The platform - a performative stage, a promiscuous place.

I took these photos sitting on the right hand bench seat on my final journey home on the No.38 RM.

Looking at them now, in collage, there is a sense of unbridled wildness. The city blurs and lights stretch. People rush in and push past. They fill the frame and empty it again. Kids run to catch the moving bus, their legs racing, hands outstretched in a bid to grasp the rail. They make it, bodies leaping, voices screeching. They jump off again, game over, narrowly missing cars and bikes. All the while, the conductor weaves through the bodies, riding the edges of the platform, leaning out into the city.

It is calm, then frantic, then calm again.

The platform is a counterpoint - a space of encounters with danger in many guises. It is where the conductor meets the city, the bus meets the road, passengers meet each other. The risk, the danger, the potential for encounters is seductive. It is a performative stage, a promiscuous place. People come and go. Others are motionless. The conductor casually watches everything.

Riding the platform and watching the road dissolve beneath me is one of my favourite London experiences. It feels wild and free and flirtatious. I will miss it.

Comments

[David Knight]

beefless tidemaking thaumaturgia pyal unenacted toreutic apastron demarcate
Los Amigos 4-H Cavy Project
http://click-2-heel.co.uk/

[kat]

i miss them too, but the bendy is starting to grow on me in curious ways. for instance i find myself comparing the interior to that of a dyson, - what with all that bright clean shiny reflective material. furthermore the vacuum metaphor is an interesting one for considering the way the bus scoops up people and drops them off. Surreal, huh.

[harriet]

Oh me too! It was about being connected to outside and inside at the same time.

29s have recently turned from double deckers to bendys - I really do miss an upstairs.