While riding their old bus to school a group of life-long friends peered into the past and saw the changing face of Eltham. MATTHEW JENKIN finds out more.

A GROUP of friends took a nostalgic trip down memory lane when they caught a vintage London bus back to the school where they first met 50 years ago.

Ernie Jupp, of Chanctonbury Close, Eltham, first met his life-long friends at Crown Woods School, in Riefield Road, Eltham, in 1960.

Over the years the close knit group of nine have kept in touch and regularly hold reunions.

Now approaching 60-years-old, retired Met policeman Mr Jupp decided this year’s reunion called for something a little more unusual and special.

The 59-year-old has lived in Eltham all his life and could think of no better way to remember times past than to hop on a 1950s bus and ride the very same route to school taken back in the swinging 60s.

Mr Jupp says the sights outside the windows of the red double-decker have changed dramatically and not neccessarily for the better.

He said: “It was just very, very nostalgic with everyone pointing out things on route.

“But everyone was sad to see how much worse the area has become. Huge shops and department stores such as Woolworths and the Co-op have gone.

“Eltham has really deteriorated. It’s scruffy really, with litter strewn everywhere and lots of graffitti. We didn’t have that back in the 50s and 60s.”

The friends all agree there was something special about the old buses, with their open back door and friendly conductor.

Fellow friend John Simmonds, of Dale Road, Orpington, hasn’t been on a London bus since his school days and says it was extraordinary to be riding once again with his old friends.

The 62-year-old retired engineer said: “I have to tell you it was better in the old days. Things were different then and I really don’t think youngsters were as badly behaved on buses back then.”

He met his current wife Carole at the school when they were both 14-years-old.

Around 40 other friends and family members joined the group on their emotional journey and the 61-year-old housewife says it was the first time they had all been together with their families since the last reunion 10 years ago.

She said: “It was a fantastic atmosphere and there’s something special about the old buses. It wouldn’t have been quite the same on any other bus.”

The sights and sounds of the group’s journey to school may have changed, but the bus hired for the reunion was the same model used in the 1960s.

The RT 1702 ran on several routes in south east London during the 60s including the 124 past Crown Woods School.

When new in 1950, the bus hired by Mr Jupp toured Europe to promote the festival of Britain and still carries plaques inside it to commemorate the nation’s celebration of science and technology.

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