Estimated reading time:6 minutes, 25 seconds
Everyone has a story. If you’ve been lucky enough to meet a happy bus driver then you’ll remember it. It could even have been Patrick Lawson, driver of the 26, who was nominated for TfL’s Hello London Award for Outstanding Customer Service 2018 by his passengers. Here’s more about life on the buses and how he turned his life around. Interview by Nicola Baird. Photos by Kimi Gill
Bus driver Patrick Lawson: “To me a full bus is a happy bus! I get people talking to each other.” (c) Kimi Gill for Islington Faces
The 26 may not go through Islington – it’s a CT Plus service running between Hackney Wick and Waterloo – but Patrick Lawson, who has been dubbed London’s happiest bus driver, starts every day from his Finsbury Park home, where he’s lived since 2012.
“The first hour sets your day up. It puts positive stuff into your brain,” explains Patrick when we meet at Nando’s on Stroud Green Road on a wet Wednesday winter afternoon. “When I open my eyes I say ‘thank you’ and tell myself that I like myself. I try not to listen to bad stuff on the TV, radio and the phone – that’s just feeding yourself with negative news.” That’s why Patrick’s morning routine includes a five-minute mindfulness meditation, reading a positive book for half an hour and time to tidy his room. Only then does he leave for work.
FOLLOW ISLINGTON FACES by email: a new interview is published every week. Please also come and see our free “Inspiring Islington” exhibition at Islington Museum from 5 April – 3 June 2019.
“I love my job and dealing with passengers and the public,” he says. But he’s also really thought about how to be a happy bus driver. “I’m a chatty person anyway, so when I was preparing for the interview, I started to look at bus drivers and passengers and see what I could do extra to bring to the job. I hadn’t noticed the interaction between passengers and the bus driver before, but now I was looking I made a promise that I wasn’t going to look negative, I’d brighten up. I believe the passenger is number one, the boss! As a bus driver I’m serving the passenger and the community. I see my job as like running a business. Say my bus was a shop, if you come into my shop, I’m not going to scowl at you, I’m going to welcome you… So on my bus I greet my passengers so they feel welcome.”
This thinking not only secured Patrick a job on the buses, it’s also created a fabulous atmosphere on his bus and in July 2018 saw him win the coveted Tfl award for Outstanding Customer Service though it wasn’t until January 2019 that the press got hold of the story. He was nominated by 68 passengers that CT Plus has privately joked that they will soon need to employ someone just to deal with Patrick’s commendations.
Patrick’s also really lovely away from the driving seat. When a young man comes into Nando’s asking for money for a hostel and something to eat, Patrick pays for his chicken dinner. “I know when I was homeless, I was negative a lot of the time and the days are long, long, long…” he says brushing off his generosity.
Patrick is honest about the many years he was more of a menace to society than an example. “I’ve got a friend now who met me when I was horrible. She said I used to look at her as if I was an ant under her shoe. But that was the life we led. We didn’t smile. I was a roadman, doing roadman stuff, ducking and diving, doing what needs to be done.”
Bus driver Patrick Lawson: “When I was younger my head was the problem.” Now he’s helping make his passengers’ day and is known as London’s happiest bus driver. (c) Kimi Gill for Islington Faces
Growing up
Patrick’s early years were spent in Hackney. Then when he was 11 and his younger brother, 10, his mum, a cook at Hackney Council, sent her two boys to school in Nigeria. They stayed with her brother who believed that sparing the rod spoiled the child. “They call it discipline in Nigeria,” says Patrick with a wry smile. Even though he was so little and terrified of the beatings, he took his chance to drive after weeks of washing his uncle’s Range Rover.
“I loved that car and took the keys when my uncle was abroad. It was parked between two cars and I put it into gear one, took my foot off the clutch and went forward. Then I reversed. I just went back and forth. I loved it,” he says. His uncle never found out… (Patrick eventually got his driver’s licence in 1999 and in 2000 his public service vehicle licence).
Patrick’s mum only came out to Nigeria to see her sons when her brother was robbed and killed. At the funeral the boys “begged her to take us home.” She did.
Returning to London Patrick went to Cardinal Pole secondary school but soon learnt how you could jiggle a lock to open the door of a mini. This was the start of his TDA (taking and driving away) life and soon after that he got into drug dealing. Unfortunately, turning to a life of crime meant Patrick was in Pentonville “loads of times” before he was 20.
And when let out from prison, he was often homeless. Eventually he became an addict and for six years sold the Big Issue around Russell Square, Covent Garden and Mayfair. He is of course now clean.
Patrick Lawson takes pride in welcoming passengers on to his bus, which may be why he’s famous for being London’s happiest bus driver. To date 68 people have sent messages to CT Plus about how much they like being welcomed on to the 26. (c) Kimi Gill for Islington Faces
“People tell me that my mess has inspired them,” he says with some surprise. “I’ve learnt that my spirit is tender, but it’s wrong to say that I’m stressed. I’m happy because I’ve been given a chance. I took the wrong road that led down a path of evil, degradation and near-death experiences. So today I’m grateful that I’m alive and that I’m working. People are amazed at the change of where I’m coming from. I learnt how to be a better person by reading books and listening to videos – they all talk about attitude and personal integrity. For many years I didn’t know I was poisoning people’s lives.”
And that’s why life is very different for Patrick, 50. Now he has a job he can be proud of on the buses, and a place to live (found with a little help from his local MP, Jeremy Corbyn). He’s also got dreams to run his own property business – so very good luck to him.
Meanwhile if you ever find yourself in Hackney Wick or Waterloo, keep a look out for the 26 so you can give Patrick a wave. Although you may find that it’s Patrick giving you the first wave.
- Buying the Big Issue– new mags are published each Monday – helps vendors learn business skills, earn cash and retrain. So, if you haven’t yet made a 2019 resolution, maybe consider buying it regularly.
