Jago Hazzard looks back to a short-lived transport experiment that took place in London in the summer of 1963. From 1 July to 31 October, a hovercraft service operated on the Thames in London between Festival Pier at Waterloo and Tower Bridge.
The experiment was not a success and the Hoverbus's manufacturers, Denny, went out of business the following year.
But Jago is right: hovercraft were once seen as the future. Later in the Sixties, I can recall, you often got mini-hovercraft rides at more ambitious fetes.
But then, as Jonathan Meades once pointed out, the future happened briefly in 1969.
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I can remember Jeremy Thorpe doing part of a General Election campaign in (on?) a hovercraft - and they complain about Ed Davey's gimmicks.....
ReplyDeleteThat took place in the summer of 1974, between the year's two general elections. Holidaymakers' reaction to Thorpe's appearance above the waves is not recorded.
DeleteAlan Williams of Modern Railways once described the channel crossing by hovercraft as '35 minutes of vibro-massage'.
ReplyDelete