A London Bus On Bleeker Street

I’d been seeing the double-decker in NYC for years, loaded with tourists.

When I got to London I had to get used to the hundreds of them I saw everyday, and remember they were not a tourist gimmick, but a serious mode of travel.

I still don’t get the circular logic in using a London bus as a tourist attraction in Manhattan.

Back in New York, those buses are always barreling around the village carrying mid westerners who stare at us like we’re in the zoo. Taking pictures.

They thought we were ‘weird’. I knew they were weird.

One time, we were sitting on Bleeker at an outdoor cafe, and one of those buses came lurking down the street.

You could hear the driver describing the neighborhood through his bullhorn, “this is the famed Greenwich Village, home to Beatnik authors and rock musicians, alike. The crossroads of counter-culture and high fashion”.

All of a sudden this dude comes running out of the cafe, stares at the people on the bus and starts screaming at the top of his lungs, “go the fuck home, go the fuck home, go the fuck home”!  Then he stopped, turned around and walked straight back into the cafe.

The tourists were stunned. The guy put down the bullhorn and drove away fast. They had a good story to take home.

Everyone on the street was dying; It was a beautiful New York moment.

Aston + Martin with Foster + Partners just won the competition to redesign the London buses.

London
Double-Decker In NYC
Bleeker
Greenwich Village
Beatnik authors
Aston + Martin
Foster + Partners
Dezeen
My London

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