Figure 1.--British schoolboys in the 20th century commonly wore short trouser school uniform. These boys in the prep division attended a private London day school during the 1980s. A HBC reader attended this school in the 1970s.

This is an image from the HBC short pants country trends page. There are some interesting aspects to it, including comments from a former student from the school the boys here attend. The children travel to school on municipal transit. Or in London also sometimes on The Tube. the Tune. Britain does not have yellow school buses like America. Rather the children travel to school in regular municipal busses. In the United Kingdom, student transport by bus is usually provided by local scheduled public transport bus services. Dedicated bus services for school students are usually contracted out to local bus companies, using ordinary buses that are used for other purposes when not in use for school journeys. In London and other areas transport is free or heavily subsidized, depending on the child's age or where he lives (distance from the school).

College

A British reader writes, "What a surprise - the image you have here is of prep school boys from my old school. This would indeed be the 1980s because as you can see that they have relaxed the rules as regards uniform knee socks (with the bands in the school colours) (compare the picture I sent you of the class 'photo on my pages which is in 1970) but I see they still wear grey shirts ordinarily whereas the boys in the photo I sent wear white - that is because that was specified for the class 'photo.I recall even I had to wear a white shirt for the school photo even though I preferred grey and that was in the main school! I think that I told you that my Mum didn't mind buying me grey shirts even though my brother had white but she found the cost of the knee socks exorbitant as compared with our primary school single colour-band socks which could be bought at BHS and didn't have to be bought at the school shop."

Underground

Of course the way to get around London is 'The Tube' or Underground. Here the boys are at a elevated Underground station. Our readers explains the location, "The location is the local 'underground' station although there it is overground and I know it well because it is the local London Transport station where I set off with my Mum many a time to go to Kew Gardens on a Sunday or to go up to Euston mainline Station or Victoria Coach station when we were going up to Leeds. We also used that station when going on school trips at primary school up to the Science Museum or the Natural History Museum in South Kensington."

Bill's School Experiences

Bill has provided us a detailed account of his school experiences, at both his primary school and the private college that he attended. His account provides a great deal of information about going to school in England.

British Prep Schools

Readers may want to learn more about British preparatory schools. Apertures Press has prepared a series of photographic books about these schools which readers may find of interet.

Created: 11:32 PM 6/4/2007
Last updated: 11:23 AM 10/2/2026