It's one of the icons of London, a moving, automotive symbol recognized worldwide. And Ian Newby of Aldergrove owns three.

Newby will bring the best of his double-decker buses to the St. George's Day British Motoring Show, the sixth annual presentation of classic British cars by the Langley Area Mostly British Motoring Club.

The bright-red former London bus has been a labour of love for Newby for years.

"I always wanted one, I think every Brit has always wanted to own a double-decker bus, a London taxi, an English telephone booth, and a pub," he said.

Now he owns three of the buses, three London cabs, a phone booth, and a re-creation of a pub built into a barn on his property.

His primary bus, the one which will appear in the car show, has a long and strange history that brought it to British Columbia.

It was originally a standard transport bus, apparently operated out of the Camberwell garage in London, Newby said.

After the filming of the 1967 Sidney Poitier drama To Sir With Love, the bus was refitted and shipped to Montreal to act as a moving promotional billboard for the film It was rebuilt to drive at up to 50 miles per hour, faster than most London buses, and crossed the country, eventually finding itself parked outside a Vancouver hotel.

The bus was sold to a local tourism company, and has found itself on postcards of Victoria, Newby said.

It was then sold to a tourism firm in Ketchikan, Alaska, but when it was broken down, it was sent to the scrapyard, then saved to be turned into a stationary boutique in Seattle.

"There it sat," Newby said. The boutique plan never materialized, and the bus turned up on eBay a few years ago, where Newby first found it.

Along with a mechanic, he got it working and managed to get it to limp across the border to Langley. The engine almost broke off during the trip, but it held together with some impromptu repairs.

Newby got two more double-deckers from around B.C., one from a failed museum in Coombs, another from a salvage lot in Surrey.

The last one was rescued at the 11th hour.

"It was within about seven or eight hours of getting shredded and being sent to Japan to make Toyotas," Newby said.

Parts from the second two vehicles have helped restore the original bus.

Newby's pride and joy is now street legal and ready to drive, and he can drive it on almost any road in Langley.

"As long as you remember it's 14'6" high," Newby said.

That means it can't go under some of the overpasses on the Trans Canada Highway.

"We have to take roads that we've surveyed," Newby said.

That should still allow him to get his bus to Fort Langley for this weekend's St. George's Day British Motoring Show.

The show runs Sunday, April 17 from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. at the Fort Langley Community Hall on Glover Road.

Along with Newby's bus, modern and classic British cars of every make and model are expected.