Who you gonna call? Ghost Bus Tours!

Things go all spooky with a Ghost Bus Tour of London!

Yep, that’s right Into the Blue is now offering Ghost Bus Tours of London and we just couldn’t resist a few corny Ghostbusters jokes when we were writing up the new product for our website.

However, whilst researching the these tours, something did catch our eye. Amazingly, there really was a company called the Necropolis Bus Company, which started in the early 19th century as a private funeral bus service in London. Known around town as the ‘Carcass Coaches’, they were hired by families to transport the dead and mourners to the cemetery.

Each bus (which was a proper Routemaster double decker, but kitted out as a plush lounge with comfy seats and discreet curtains) had a driver and chief mourner who’d set off the special ‘mourning whistle’ to warn pedestrians that the bus was on its way. On hearing the whistle, Londoners would remove their hats and bow their heads out of respect for the dead.

The London Ghost Bus has been fully restored to its former leather-seated glory

Unbelievably, the Necropolis Bus Company ran in the capital right up until 1967, when a fire in the depot made the business untenable. One bus did survive, but was in a pretty poor state.

After being in storage for 40 years, the bus has been restored to its former glory in a shiny midnight black with that posh seating being reinstalled and all decoration is as close to the original style as possible.

Pretty cool then that some bright spark had the top idea to revive this old tradition in London and turn it into a top tourist attraction in the form of Ghost Bus Tours around  the capital!