A recount of a trip to The London Transport Museum

On Monday 23rd of May, Year 6 went to the London Transport Museum to learn about the history of the city's buses.

When we first arrived, we ventured to the Transportorium to experience a workshop, on designing a bus, called 'bid a bus'. Firstly, after we revised the history of buses, we split up into our four house teams. We had fifteen minutes to come up with ideas; it was a challenging act. Some of the best ideas included: the Luxor bus(a name), a window at the back, free WiFi, as well as suspense controls. As a result of this, a winner took several days to be decided. In addition to this, Sadiq Khan( who is the new Mayor of London) could see our results.

After a quick lunch break, we split into five groups to act- out scenes of the buses in history: it had a forty- five minute rehearsal to produce an act to show an audience.

Scene 1

The characters of this scene included: Joseph Johnson, William Topkins, James Fenner, William Page and Mary Goddard.

After a long argument, Mary Goddard and Joseph consult the bus depot, on in-bus behavior, after fighting to acquire the final top-deck bus seat.

Scene 2 

The characters of this scene are: Jim Woodwards, George Morris, Christabel Pankhurst, Ruby Morris, Sgt. Johnny Jackson, Lotte Woodwards.

After WW1 began in 1914, George Morris, who was sixty, and Jim Woodwards, who is twenty- three, are given white feathers for not being in Khaki.  As a result, they try to recruited, with George being too elderly. He was very disappointed as he saw his daughter becoming a clippie.

Scene 3 

The character of this scene are: Jim Woodwards, Chris Solly, Arthur Patridge, Ruby Morris, Archibald Rosenburg-Jackson and PC Seaby.

A coal miner, called Chris Solly, was on strike for more money. In contrast to this, some pirate companies began to take this to their advantage by attracting passengers. Jim and Chris were so furious that they got arrested; but freed by PC Seaby, for obstructing the Chocolate Express.


Scene 4

The characters were: Mary Morgan, Sir Alan Patrick Herbert, H.T Carr, Catherine and Eric Kennington and Albert Coe. H.T Carr wants Eric Kennington to draw a portrait of those who are modest heroes. The people who he had chosen were: Mary Morgan and Albert Coe. Mary Morgan did not think she was pretty enough to have her portrait drawn.

Scene 5

The characters in this scene are; Harold Blackman, Carl Hoyte, Ron Noades, Ismay O' Neil, Shirly Macdonald and Terry Bullivant.

In June  1963, Harold Blackman signed a contract to work as a conductor for London Transport. After trying to introduce himself to the English people, they ignored him. He tries to rent a flat. However, Ron Noades points at a racial sign saying no Blacks, Irish, or dogs. Ron slams a door into Blackman's face. Next, Harold walks away with his new friends and joins a L.G.O.C cricket club.

Free exploration and History 

After all the workshops,we had  an opportunity to explore the museum. We saw buses, trains and hackney cabs!

The buses first began when George Shillibeer, a wealthy man, collaborated with France to make the first Omnibus in 1829.
Over time a knife- board bus was developed with a top deck, after that, NS buses ran with a roof. Future developments were made, with adverts covering the staircases for a number of reasons. The most well known is the Routemaster, a top noch bus, that entered service in 1959. As well as this,  a new Routemaster came to the streets of London; will this be the new city icon?


To summarise, this trip was very enjoyable and we think we learnt a lot and had fun!

By Roisin Bunting and Stefanos Mulugeta
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