Names on the buses

 449 Harold Poster

Connections with Brighton and Hove : Harold Poster had a major influence on Brighton in the 1960s and 1970s through his enterprise and imagination. Poster (it rhymed with Foster rather than toaster) bought three large hotels on the seafront. He sold the Norfolk to the Feld family and improved the Bedford. But the Metropole was his pride and joy. He modernised it and started the first exhibition centre in Brighton at the rear. Nearby he also built Sussex Heights, the highest block of flats in the county. Poster persuaded the council to go in for the conference trade because he saw that traditional seaside holidays were in decline. It proved to be a wise decision. He was also an early advocate of the Brighton Festival which started in 1967 and quickly became a big success. Poster had less luck with the West Pier which he bought in the Sixties. When improvements he wanted were rejected by councillors, he stopped maintaining the structure. It quickly deteriorated and closed in 1975. Poster then offered to pay for restoration if the council would buy it but the offer was refused. He might have done it himself but we shall never know for within a year he was dead. The pier became derelict and the hotels were sold but the festival and conferences still thrive.

449 Volvo Gemini - carried name since delivery in September 2012 on Route 7. Repainted into Route 2 livery July 2017.