Names on the buses

621 Ivy Compton-Burnett

852 Ivy Compton-Burnett

Connections with Brighton and Hove : Born in Middlesex, she spent her childhood in Hove and spent 18 years at The Drive where there is a plaque to her. Ivy Compton-Burnett’s father was a doctor whose first wife died in childbirth after producing six children. His second wife, Katherine, mother of Ivy, had another seven. The family had a pew at St John’s church in Palmeira Square although they attended other churches in Hove as well including All Saints. Dr Burnett, a homeopath, published dozens of medical works and also built several homes in Hove before his sudden death aged 60 in 1901 when Ivy was nearly 17. Ivy took a hand in managing the family affairs including running farms, villas and building plots. She did not like Hove and called it a horrid, horrid place. The house was not her favourite either. Ivy’s first novel Dolores appeared in 1911, the year in which her mother died, but she did not like the work and it was another 14 years before her next book was published. She wrote 20 novels before her death in 1969, many of them with themes of homosexuality and incest. Lauded by her contemporaries including Evelyn Waugh, she has now rather gone out of fashion as a writer.

621 Scania Omnidekka carried name since delivery in February 2004, on METRO Line 1. Metro 1 branding removed January 2012. Bus sold May 2015. Name reappeared on 852 Mercedes Streetdeck in December 2017.