More bus stuff

London bus routes, part two

Bus garages, often buildings of architectural interest, were the hubs of the local bus service and gave the driving staff a connection with the area their buses served. In London, after the winding up of the GLC, the services were licensed to private companies whose goals were more centred on profit than service. It was in the interests of the companies to sell off valuable garage sites at the time of a property boom.

London bus garages: goodbye to gossip

In North West London, garages closed at Chalk Farm, Finchley, Hendon and Muswell Hill. These were smaller, distinctive Edwardian garages with water troughs for horses at Hendon and Chalk Farm, and later, hangar-like structures such as the long-derelict garage in Victoria. Buses now had to be based futher afield at places such as Potters Bar or at one time, Chelmsford in Essex. There was no chance for gossip and bus staff had minimal knowledge of the community's resources. Interesting buildings that served a valid local purpose were demolished.

We have now gone full circle in that, due to the increased bus services that have been developed over the last three or four years in London, new bus garages providing local services have been set up, for example in Edmonton, Park Royal and Perivale, to house the buses needed to meet greater demand. However, this has come too late to save a slice of London's transport history and heritage.

RIP London cross city bus routes

Cross city bus routes were the major arteries of London bus travel. To a north Londoner, they seemed particularly heroic, linking the familiar with places that you never visited such as Honor Oak and Plumstead and which, for you, only existed on the blind of a Routemaster. My favourites were the three routes which linked north London with Crystal Palace - the 2b, 3 and 137.

The 59 - what a way to go

These services, taking upwards of an hour-and-a-half from end to end, connected disparate parts of London without having to make numerous changes. The old 88 route from Mitcham for East Acton, for example, is now divided into three different routes. The longest route was the 59, which ran on Sundays from West Hampstead to Coulsdon. These services seemed to be a statement about London, a place that was enormous, diverse, complex, yet made up of facets that were all part of one vital metropolis. The local bus services have improved greatly, but some measure of restoration of cross-London bus links can only be a good thing for easing the city's transport problems. In the meantime, savour the charms of the 36 from New Cross to Queens Park, the final vestige of the days of these splendid routes.

Any London transport memories you'd like to share? Contact us and tell us about them.

We want to hear what you've got to say..

Leave a message for us here.

Messages

Message:	4/4
Date and time:	08/02/2011 at 19:45:13
Sender:	Kevin Lucioni

There are 2 closed garages that I would like to add.Firstly,Victoria,(code GM).This was located on the corner of Gillingham St and Wilton Road in Victoria.There is now a Sainsbury's store on the sight.The main garage in the '80's ran Rm's on the 11,19,22,&137,opo Metrobuses on the 39 &Olst,and Red Arrow routes 500,507,&511.Victoria garage was unusual in that it had a basement,which was used for coach parking,and from 1986 onwards the basement was used for mini bus routes C1,C2,C3 and 239.The basement was given the garage code GB (Illingham St basement)The garage closed in 1993.The 11 & 507 went to Waterloo (RA),the 22 went to Putney (AF),the C1,C3,C10,211,&239 went to Battersea (B).The other closed garage I would like to talk about is Peckham.The original Peckham bus garage is now occupied by Morrison's Supermarket,and the bus station.The garage had an unusual barrell shaped concrete roof,similar to Stockwell garage.However by the early 90's,there were serious structrual problems with the roof,which led to London Central buses closing the garage in 1993.The 12 & 345 went to Camberwell Garage (Q),the 36 went to New Cross (NX),and the 63,P11,P12,&P13 went to a former local authority depot in Blackpool Rd,which took on the PM code.

Message:	3/4
Date and time:	19/10/2010 at 23:07:21
Sender:	Tia Anna The Drag Queen

May I add to the list of disappeared bus garages SIDCUP GARAGE, which used to handle buses ranging from the odd London country route right up to the 21 which went all the way from there to Moorgate (BTW, am I right in recalling that occasional 21's terminated as far as HARINGEY as recently as the late 1970's. The main real reson why most long red bus routes have shortened is due to the very much enhanced rail services across London, none of which existed in the 1960's or 70's, such as Thameslink, Southern extensions of Tube routes such as the Jubilee Line, the Croydon Tramlink, and the now massive Docklands Light Rail Network to places undreamed of back then, such as Lewisham, Greenwich and Thamesmead. I have also noticed similar trends of vanishing long bus routes in other cities; for example in Dublin, since their Light Rail network was opened, several long cross-city bus routes have been withdrawn or reduced to feeder-routes for the trams.

Message:	2/4
Date and time:	29/12/2008 at 13:17:13
Sender:	Biff

To a certain extent I agree with the sentiments about it being sad to lose local long-established bus garages - but I'm afraid that services are infinitely better now than they used to be. In the 'good old days' of London Transport nobody gave a stuff that every day up to a third of the service simply didn't run due to bus shortage/staff shortage/ incompetence/apathy. Bus crews were badly paid and poorly motivated - but this didn't stop the unions running rings round the useless management and imposing restrictive practices. It has taken a lot of political pushing and the profit motive to get where we are now - which is genuinely better off.

Message:	1/4
Date and time:	21/08/2008 at 22:20:31
Sender:	Robin Lattimore

I believe the longest bus route in the 1960s was the 133 and not the 59 as stated in your pages. Although the 59 was a very long route and went from Coulsdon to West Hampstead the 133 ran from South Croydon garage through to Hendon Central station. The 133 left South Croydon bus garage then traversed the same road as the 59 West Croydon then 59 went straight Norbury and the 133 turned right and went via Thornton Heath Stn and along Melford Road and joined up with the 59 at Norbury. the both routes went the same way as far as Kennington where the both routes went their own way. The 59 then went via Westminster Bridge, along to Trafalgar Square then along Oxford Street then past Lords cricket ground to West Hampstead. The 133 after leaving Kenning went via Elephant and Castle, London Bridge stn, Moorgate, The Angel , then along Holloway Road to Archway station then via the Monday to Saturday 143 to Hendon Central Station. The 133 was so long that the last bus from South Croydon to Hendon was at 20.45 in the evening and took over 2 hrs for the journey. I used to travel on that route from The Angel to West Croydon and have the route on a 1960s London bus map which used to be issued by London transport.