These pictures were taken 50 years ago today. Like most of Southampton I had a lousy hangover for the best of reasons. They’re black & white because that’s what I had in my camera at the time. The open top bus tour of the city started at The Dell and headed out towards Shirley, Regents Park, Millbook and clockwise around the city. They thought it would take about 90 minutes but the crowds were so large it took over 3 hours to arrive back in the city centre for the official reception at the Civic Centre.
Me and my mate Trevor, started out in Shirley and we headed down towards Foyes Corner where we climbed into a No.17 bus parked up to await the tour. The bus was empty so I had a great view for pictures, through the top deck front window as they came towards us along Shirley Road…
After they’d passed we walked into town to catch them on the return leg, coming up Pound Tree Road and into Above Bar before turning into Civic Centre Road which was jam-packed with 50 to 100,000 people. It was so tightly packed we couldn’t get in…so we went home and watched the rest live on TV.
A great event in the City’s history…
