History: Omnibuses

These early buses were called ‘Omnibuses‘ and ran in France and England, and it wasn’t until 1847 when Adams & Co of Fairfield works, manufactured a vehicle with a clerestory roof with built in upper seats running the length of the bus. These were first operated by the Economic Conveyance Company of London, and to encourage people to use these the fare was half of the cost of sitting inside.

These open top double decker horse drawn buses were not initially popular, and it took nearly 10 yrs for the idea to catch on, when in 1852 John Greenwood introduced a much larger double decker with enough space for up to 42 passengers and needed pulling by 3 horses, with the top deck still accessed by a ladder.