Produced By: Townsend Productions

Farewell Leicester Square [Outdoor Theatre]

Genre:
Professional Theatre
Opens:
02 Jul 2021
Times:
02 Jul, 15:00
02 Jul, 19:30

Tickets no longer available.

Farewell Leicester Square’ tells the story of Bedford’s own Joe Clough, Britain’s first black bus driver. 
When hundreds of people travelled from Barbados, Jamaica and Trinidad to work on London’s transport network and drive London’s buses, following a recruitment drive between 1956 and 1970, little did they realise they were following in the footsteps of London’s first black bus driver, Joe Clough, who drove his General Omnibus Company B-type bus from Liverpool Street to Wormwood Scrubs through the heart of London from 1910 to 1913.
Joe was a driver. First, a horse and carriage driver in Jamaica, before moving to Britain with his employer, and learning to drive new motorcars. He passed his omnibus driving test in 1910, and drove field ambulances in Ypres during the First World War.
After the war, Joe made his home with his family in Bedford, driving for the National Omnibus Company, before buying his own taxi after the Second World War, which he drove until his retirement in the 1960s.
Directed by Louise Townsend
Original artwork by Scarlett Rickard
New music by Tayo Akinbode