learning route numbers and identifying models with the quiet satisfaction of someone who knows.

Condition: Good — which is perfect. This isn’t a fragile art book that demands white gloves and reverent silence. It’s a proper browseable, sofa-friendly slice of London history, ready to be dipped into whenever you fancy a hit of old-school city atmosphere and mechanical charm.

Sold by Crappy Old Books, because we respect the great truths of life: London changes, fashion cycles, politics implodes, but a red bus in the rain will always look like London being London. And frankly, if you’re going to time travel, you might as well do it in colour.

Keep browsing: See more Transport books Other books by Kevin McCormack