THE last of the traditional London buses will run tomorrow and the British bus conductor will become a thing of the past.

Waltham Forest's famed singing conductor, Duke Baysee, 39, hung up his conductor's uniform for the last time when he was made redundant.

He has spent the past 15 years entertaining passengers on route 38 from Leyton to Victoria, which he used to take as a young boy living in Leyton when going to visit his grandmother in Clapham.

Mr Baysee was signed by a record company ten years ago and will now go back to the studio with producer Wayne Marshall to complete his new single, Ready for a Party, before the release of his latest album and video.

Mr Baysee has just returned from Japan where he appeared on television to sing and talk about his experiences.

As a bus conductor he has seen, and suffered, some of the worst extremes of human behaviour.

Working in areas of London where knives and guns are almost the norm, Mr Baysee has been beaten up several times while on duty, resulting in a broken nose and punctured kidney.

The singing conductor, who has been filmed by news crews around the world, will star in a BBC documentary about the history of the traditional Routemaster bus and the British bus conductor.

The television show, Little Platform, Big Stage: A celebration of the British bus conductor, airs on BBC 4 on Saturday.

Mr Baysee said: "The three weeks I worked on that with the BBC was the best bit of bus conducting I've ever done. This film tells all sides of my story.

"People do not realise how much they are going to miss it. The last route runs on Friday and there will be no more conductors and no more Routemasters."

To find out more about Duke Baysee log on to www.sendrecords.org.