Buses

My dad used to be a bus driver, and drove the 151 bus out of Sutton station. As kids we sometimes rode the bus back to the station at the end of the shift.

I seem to remember in the early seventies, there used to be a bus service, running from Culvers Avenue through to Raynes Park, It was a single deck bus called the M1

My father too was a bus driver on the 80,88 and 164 's from the thirties to the late 50's. Returning one day from a shift, his face was very red. Driving apparently in the 'middle of nowhere', he ran from his cab into a field where a man was in flames and saved the man. No mobile phones for rapid communication in those days.You were on your own and did what you had to do, not expecting or wishing for praise or favour.

My grandfather lived in Bishopsford Road and was also a bus driver during the war and up until his early death in 1958 - I believe he drove the 80 and the 80a. I remember the M1, when it was first introduced it was a single decker with a coin operated turnstile barrier. It came to my school in Aragon Road so we could be shown how to use it. The route then was between Raynes Park and Hackbridge via Lower Morden and St Helier Ave.

My father was a bus driver out of Sutton Bus Garage, from the early 30s until the early 60s. He was on the 80 and 88 route. He would talk about the war years when they had to drive in the 'black out'. He worked long shifts and would walk back home from the garage when he finished his late night shift. I remember thick fogs and lots of snow, but the buses would keep running.

I remember my nan taking me on the M1 bus on its first day run, as a birthday treat. It was a Saturday the 22nd of March, but I can't remember the year.

In the late '40s my mum used to take me shopping with her to Sutton High Street using the 156 bus. We'd catch it in Reigate Avenue and get off at the bus garage I think.

During and just after the war when I was a youngster, we had two bus conductors stay with us in Peterborough Road. They were Helen and Carol and initially had been sent down from Scotland to help on London buses. Helen had a square jaw and to me then, looked a bit like a man but Carol was quite attractive. When the war was on a red double decker bus sometimes drove up from Middleton Road to pick them up outside my house No 195. The driver of that bus was a jovial chap who after the war drove 80's 80A's and 88. We called him Hitler because of his moustache but no way was he like the German dictator. I still have the bus and tram tickets that I collected during those days and can follow the price from my street to Mitcham as it rose over the years. 1-1/2d 2d-3d and 4d. You can't travel far on that now, but I loved my bus trips as a kid, perhaps because we didn't have a car.

I remember a bus conductor on the 80 route,I think his name was Mr. Baker who would call out the names of the stops.He had a joke name for every stop - the only one I can recall (age!!) was "Roses ill,poor girl" for Rosehill,but we all thought it was funny every time as he was very jolly and did not talk down to us kids.It seems funny to me that in those days when money was scarce they could afford to have two people working on the bus and now there is just a driver and I never saw a broken down bus, now an all too common sight

I remember the M1 bus when it started.  I lived on Faversham Road from 1969 to 76.  I was brought up by my Dad, but my Mum lived in Raynes Park.  I used to go on the M1 to visit her.  The bus seemed and smelt so new and modern compared to the old double-deckers!

We would get involved in a very tricky game, which we called "getting a jippy" This involved waiting until a bus was about to leave, and if the conductor was upstairs, we would jump onto the platform and hang on to the passenger rail, and stay there hoping that the conductor would not come downstairs before the next stop. Many a time we needed to jump off quickly, and sometimes ending up in the road with a torn shirt and generally some abrasion. The favourite spot was from Angel Hill going up to Rosehill on an 80 or 88.

My Dad, 'Jock' Aitken, was also a bus driver on the 151, 157, and possibly the 80 and 88 during the 1950's. Sometimes I would go with him to the garage (not sure where it was). The bus drivers would take their families on days out to the seaside, in a bus. They would stop off at a pub en route leaving the children in the bus, and send out Wagon Wheels and crisps for us. We used to love being at the upstairs front window especially when tree branches swept the windows. On the way home afterwards there would always be a sing-song with everyone joining in at the tops of their voices.

Route 32 ran from St Helier Avenue/Middleton Road to Worcester Park (via South Wimbledon, Raynes Park, Shannon Corner and Malden) from 1942 to 1956.