Names on the buses

818 Lord Cohen

440 Lord Cohen

Connections with Brighton and Hove : The charismatic founder of the Alliance Building Society made it possible for thousands of ordinary people in Brighton and elsewhere to own their own homes. He teamed up with builders to put up many houses in the suburbs of Brighton and Hove. Then he offered them the finance to pay for them through mortgages. Cohen, a Socialist, was elected Mayor by Tory Brighton Council and cut a flamboyant figure. Among his ambitious ideas, not realised for Brighton, was a large music and entertainments pavilion on the front in 1949 which would also have included a conference hall, a dance hall, restaurants and a ballroom. Another of his ideas was for a chain of gardens right through the town from Preston Park to the sea which would have involved demolishing much property. Cohen also wanted to have a continental bathing place on the beach near the West Pier. Many of his ideas were ahead of their time and had a lot of common sense as well as being visionary. Cohen also gave backing to the Theatre Royal in New Road during difficult times especially in the years of the Second World War. He was less successful in his bid to become MP for Brighton Kemp Town, losing to the equally colourful Tory MP Howard Johnson. Lord Cohen of Brighton made the Alliance into one of Britain’s top ten building societies before his early death in the Sixties.

818 Dennis Trident - carried name since delivery in May 1999, originally named Lewis Cohen, renamed Lord Lewis Cohen in July 1999 then changed to Lord Cohen in late July 1999, originally on METRO Line 1 then repainted into new METRO Line 1 livery from May 2004, repainted into Metro 7 livery May 2007. Bus sold in August 2011. New bus 440 arrived in January 2012 and took up this name on Route 7.