Mystery Picture

[tomdhu]

Looking for help in identifying where this picture was taken. The best clue must be the stepped tower on the skyline. It could be above a town hall, theatre, hospital or church.

Being an East Kent bus, it could be anywhere between Central London and Margate but most likely South London.

For those interested in buses BFN 797 is Leyland Tiger TS8 fitted with a Park Royal C32R half canopy body.

It was delivered in 1940 and was the first of a large order of which only one was supplied because of wartime restrictions.

It might have been on its first trip as it looks extremely shiny. The posters behind are for Goodyear tyres and Lamb's Navy Rum.

http://i1318.photobucket.com/albums/t643/savedelhi/EastKent_zpsdc73966c.jpg

[fireangel]

The tower looks like the one at camberwell on top of the old bank opposite the green,

[KidKruger]

Given the hoarding and high lighting fixtures behind the bus, could the location be one of the bus stands / stations the bus would have started from or passed through ?

If you can get details of routes which the bus served, perhaps you can eliminate the stops/station locations one by one.

[DulwichFox]

fireangel Wrote:

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> The tower looks like the one at camberwell on top

> of the old bank opposite the green,

The Camberwell tower mentioned is very different.

http://www.thetimes.co.uk/tto/multimedia/archive/00117/bricks-camberwell-8_117920c.jpg

DulwichFox

[tomdhu]

fireangel Wrote:

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> The tower looks like the one at camberwell on top

> of the old bank opposite the green,

Thanks, but I checked Camberwell on Google Images and it's not.

Tom

[tomdhu]

KidKruger Wrote:

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> Given the hoarding and high lighting fixtures

> behind the bus, could the location be one of the

> bus stands / stations the bus would have started

> from or passed through ?

> If you can get details of routes which the bus

> served, perhaps you can eliminate the

> stops/station locations one by one.

Yes, I looked at a map of Kent and Googled towers, domes, town halls and hospitals for virtually all the towns and came up with nothing which makes me think it's in South/East London somewhere.

Tom

[fireangel]

I know I've seen it somewhere!!

[computedshorty]

This one was on the Canterbury Route,

or one on Portsmouth run.

[tomdhu]

They used to run to Victoria coach station so can you think of anything around there that might be where they would park up?

Tom

[Laur]

The dome is similar but not quite...!

http://swim.net-genie.co.uk/siteimage/scale/0/0/30558.jpg

[Townleygreen]

it looks like the tower on the remaining bit of what was Dulwich Hospital ??

http://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/2605561

[numbers]

tomdhu Wrote:

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> They used to run to Victoria coach station so can

> you think of anything around there that might be

> where they would park up?

> Tom

behind Westminster Cathedral? Is it one of the towers?

[tomdhu]

Laur Wrote:

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> The dome is similar but not quite...!

>

> http://swim.net-genie.co.uk/siteimage/scale/0/0/30

> 558.jpg

'Fraid not, the relative size of the upper columns is wrong.

[tomdhu]

numbers Wrote:

>

> behind Westminster Cathedral? Is it one of the

> towers?

Close but no. This shot shows the Westminster tower in greater detail.

[tomdhu]

It's quite a challenge, isn't it. The tower is really all we have to go on and even that may not exist today.

Given that the photo was probably taken between 1940 and say 1950, it's quite probable that the advertising hoardings were screening a bomb site and certainly would no longer exist.

It may even be that the tower itself was destroyed later in the blitz.

But someone out there must know.

Tom

[edhistory]

North west Kent?

[david_carnell]

Maidstone maybe?

The tower in the background here looks similar though I can't work out what or where it is.

http://www.old-picture.com/europe/Maidstone-Street-England-High.htm

[tomdhu]

david_carnell Wrote:

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> Maidstone maybe?

>

> The tower in the background here looks similar

> though I can't work out what or where it is.

>

> http://www.old-picture.com/europe/Maidstone-Street

> -England-High.htm

'Fraid not. Here's another view of the same building in Maidstone.

[susiq]

the mind shop - goose green has a tower like that?

[ponderwoman]

This tower does look like ED baths, but the arches in the photograph are pointed, not flat.. However there were advertising hoardings in ED Road and as a bomb dropped very close, could the tower have been rebuilt? If any one is going along North Cross, look at the photograph of the baths and check the date and the tower.

Have you any reason to suspect the photograph was taken locally?

[tomdhu]

As suggested in my original post it could be anywhere between Victoria Coach Station and Margate but most probably is in South London rather than Kent because of the height of the tower and the probability that the hoardings are screening bomb damage. Because of congestion around Victoria, coaches would park up in the inner suburbs until required. This suggests it might be close to the Old Kent Road.

That aside, the EDF has a very wide catchment area with lots of willing people who will have a connection with many other parts of South and East London plus of course Kent. Offset against this is the fact that only persons of a certain age might recall the actual building even if it no longer exists.

The question of the location has challenged the detective skills of several vintage bus enthusiasts for quite some time so it would be really great to solve the mystery conclusively.

Tom

[edhistory]

Unlikely to be a bomb site.

The ridge/roof of the adjacent late 18th or early 19th wood building is undamaged.

[keano77]

Could it be this bell tower behind the Herne Bay garage?

Scroll down to the Leyland Tiger TS8 - JG 9932-9966 listing on this link

http://www.classicbuses.co.uk/ektig.html

[tomdhu]

keano77 Wrote:

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> Could it be this bell tower behind the Herne Bay

> garage?

>

> Scroll down to the Leyland Tiger TS8 - JG

> 9932-9966 listing on this link

>

> http://www.classicbuses.co.uk/ektig.html

Difficult to see the detail but I don't think it is.

Tom

[Townleygreen]

As I said days ago, it is the tower on Dulwich Hospital!!!!!!!!!!!!!

http://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/2605561