AboutBus Blinds
About Bus Blinds
Our blinds
We have built up a large collection of destination, route number and information blinds from London's buses. They vary in sizes, colours and styles depending on the age of the blind and the vehicle it was created for. All our blinds have been used but we pick only the very best for our website, ensuring you get a superb blind with history, not damage!Traditional blinds
Earlier blinds were made from printed paper slips stuck to a linen roll. These were generally white on black, with night bus sections appearing in yellow on black. The backlighting would normally have been incandescent giving the white letters a warm glow.Front and back views of a traditional paper & linen blind
During the 1980's linen blinds were replaced with Tyvek, a fibrous plastic with a smooth paper-like face. This material is much lighter and hardwearing than paper and linen, reducing tears and water stains that often destroy blinds. Tyvek was more transparent than linen, improving visibility at night with fluorescent tube lighting. Eventually the blinds were printed with bright yellow on black as it is easier to read than white on black.Rear view of a Tyvek blind showing the fibres in the blind and the driver's text
Modern blinds
In recent years blinds have changed significantly to comply with the Disability Discrimination Act. Text is now a mixture of upper and lower case letters to help with shape recognition, all characters are larger than before, and via points have disappeared from the front of the bus in favour of bigger and uncluttered destinations.