Omnibus Life in London
The Illustrated London News. No.978-Vol XXXIV, Saturday June 11, 1859.

We remember reading long ago "Confessions of a Hackney coach" and strange enough were the recollections of that now antiquated and nigh forgotten vehicle. There is but one remaining to tell of the discomfort our forefathers considered luxury, and for which they gladly paid at the rate of a shilling mile.

The Confessions of an Omnibus would be equally strange and varied, could there be found a voice to narrate its experiences. There is scarcely a London Omnibus that does not carry its hundred passengers a day - six hundred a week - more than thirty thousand souls per annum.

Could it set before us the passions, emotions, hopes, fears and sorrows of a tithe of that vast multitude, what a picture of life would be set before us! Without entering so deeply into such mysteries, we will fancy ourselves for a while an Omnibus Cushion and Knifeboard.

Click here for stories about some Omnibus passengers;
Sir John Grubbery
Algernon Bosanquet and Mrs Brisket
Miss Fitz-Cholmoodley, Jack Spangle
Gus Chaucey
Mr Jones and Mr Brown
Bob Carrol and The Driver

* Knifeboard is the seat on the top of an omnibus.
The Illustrated London News, No. 978, Vol XXXIV, June 11, 1859.