All aboard the charabanc

Charabanc outing, outside the White Swan Piccadilly. (c) City of York Council (York Images)

I’ve also recently chanced upon an image from the city archives taken outside the White Swan, around a hundred years ago. In the background is the same stretch of its Piccadilly frontage where the ‘relics‘ are displayed. Back then it was quite new and hadn’t yet had modern shopfronts inserted (the present White Swan dates from 1912, and replaced an earlier White Swan Hotel).

The people pictured here appear to be going on an outing, in a charabanc. Basically an early bus. This one’s quite a posh charabanc, motorised. It looks like it has the numberplate ‘DN 1′,  which I always understood was the Lord Mayor’s vehicle – in more recent times at least. (If you know more about this photo or the vehicle in it, please add a comment.)

In my own family history archives I also have a couple of images which appear to have been taken at the beginning of a charabanc outing, at around the same time. But in Hull, and we were poor, and our charabanc was horse-drawn.

Charabanc outing, from Hull

The girl third on the right is my maternal grandmother, Doris.

Do hop on the charabanc and join us. There’s the posh motorised York charabanc and the working class Hull charabanc, pick whichever one suits best. I’m going for the one with a horse, without flags. I’m not quite sure where we’re going next. They don’t look comfortable so short journeys are probably preferable.