LUL 522 X – Mobile Art Bus
I purchased this vintage Leyland Cub Midi Bus CU 335 in 1996. It used to do service in the city of Hackney as a handicapped bus. I fell in love with it as soon as I saw it. I didn’t give much thought to it’s mechanical state. I figured, what ever state she was in, I would nurture her back to pristine condition. I figured, in my senior years, I would use her to continue to do what I have always done, which is to travel and spread joy and love to the masses through song and comedy.
Every year I spent 5 to 6 months travelling around Europe in this bus, doing shows at festivals and on the streets, visiting friends and trying as hard as I could to be completely off grid. Back in the beginning there wasn’t any really efficient solar power, so I used an electric generator to power the bus where ever I happened to park up.
28 years later she has a new engine, transmission, differential and a complete interior refit. Today technology has changed and so I have fitted her with a bunch of solar collectors so I can power my energy needs from that great big fusion reactor in the sky! The cost of property and rents have risen completely out of control in recent years and so, since 2017, I have lived in this bus with my daughter as we try to navigate a world where I want to put her needs before those of overpriced property.
By living in the bus I have turned my fuel costs into my rent and managed to provide a quality life for my daughter that includes trips, lessons and other experiences that we would have to forgo if I were to have stayed attached to the property paradigm.
Tiny Home Living
It seems like a logical solution to a very confounding problem. Young people today are faced with the possibility that they may never own property, and the recent COVID 19 crisis took a lot of jobs away from people making it next to impossible for them to maintain their rental obligations or save for homes. I worry that my child will not be able to afford her home and ask myself how the market can reset itself, or even if it will.
We live in uncertain times. When I was young, property was affordable but, for some reason, I decided to travel he world and look for other places to live. I didn’t think that it would become as difficult as it has to acquire a place to put down roots.
So, I continue to search for a permanent parking position will appear where we can add a couple of modular wagons and live a life close to nature, sustainable and in harmony with our surroundings.
For a more detailed background on how the bus has been used over the past 28 years visit A Brief History of Busland .