Leonard Bentley
Fleet Street
Although this anonymously published postcard was posted to Paris from Notting Hill in October 1913, the photograph dates from several years earlier. The view shows Fleet Street looking east towards St. Paul's Cathedral and Ludgate Circus and the photographer has caught the first electric powered bus to successfully work the streets of London. The London Electrobus Co Ltd was formed in April 1906 and provided bus services employing buses powered by lead acid batteries until 1910. This particular bus is on a route from Liverpool Street to Victoria and all for a 2d fare, the fares were so low that other bus companies reduced their fares to compete in 1908. Also in July 1908 an Electrobus was involved in a fatal accident in Whitehall when a Foreign Office civil servant deep in thought and not actually hearing the bus stepped in front of it near the United Services Club. The Electrobus also experimented with enclosed upper decks, the first buses to have enclosed upper decks. There was no objection from the Metropolitan Police because of the exceptionally low centre of gravity. Their objection to enclosed upper decks had always been and continued to be until the early 1920s that the bus could easily topple over because of high centres of gravity and instead of spilling their top deck passengers into the roadway, they would incur serious injuries against the enclosed roof. The Company encountered financial difficulties in 1910 and sold most of the fleet to Brighton and Hove District Council who operated them until 1917.
Fleet Street
Although this anonymously published postcard was posted to Paris from Notting Hill in October 1913, the photograph dates from several years earlier. The view shows Fleet Street looking east towards St. Paul's Cathedral and Ludgate Circus and the photographer has caught the first electric powered bus to successfully work the streets of London. The London Electrobus Co Ltd was formed in April 1906 and provided bus services employing buses powered by lead acid batteries until 1910. This particular bus is on a route from Liverpool Street to Victoria and all for a 2d fare, the fares were so low that other bus companies reduced their fares to compete in 1908. Also in July 1908 an Electrobus was involved in a fatal accident in Whitehall when a Foreign Office civil servant deep in thought and not actually hearing the bus stepped in front of it near the United Services Club. The Electrobus also experimented with enclosed upper decks, the first buses to have enclosed upper decks. There was no objection from the Metropolitan Police because of the exceptionally low centre of gravity. Their objection to enclosed upper decks had always been and continued to be until the early 1920s that the bus could easily topple over because of high centres of gravity and instead of spilling their top deck passengers into the roadway, they would incur serious injuries against the enclosed roof. The Company encountered financial difficulties in 1910 and sold most of the fleet to Brighton and Hove District Council who operated them until 1917.