Southdown Motor Services (popularly known as Southdown Buses) was formed in 1915 with the intention of providing bus services to a big chunk of the South Coast (the "Southcoast" name already having been taken). Southdown was founded by "The two Alfreds", Alfred Douglas Mackenzie and Alfred Cannon, who worked together to make Southdown's a cut above the normal bus service, with better signage and roomier more luxurious seating than might normally be expected on standard services, and a laserlike focus on timetabling and scheduling. This served Southdown well as a series of acquisitions and takeovers resulted in the company expanding their territory out into a wedge-shaped area stretching from Portsmouth to Hastings, with the top of the wedge extending up to London.

The company also used its coaches to run long-distance holiday sightseeing tours, across Britain and the Continent.

Description: Black chassis, light green lower body, cream lower deck window surrounds; light green upper deck and stairs; pinkish buff seats and guardrails between the wheels; 'Southdown' in gold on lower body sides; Schweppes Ginger Ale in white on rear of steps to upper deck; black destination board on front of upper deck (31 Worthing, Goring, Rustington, Littlehampton, Bognor, Portsmouth), with upper deck adverts.

Variations: Upper deck adverts – 1 each side – lettering different – picked from:-

• News of the World
• Crosse & Blackwell Soups
• (Castrol Motor Oil)
• (Bournville Cocoa)

Dunlop tyres in black and yellow or Schweppes Ginger Ale in yellow and brown on rear of steps to upper deck. Another rare possibility is an advert for Read Everybodys Every Week in red and blue on a white label.


Every possibility that the plastic seats and guard rails can be of the different colours and shades of the Matchbox originals, while all my busses have pinkish buff, I have seen dark brown and light brown.

Notes: This model is packaged in its original straw-style window box.