This photo was taken in 1930 and shows one of the first coaches to operate a scheduled service between Newcastle and London.
The Daimler CF6 coach was owned by John Glenton Friars of Blaydon. His service departed from Marlborough Crescent Bus Station at 8.15am every Tuesday, Friday and Sunday, arriving at King’s Cross at 7.45pm in the evening. Tickets were 20 shillings one way and 35 shillings return.
The coach seated twenty people and had a range of amenities to make the long journey as pleasant as possible. There was an onboard toilet and a kitchen and buffet area at the back, where passengers could stand and eat or take their food to their seats where there were fold-out tables. They could watch the countryside roll past from the observation deck at the rear of the coach.
Glenton Friars owned a fleet of motor coaches and charabancs and had organised tours and excursions around the region for the past decade or so. He owned a motorcycle and was a well known figure on the racing circuit; he also learned to fly an aeroplane, a risky business back then. It seems he liked a bit of danger in his life.
He could have found this by taking a ride on his own coach service to London. Seven passengers were injured in 1930 when the vehicle crashed and overturned near Grantham, and the following year it burst into flames at Biggleswade.
His company was taken over by United Automobile Services Ltd in 1932.