Designer Thomas Heatherwick’s new bus for London arrived on the streets of the UK capital for the first time today.

The bus, which was commissioned by mayor Boris Johnson following his scrapping of so-called bendy buses, takes inspiration from the old Routemaster both inside and out with features including two staircases, an open rear door and windows following the smooth sweeping lines of the historic model.

Heatherwick, who designed the UK’s 2010 Shanghai Expo pavilion and is also designing London’s Olympic 2012 cauldron, said: “It has been fifty years since a bus was last designed and commissioned specifically for London.

“This has been a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for a team to look again at the opportunities for a new open-platform bus. It has been an honour to be asked by London’s transport authority to take an integrated approach and design everything that you see and experience from the outside down to the tiniest details of the interior.”

The bus has been built by manufacturer Wrightbus.