DSCN4774 Brighton and Hove 803 (T803 RFG) and 685 (YN57 FYP) - 27 Sep 2010

Monday 27 September 2010 (0840) – Two Brighton and Hove Bus and Coach Company (Go-Ahead Group owned) buses in Castle Square. Left is 803 (T803 RFG), a Dennis Dart with Plaxton President body new March 1999 named Prince Regent, and right is 685 (YN57 FYP), a Scania Omnidekka with East Lancs body new October 2007 named Donald Peers. 685 was heading for Tunbridge Wells on service 29, one of the company’s longest routes (approx 35 miles taking around 1hr 43mins). Most of the company’s buses carry names of people having a connection with the Brighton area. The Prince Regent, later to become King
George IV, frequented fashionable Brighton in the late 18th century. He bought a farmhouse and asked architect John Nash to transform it into the most fantastic palace in Europe. Using strong Oriental influence including domes and minarets, Nash created what is now the Royal Pavilion which the Prince furnished lavishly. Donald Peers was one of Britain's most popular tenor singers in the 1950s and, at one time, was so popular that he sold more records than Bing Crosby in Britain. He was also the first singer to pack out the Royal Albert Hall in London.