From my Centre Heights aerie
Our small team’s office was located in a private apartment in the Centre Heights complex at Swiss Cottage. We enjoyed views from the balcony of the passing traffic in Finchley Road. On a day when I brought my camera to work, I captured two buses on local routes. Folk are in shirt sleeves, a reminder of that year’s long heatwave summer.
AEC Merlin MB641 (AML641H) is picking up passengers on the 268 that still runs between Finchley Road Station and Golders Green, via Hampstead Village. The route was inaugurated in late 1968, using twin-doored Merlins, but these had recently been displaced by single-door examples as seen here. Shorter-length AEC Swifts took over the 268 in 1976.
London Transport’s cull of AEC Merlins was getting under way at this time. Large numbers of the unhappy class were dumped at Radlett airfield, most going for scrap and just a few for further service, notably as stopgaps in Belfast. MB641 was lucky enough to escape the Merlin holocaust and is active in preservation as a unique single-door survivor.
Tiny Ford Transit FS12 (MLK712L) is overtaking MB641 on the C11, one of several routes introduced in October 1972 that required small vehicles to negotiate narrow streets. The C11 duly required larger and sturdier vehicles, and the Ford Transits were replaced later in 1975. FS12 lasted in the LT fleet until the late 1970s.
August 1975
Zorki 4 camera
Agfa CT18 film.
From my Centre Heights aerie
Our small team’s office was located in a private apartment in the Centre Heights complex at Swiss Cottage. We enjoyed views from the balcony of the passing traffic in Finchley Road. On a day when I brought my camera to work, I captured two buses on local routes. Folk are in shirt sleeves, a reminder of that year’s long heatwave summer.
AEC Merlin MB641 (AML641H) is picking up passengers on the 268 that still runs between Finchley Road Station and Golders Green, via Hampstead Village. The route was inaugurated in late 1968, using twin-doored Merlins, but these had recently been displaced by single-door examples as seen here. Shorter-length AEC Swifts took over the 268 in 1976.
London Transport’s cull of AEC Merlins was getting under way at this time. Large numbers of the unhappy class were dumped at Radlett airfield, most going for scrap and just a few for further service, notably as stopgaps in Belfast. MB641 was lucky enough to escape the Merlin holocaust and is active in preservation as a unique single-door survivor.
Tiny Ford Transit FS12 (MLK712L) is overtaking MB641 on the C11, one of several routes introduced in October 1972 that required small vehicles to negotiate narrow streets. The C11 duly required larger and sturdier vehicles, and the Ford Transits were replaced later in 1975. FS12 lasted in the LT fleet until the late 1970s.
August 1975
Zorki 4 camera
Agfa CT18 film.