In London, A Bus That Did Push-Ups

The double-take is a timeless comedy prop to exaggerate the notion of seeing something unbelievable and having to take another look to confirm the message the eyes sent to the brain that split-second before. I’m sure you’ve seen it in many a movie or comedy sketch.

Well, you should have seen the double-take I did the other day. I nearly came off the back of my bike as I wondered if I’d really seen what I thought I had.

On my 10-mile round-trip cycle commute to work there’s often a number of distractions to catch the eye. A Banksy stencil or piece of street art if you’re lucky; an amazing car or bike or never-paid-attention-to-before building; a beautifully dressed person perhaps.

But seeing a big red double-decker bus doing push-ups as I wound my way through the London borough of Islington seemed like some sort of weird hallucination.

Yet there it was. Outside Czech House –actually the Islington Design Centre building that was the Czech Olympic HQ during the Games – was an old-style 1957 Bristol London bus with huge arms protruding from its sides behind the front wheel arches.

I got off my bike to cross the busy intersection and walked among the crowd, which seemed like a mixture of confusion, impressed awe and head-scratching amazement.

Then I really did begin to wonder if something had been slipped into my breakfast an hour earlier. Looming above me the weird mass started to grunt and groan and the arms raised the front of the bus up, exposing the underbelly of the bus.

The push-up was about half-way through before it came to a halt. I guess even mighty buses get lactic acid build-up too, which was kind of reassuring. Then with another few huffs and puffs the bus fully extended its arms to reach its full height before lowering itself down with the wheezes of a bus that’s spent too long on busy, polluted roads.

Surreal doesn’t really cover it.

The push-up bus, or ‘London Booster’ to give it its official title, is the brainchild of Czech artist David Cerny (hence its place outside Czech House during the Games).

Rather cheekily he has suggested the commission was designed to encourage visiting “fat Americans” to exercise and get thinner. I’m more inclined to think that anyone who sees it will think they’ve lost their minds rather than consider a new fitness regime.

Hydraulics enable the arms to raise the 6.5 ton vehicle off the ground, with added sound effects to highlight the effort that it takes. That effort is reflected in the consumption of 90 kilowatts of energy per hour. Considering the average British home runs on just 3,000 watts an hour, I’m not surprised the bus makes all that noise and needs regular rest.

Since the close of the Games, the Czech House and muscular bus have all been packed up. But during the Olympics, I cycled the city streets just a little bit more slowly, on the look-out for black London cabs doing synchronized somersaults or train carriages with legs doing squat thrusts.

With the current mood in the city it seems anything is possible. Except perhaps to predict the weather, which I am contractually obliged to say as a Briton…