Rare pictures of when horses tried to out-run the buses

Motor buses have been part of the urban landscape since the end of the 19th century – although, as we can see from one picture, the horse and cart initially tried to give them a run for their money.

They were not entirely new. The first “horse bus” service had been established in Manchester as early as 1824, with passengers picked up and set down along a predefined route, just as today.

The motorised era brought greater speed but not necessarily comfort. Not only the upper decks but also the staircases were “outside” and the upstairs seats unupholstered.

The new technology was seized upon by entrepreneurs and the Edwardian era saw a free-for-all in which competing companies plied for trade, especially in London.

But it was the inter-war period that set the pattern which continued for the rest of the century, with a new system of regulation that saw small, private operators giving way to “corporation” fleets run by local councils. Many of the displaced operators had been First World War servicemen who learnt their mechanical skills in the Army.

The buses themselves were mostly the same from town to town, but as the corporation model took hold, each began to specify its own livery, interior seat pattern and destination board arrangement.

Most ran an unofficial but nevertheless rigid system of gender discrimination: the men up front in the cab and the women “clippies” inside, taking the fares.

It was a model that had barely changed by the 1970s, when TV’s On The Buses immortalised it.

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