London Routemaster memories, proprioception and spacemaking ✨
succulent footage + ideas on being in relationship with ourselves and others
Fellow transport fans, some memory lane wanderings for your pleasure. And some ideas on proprioception and spacemaking.
These Routemaster contraptions take me back to green hooves, treading old familiar ground in circumstances worlds away from what she knew. Clip-clop!
Berwick Street dash to-from work. Exmouth market essentials on rare occasions i was home. The 159 and 38 hold a special place in my heart (share your favourite routes and memories with me below!)
(imho the 159 is still the best route in town!)
Stay tuned cause i’m-Vanessa Williams-saving the best for last! Let’s start with wetting our whistles with some audio-visuals, shall we?
First up, some footage footage from the last Routemaster arriving at Brixton Garage. A bittersweet moment as she pulls into the depot.
Second, a cute report and ticket stamp to send her off. Funfact: i started watching and recalled i’d met this presenter a few years ago at a party i wasn’t sure i wanted to go to, on a balmy day in central. We found ourselves in a corner, relieved to have located a sweet breeze and i was glad i had someone non-snooty to talk to. And there they are, nerding on the bus things as i do the same. I love that feeling of resonance in connection. Isn’t it weird how life moves?
And finally, the clip i had subconsciously hoped to find on this rabbit hole, oh it’s a good one, a homage to Kev ‘Duke Bassie’, a singing and harmonica playing bus conductor from 2001. The 38 was one of my routes and i vaguely remember him, but also, the many conductors who i’d watch with awe in those times.
The skill and awareness of yourself and others in place and space is something else, not to mention dealing with Londoners commuting with all their quirks each day! I would feel surges of joy seeing how they could dance around the vehicle, swinging and sometimes hanging off the back, attuned to when someone was jumping on or off, as well as the (often wild) traffic that could be unpredictable!
There’s a moment at 00:38 of the clip below which shows one small example of this proprioception in action, and it reminds me that this is more than understanding ourselves in space, it’s literally our sense of self, and how we take up space in the world, truly a 6th sense! I like to think of it as a form of spacemaking ✨
What’s also fascinating is remembering proprioception is a system, and is about relationships, with ourselves and others. We are always reading, absorbing (sometimes over-absorbing if boundaries are an issue) and reflecting or mirroring the activity around us.
Which is probably why as we meet the third year of living in this pandemic, i find my rabbit hole research projects (on youtube and beyond) more and more concerned with psychogeography, humans exploring various terrain, sometimes, places i long to return to, others places i’m curious to one day experience.
I particularly enjoy long walking videos, someone experiencing a place in real time, with real people, real weather of any season. Just to feel something. Hah, i jest, i’m ever-feeling.
But returning to London circa 2001-5 via these videos took me to all kinds of realms of remembering. How i’d love to sit on the side seats near the back of the Routemasters, where you used to hop on and off if you were able, and that facing people in this way gave me more human connection in a city that could be…not so up for connection with strangers at times.
To also give context, one of the times i returned to live and work in London (2005, the year they phased out these Routemaster buses!) i’d just moved from Barcelona, a city where my sense of relation with others and the landscape felt…wider but closer? More intimate? More…available somehow for connection?
In London, despite one’s bubbles of personal space being much smaller, simply because there was not as much space for the amount of humans in the city, the feeling of the need to not encroach on others space was loud.
And realising the many sometimes funny, sometimes just awkward, moments i had as a consequence of meeting this different cultural space, in my own world, thinking i was doing my own thing, for example, dancing to my music (via my 1st generation ipod- feels important to mention this whilst we’re down memory lane, not to gloat, rather to sense) or i’d be trying not to dance, but rather, gently dig and enjoy with pleasure… except my face can’t often disguise said joy, it gets broad with bliss and uncontrollable swoons, so i appreciate i can look mildly wild and possibly alarming when we might supposed to be rather serious and without expression, if possible.
🥴
So yes. Memories.
And proprioceptive cultural conflict.
And neuroplasticity of un and re learning new pathways.
Speaking of which, the Routemaster bus was phased out in 2005, being replaced by the “New Routemasters”…and the “bendy busses” which were said to be more environmentally friendly and accessible. But i’m sure you can imagine, there have been questions raised on this and criticism too.
But/And appreciation for us wanting to reflect on how we can make the things we use in society more inclusive, more sustainable and more accessible for each of us to do.
But/And also holding space for the many conductors who lost their jobs as the new busses required less staff.
Whew, a lament for the complexity of it all. And hope for us all to experience the freedom in places and spaces as we deserve.
And here’s to this archive footage celebrating Kev ‘Duke Bassie’. I think you have to be a special kind of human to do this work. Sensational!
Follow up: i wrote this early on Sunday 23 January 2022, and on twitter later today saw this tweet
which featured this article from 21 January 2022, describing how the New Routemasters need repair and care and because TfL is so short of cash, they might be permanently withdrawn from service, which, as you can imagine, i had a “woah!” moment of exchange about (via the thread of the tweet)!