It is perhaps hard to believe that, prior to the 1970s, much of London was inaccessible for public transport because buses were too long and too wide to negotiate all but the main roads. Manufacturers were reluctant to develop small, low-capacity buses and London Transport (LT) had no plans for such vehicles.

In 1969, Royal Mail bought new Ford Transits with a taller, wider parcel-van body built by Strachans. North Downs (a small, independent bus company based in Orpington, South-East London) worked with Strachans to develop a bus version and introduced the first true minibus in the UK in September 1969.

Three years later, London Transport introduced four new routes (B1, C11, P4 & W9) using similar Strachan-bodied Ford Transits to serve areas remote from its normal bus network. Their success quickly forced LT to find a more-substantial alternative and so the Bristol LHS began to replace the Transit in 1975.

BS 4 was allocated to Holloway (HT) garage in August 1975 for route C11 which ran between Cricklewood Broadway and Archway station. Following withdrawal, it was purchased by London Borough of Richmond in 1981, before being bought for preservation in 1994.

Photos

• [top] BS4 on the B1 © David Bowker
  
• [left]  ...  and on the 227  © David Bowker