Bus Fare Collected Writings on the London Bus

This is a collection of writings on the London bus, edited by Joe Kerr and Travis Elborough. Instantly recognizable, endlessly imitated, beloved by tourists and Londoners alike: London’s buses are iconic. Not merely a vital component of the city’s infrastructure, they are equally embedded in its culture; written about, sung about, joked about, filmed, painted (and painted on), advertised, and celebrated in myriad ways. And for the many thousands of people who have depended on them for a livelihood—drivers, conductors, cleaners, mechanics, inspectors—they have created their own world, complete with a distinct language, with uniforms, with places, and with men and women of every imaginable culture and ethnicity. This new collection aims to celebrate the unique relationship that Londoners have with their most important mode of transport, telling you all the things you never knew about London’s lifeblood and how it’s kept the capital moving for more than a century. Tourists take the tube—but real Londoners take the bus.

Joe Kerr is an architectural historian and coeditor of London: From Punk to Blair. He is also a bus driver at Tottenham garage. Travis Elborough’s books include The Bus We Loved: London’s Affair with the Routemaster, and he was the co-editor of A London Year, an anthology of diaries charting life in the capital over the last 500 years.