Bare Cheek: Bus names explained

Visitors to these hallowed streets often wonder why it is that our omnibuses are emblazoned with the names of the great and the good, and what are the criteria for their selection. It’s very simple – all the bus names are people who either have resided in the area, or have a strong local connection. We thought we’d explain what those connections are…

GRAHAM CROWDEN (No. 22) – one episode of The Sun Trap featured a couple from Rottingdean on a second honeymoon that wasn’t working out.

MAX HEADROOM (No. 78B) – the pretend computer-generated TV presenter was the graffiti tag for an IT student from city college between 1997 and 1999.

DYAN CANNON (No. 73) – the Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice star stayed at the Metropole Hotel (on her own on this occasion we might add) while touring the UK in a production of The Millionairess in 1982.

MONK D’WALLY DE HONK (No. 47A) – his ashes are reported scattered on Duke’s Mound.

CHARLES M. SCHULTZ (No. 99) – the record number of ‘Peanuts’ paperbacks found in a single dwelling were discovered in N.F. Brookes’ Bookshop on Queens Road when it was repossessed by the Letting Agents in 2002.

HAWK THE SLAYER (No. 65) – a depiction of the fictional sword-and-sorcery barbarian was used in a flyer for a gay club night at The Aquarium in 1989.

WATT TYLER (No. 777) – mentioned in contemporary chronicles as having sent the first ever postcard from a seaside holiday he enjoyed with his family in Hove.

Hove Factually

FIVE MORE FACTS YOU WERE PREVIOUSLY UNAWARE OF CONCERNING FANTABULOUS HOVE

1 Five per cent of the world’s pornographic website companies are located in Hove, including Pornhub, Redtube, XXXGonzo.com, and Dailymail.co.uk

2 T.S. Eliot’s celebrated set of poems ‘Four Quartets’ originally contained a fifth poem, entitled ‘Hove Lawns’, but Eliot burnt the manuscript in 1942 after adverse criticism from fellow poet Cecil Day-Lewis, who described it as “total crap”.

3 Because of a Teamsters strike, every episode of season three of hit American cop show Cagney And Lacey had to be filmed in Aldrington.

4 A “Hove Martini” has a small frankfurter in place of the more traditional olive.

5 In 1995 there were 2,00,063 cases of autoerotic asphyxiation within Hove.

In & Out

In
• Clog Dancing
• Scotch pies
• Bum bags
• Echolalia
• “If you see Sid tell him”
• Bodice rippers

Out
• Canon Chasuble
• Everton mints
• Ace of Wands
• Lord Chesterfield’s letters to his son
• Dogging