We are working diligently for our next resource release, a workbook full of travel information for Regency era UK, when we stumbled upon a reference to the term “double body coach”. This was the first reference I’d ever seen to the term, so I went on the look to find out what it meant. Here is one definition found in a legal tome:
I found other references in era publications, some suggesting coach makers developed them to deal with demand from an influx of foreign travelers, and in others describing these as rumbling and dangerous contraptions. They also seemed commonly used as stage coaches, and for popular destinations like Bath.
A precursor to the omnibus, the double bodied coach was likely this design or similar:
