Ralf Obergfell

Last Stop Routemasters

London: 2004-2008

..It is almost bus porn.. (Robert Elms, BBC Radio London)

..Critics Choice.. (Time Out London)

I was twelve or thirteen years old when I first saw a Routemaster. It was on TV at my parents house in Staufen, a small town on the edge of the Black Forest, where I grew up.

I got hit by the striking bright red, the powerful design with its friendly looking round curves, the open platform with the chrome pole located in its centre, and the fact that the bus was still conducter operated.

To me, the Routemaster conveyed a sense of original London street furniture, a classic piece of art and technology that was loved and valued by Londoners and visitors alike. After all the Routemaster presented a sense of communal spirit that just made it fun to ride on.

Last Stop Routemasters | Welcome

Last Stop Routemasters | Capacity

Last Stop Routemasters | RM1

Last Stop Routemasters | London

Last Stop Routemasters | Four in a Row

Last Stop Routemasters | Eye

Last Stop Routemasters | Face

Last Stop Routemasters | London Eye

Last Stop Routemasters | Son of the Mask

Last Stop Routemasters | Solid Machine

Last Stop Routemasters | Leather Seat

Last Stop Routemasters | 4-Seats

Last Stop Routemasters | Driver Cab

Last Stop Routemasters | Empty Upper Deck 01

Last Stop Routemasters | Laughing

Last Stop Routemasters | Oyster Card

Last Stop Routemasters | Bell Cord

Last Stop Routemasters | Ha!

Last Stop Routemasters | The Bush Babe

Last Stop Routemasters | Dreaming

Last Stop Routemasters | Feet

Last Stop Routemasters | Priority Seats

Last Stop Routemasters | Changing the Ad

Last Stop Routemasters | Petrol Pump

Last Stop Routemasters | Filling Up

Last Stop Routemasters | Phil

Last Stop Routemasters | Kwado Manson

Last Stop Routemasters | Platform Light

Last Stop Routemasters | Centre Point

Last Stop Routemasters | Mamma Mia

Book

Breedon Books Publishing (UK): 2008

Special thanks to Arriva (Peter John Batty), David Azurdia, Travis Elborough, Jet, Ben Walters.

Words: Ben Walters

A design classic and an international symbol of London, the Routemaster bus became a landmark in itself, a global icon you could ride to work.

Designed in 1954 by the London Transport Engineering Manager, Colin Curtis, and introduced in 1956, the Routemaster (RM) was a fixture of the capital's streets for half a century before its withdrawal from regular service at the end of 2005 - a decision that outraged thousands of the bus's admirers in Britain and around the world. This was no mere item of public transport, they insisted, but a living part of the city, worthy of appreciation, loyalty, even affection.

Drawn from hundreds of images gathered over the Routemaster's final year of service, "Last Stop Routemasters" is not an exercise in protest, or even nostalgia, but a celebration of the unique and dynamic role the bus played in London life.

These vibrant, witty and iconic photographs were mostly taken on the 19 and 38 routes, running from Finsbury Park in the north and Hackney in the east through the heart of the West End and on to Knightsbridge and Chelsea.

They pay tribute to the bus' warm, weighty yet elegant design features, the spontaneous social interactions catalysed by its trusty conductors and the ever-changing conversation between inside and outside space allowed by its open back.

In in these fluid, organic elements - all absent from the buses that have replaced it - that Obergfell finds the Routemaster's soul.

Last Stop Routemasters | Cover

Last Stop Routemasters | Welcome & Foreword by TRAVIS ELBOROUGH

Last Stop Routemasters | Anthony Harris & Phil Geraghty

Last Stop Routemasters | Vauxhall Bridge (2000) & Victoria Station

Last Stop Routemasters | London

Last Stop Routemasters | 785019 & Superior Crew

Last Stop Routemasters | 38

Last Stop Routemasters | Intro

Last Stop Routemasters | Depot

Last Stop Routemasters | En Route

Last Stop Routemasters | Aboard

Last Stop Routemasters | Last Stop

Exhibition

London Transport Museum: 2008

Last Stop Routemasters at London Transport Museum was my first solo exhibition.

Special thanks to Oliver Green, Wendy Neville, Zimena Percival, Michael Walton, Claire Williams.