Southdown in NBC Days - Tapa dura

Southdown, based in Brighton, was one of the most important bus operators in southern England. Formed in 1915 from an amalgamation of three earlier operators, the company became a subsidiary of BET and survived as a separate operator until all of BET’s subsidiaries were nationalized as part of the National Bus Company in 1969. Even after nationalization, Southdown endeavored to retain an element of individual identity, adopting a NBC version of its traditional pale green livery (rather than either the poppy red or darker green adopted elsewhere) and, as time moves on, so nostalgia for this period of the company’s history grows.