I used to work for London Transport in the late 1960s, so visited this place. My breath was taken away by its structure. No columns inside to crash into, plenty of natural light during the day, and economic use of materials make it remarkable. Later on, after I had lived in Newcastle for 30 years or so, I met a fellow transport worker who had spent over 20 years at Stockwell garage. I mentioned this marvellous structure but he was blissfully unaware of its clever design. He hadn't given it a second thought, despite it being his daily workplace for so long.
And one tiny detail that I don't think was mentioned was that the garage has entrances/exits onto three separate streets making it quite fexible for routes arriving/departing in different diresctions
My father was a conductor at Stockwell, from it's opening until he died. 37 years on London transport straight from fighting WW2. Routes 68, 196, 2 and others. I remember the children's Christmas parties in the canteen, the London transport trips out and the social events.
@@PreservationEnthusiast Are you trying to put me out of a job ? !!! People are always going to want to get around. Do you really think buses will become a thing of the past?
I used to walk past this garage every day on my way to school and always peeked inside whenever the doors were open to see the most beautiful interior. It always struck me as cathedral like in the vaulted roof, the way the light plays on the interior (amazing on a sunny day) and utterly elegant, effortless and deceptively simple. I still get a buzz when I occasionally go past it now.
I used to sneak in here (and other garages) in the late sixties to collect bus numbers. It then emerged in reinforced concrete design lectures in my Civil Engineering degree as an exemplary example of design. The Poultry Market roof at Smithfield is another fabulous example of a long span roof built about 10 years later than Stockwell, TP Bennett architects and Ove Arup as structural engineers. Picture here en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Inside_Smithfield_market_III,_EC1.jpg
Similar design for the rebuilt Upton Park Bus Garage - alas lost to housing development in recent years as flat temporary structures replaced it on the now olympic (legacy) sites (waterden way?) were then replaced by housing and the garaging moved to part of the ex GPO sorting site at Stephenson Street West Ham (also replacing West Ham Corporation ex Tram Depot / Bus Garage formerly north of Greengate, though I think the tramcar tralier depot is still standing as light industrial just south of Greengate at Plaistow.
@@zanizone3617 We used to collect the stock numbers of buses (not route numbers) which were classified by type and number in the series. So the first Routemaster was RM1 and the last RM2876. You would then cross them out in a book with all the London bus types and numbers in it published by a guy called Ian Allan. The idea being to see all buses of a particular type. Train spotters did the same but with locomotive numbers. We must have been a bloody nuisance to London Transport and British Railways for that matter. Here is a film showing train spotting at its height in 1951. ua-cam.com/video/v0o-MbHTGzk/v-deo.html
A video on the history of the trams and their demise in London would also be fascinating, along with remnants of what is left of that infrastructure if any. Thanks for another fascinating video
@@Peasmouldia Thanks that's very interesting. It was similar here in South Africa I think we had trolley busses until early 70s in Jhb and other big cities. One can still see tram lanes at Church Sq in Pta.
Learned of this building in a series of lectures offered by Princeton University some years ago on the subject of the Art of Engineering. The vaulted shells achieved an efficient use of materials through distribution of forces, and are relatively thin, particularly when considering the long spans achieved. The cost of labor to construct the formwork (shuttering) for the concrete was low at the the time, enabling it to compete with steel framing for long spans. Many of these thin shell buildings date from that period. Glad to see this wonderful building survives. You've got a most fascinating series going. If you've a mind, digging up more Hawksmoor would be fun.
"to cover for the tram services that were wound down and would end entirely in 1952" I felt sad about the loss of the trams for the entire video afterward.
I'm from Sheffield. I used to play in this bus station as a kid in the 60s throwing great rolls of bus tickets around my nan lived around the corner .Great memories.😇
There’s not much postwar architecture I like, but this truly is a well-designed structure - fit for purpose, yet elegant. Deserves a renovation, though.
Dear Jago, that was great. When I was a lad, I took three buses from Wood Green to my school in North Finchley. I used to change at Ballards Lane where all sorts of buses would be parked at the junction of Woodhouse Road and High Road. I often got on the wrong bus -- just for the thrill of it. Happy days! Perhaps you could make a video about this: the places where buses wait. Best wishes, John in the Peak District.
Excellent video about an iconic and amazing building. As you correctly mention, it was built because of a lack.of steel, but if I recall correctly, due to that constraint, the design was also made to include the fact that, being made of reinforced concrete, it was held up by pressure, thereby needing much less material, as it didn't need internal pillars. These are always an extra obstacle in a bus garage, or any structure where vehicles are constantly moving about, so it was win, win. It basically uses the"Three library books" principle of if u hold the two outer books with enough force, the middle one stays in place without any other support. Simple, effective and beautifully designed. Just like all your videos. Lol
The ceiling looks pretty neat inside! I am quite a fan of the "clean future" look, of which it defintely encapsulates. I'm rather intrigued by the way in which those beams were constructed, I'm not aware of anything that has that sort of supporting arch of which the keystone is a part, while all the others rest in the traditional manner. It's certainly an unusual and quite pleasant bit of architecture, and it would be nice to see it replicated elsewhere, though I guess the concrete has somewhat gone out of style. Correction: upon closer look, those aren't gaps, just fixtures for lighting or fire extinguishing
As a little boy I frequenty visited my grandma who lived in Stockwell in the 1960's and I recall peering into the Stockwell Bus Garage, just 9 minutes walk from my grandma's home, but never realised that I was looking at a building which was as interesting as the buses inside it! I am sure you understand a 9 year old boy was more interested in the buses! 😅 A good clean up would be a great project! Thanks for sharing this story JH
I loved this. I lived from 1973 to 1990 just behind the Garage just off of Binfield Road (the main entrain IN to the garage). In fact when my Mum died in 2018 she was still living there. Stockwell bus garage used to have open days and we all used to go in and have a look around. Mind you we used to try doing that when it wasn't an open day too. Sitting at Mum's if she had her windows open you'd hear the announcement of Driver so and so take the bus out or conductor so and so report to the office. Thanks brought back memories including the lightening strikes on the tower near the rear of the building, the noise of the revving buses and the queues of buses waiting to get in to the garage blocking Binfield Road many evenings.
You might like the large bus shelter at Newbury Park tube station on the Central Line. It's a large, covered area over the station's bus stop that the public has full access to.
I was about to suggest the same thing. It’s from the same era, and won a design award at the Festival of Britain. It still carries a ceramic plaque an the left side of the main arch bearing the logo of the Festival. It was also shown in one of the productions of British Transport Films, but I cannot remember which one. www.flickr.com/gp/190182740@N02/7kFuBb
You've now got me reminiscing of my time on the Central Line Project back in the early to mid nineties: I always loved stopping off at NEP and admiring the bus station.
The Hainault Loop has several interesting stations; Wanstead neat box, Redbridge sub-surface, Gants Hill with its Moscow-style concourse and sadly defunct ornamental escalator lights (what philistine removed them?) and the ex-GER stations at Fairlop, Chigwell and Grange Hill. Didn't know about the NP bus shelter though!
They blew up the bus station in Northampton a few years ago, evil 70's design, this, pleasing on the eye and the roof span is impressive. Thanks for sharing.
You said tram services ended in 52. I was born in 53. And remember riding a tram in Tooting Bec/ Broadway, in the late fifty’s or early sixty, The main reason I remember it was because it was freezing weather. Love your stuff.
I have to admit, I'm with Mr Self on this one. Okay, perhaps not London's most important building but I can't help but admire it's blend of form and function. Architecture of that period seems to always favour massively, one at the expense of the other.
LOL , when I worked as a courier I delivered stuff to the Stockwell Bus Garage on a number of occasions, given that it's a "garage" I was always surprised at how spotless it was inside. I also delivered to Will Selfs' home which is just a few minutes away , can only assume it was equally spotless inside.
I love pictures of the interior of Stockwell from the 1950s: this sleek epitome of modernism, filled from one side to the other with RTs. It's a beautiful mix of the old fashioned with the modern that I absolutely love.
Another gem, I'm a fan, never would have thought nearly 70 years old. By the by, I grew up in Morden a stones throw from the Morden Underground Station, one of Charles Holden's first major projects for the Underground, built in 1926 when Morden was farmland. Externally quite austere but very 20's, in fact Frank Pick (who picked, no pun intended, Holden for the job) explaining the thought behind the stations' design to a colleague said "The station will be simply a hole in the wall, everything being sacrificed to the doorway and some notice above to tell you to what the doorway leads", for me as a youngster what awaited inside was a stunning ticket hall with an octaganal vaulted ceiling that conjured a sort of temple, to transport maybe...I was an impressionable lad :) ......Drew (with thanks to WikiP)
The main reason why I moved to London 11 years ago is because it is such a fascinating city and its history is so interesting. I love your videos and tales 🇬🇧😀
I am not a native English speaker, but even I cannot even fathom why anyone would say it any other way! I thought for years that his way was the only way until someone called me out on it for "saying it wrong". That was the day my world crumbled. It's garage, not "gäriz".
My mother used to be a [Clippy] Bus conductor in London East, she started at Well street bus garage, before it was knocked down for an Aldi and other things, similar bus garage to Well street bus garage was in Seven kings, London North East where similarly it was knocked down for an Aldi :) :) ;) ;) You might want to look at Hackney bus garage in Hackney central, East London, the days of having something to eat when our mother took us there was like 'On the buses' real cutlery, tea cups etc :) ;) ;) ;) :) it is also a very old building.
Hi Jago Love watching your videos if you do anymore bus garages might i suggest Cricklewood i used to be a driver there and was so sad to see it demolished there was alot of history in the old building. I am living in Australia now and would have loved to have seen the old building one more time. Keep up the good work very enjoyable regards Ron.
North Street Garage in Romford is quite impressive architecturally. Although it's more 1930s art deco than 1950s brutalist. It's probably worth a visit if you get the time. And, if you do venture that far east, the quaint Romford- Upminster railway (now part of the Overground) is worth a visit too!
Between 1955 and 1961 I attended school in this area. During the lunch break we used to sneak into Stockwell Garage to collect bus numbers. I can well remember the Bedford Mobile Canteens and the fuel truck 1014MY which were housed at Stockwell. Fond memories. Thanks for the video.
1:05 Why Fulwell, is that you? The original tramlines can still be seen from the other side (which is a different Bus Garage) if anyone's interested. Another fun little fact (ok fun may have been overstating), that little pavement island in the middle with all the signs on it used to have a entry/guard/something hut on it, but a driver who'd been fired (iirc) nicked a bus in the middle of the night and plowed it into the hut.
There's an intermediate between trams and internal combustion buses, i.e. trolley buses. Thanks to them I remember the cats cradle of overhead wires that trams required. The complicated weave of overhead at major junctions must have been a proximity and maintainance nightmare . I remember what it was like at Bakers Arms in Leyton. Some of the support poles are still around I'd guess. Thanks JH.
Great video. As a fan of Will Self, I enjoyed it - and it was about a building that I didn't know about until now. I did, though, have a mental image of Blakey, from the 70's sitcom 'On The Buses', in my head for the duration of the video. For this, I apologise.
Hi, sorry it’s me again, I remember driving past a bus station/ tube station (I think ) in north London. Very vague, I know, it is a covered bus station, may be worth following up on, figure many viewers in north London will know what I am mentioning. While I am typing, I hear your voice and try and include that in my message. Great stuff. Keep going.
What about the old tram lines? For example, I used to live in Sutton, and I was amazed to read a book in the library at Carshalton that showed that the tram used to go out to Sutton, and along Carshalton Road, and then down Ringstead Road.... and I think along Westmead Road, and then Benhill Ave, to terminate at Throwley Way. ...
Practical, purposeful, making good use of material capabilities and build around strong shapes which which also look good. Fab piece of architecture and engineering.
Brilliant, a great building that I knew nothing about, thank you! Personally I think it should be Grade 1 not 2. Visually interesting and excellent functionality - no pillars inside, great for manoeuvring buses, not like 1960s concrete par parks with narrow spaces. I just hope it doesn't get concrete rot. Pity about the external staining.
I have to point out that the RT family of vehicles - totalling more than 7,000 buses built by both AEC and Leyland - was of greater significance to both the passenger transport industry and the passengers themselves than the Routemaster, of which there were less than 2800 examples. As you would expect in these times in which we live, the Routemaster was seriously over-hyped by many people who, in many cases, seemed not to know a great deal about the buses themselves but who became particularly emotional whenever the word 'Routemaster' was mentioned towards the end of the type's life. Interestingly, when the vast Stockwell Garage was first opened, it was a home to just a dozen RTL buses (the Leyland-engined variant of the RT)!
Yes, the RT (RTL & RTW) was the true London bus. I think the RM was a probably worthy successor (unlike the DMS!) and it had the advantage of a proper name which meant that the "media" could more easily refer to it and popularise it. So glad the garage is still with us.
Yes I liked it. As I used to walk down past it from the159 bus from Streatham to go to South BankPoly in 1974 to study Architecture. Even then it was grade 2 listed and our history lecturer made a point of keep saying so. The tower block behind is where my great aunty Liz would go for Lambeth council pensioners lunch club. They would dance in the afternoons. I d really think that is good and they used to go on cheap holidays to Spain. The other place u lived in 1974 was Courland Grove overlooking Larkhall Park. In 1974 this was a bombed out site and all the people living locally around could remember the night of the bombing. There were some empty houses nearby and believe it not AA architect students had been encouraged to squat there for part of their course. We also visited to see see how they managed and did our own project. Can you still squat? These were kids of the affluent
@Jago Hazzard Thanks for another excellent video. Nice to see suggestions of topics being followed up. Can't think of many really special bus garages, although a few older ones like Harrow Weald are quite distinctive. Holloway (or more correctly Highgate) in Pemberton Gdns N19 is an old one and is huge. One subject worth persuing might be the philanthropic architecture of London. I'm thinking specifically of things like the Passmore Edwards/Carnegie public libraries gifted to the people of London, and the working class "model dwelling" type housing built by the Peabody Trust and Samuel Lewis Trust.etc. Some nice surviving examples of the model dwellings near the Royal Opera House in Covent garden. Pear Tree Court/Farringdon Lane in Clerkenwell, and around Whidbourne St near St Pancras station to name just three. There's also some really old Almshouses on the Mile End Road, a few more in Spitalfeleds near Hawksmoor's Christ Church IIRC, and yet more way out near High Barnet underground (Potters Lane).
Strange to relate,the ancestors of Stockwell,were the Art Noveau building of the early 1900's,a prime example being Grand Central Terminal in New York! Barrel vaults leave a great deal of floor space,and are decorative to boot! The military used that design for the Quonset huts,and tunneling,as it can be self supporting! So what was old,again,just got recycled! History repeats,with a different cast!Enjoyed the video,and I saw part of that documentary on Stockwell garage! (EXTRA note,on the SNCF,a garage is a rail yard,as in England- sidings,or US,class yard!)Small world!!
My father worked for London buses most of his life based at Camberwell Garage. As a kid l had lots of lovely outings to circuses, pantomimes, seaside where fleets of buses would take us and we were amply supplied with goodies. Happy Days. Stockwell common is famous for the grizzly executions of the 1745 Scottish rebels, hanged,drawn quartered etc and Chartist meetings. Stockwell Tube Station was where Mr Menezes was killed by police in the mistaken belief that he was a terrorist .
Nearby old tube station tunnels are now used as document storage and the old war time bunk beds are still in there used as shelves as well as the old 1940s lift
This will be the nerdiest comment I have made. If you look at the old bus at 0:33 you see just behind the driver's door a rectangular plate. The same thing is visible on the modern bus at 1:18 above the front wheel. This tells which garage the bus lives in, and sometimes where in the garage. So when you are passed by a bus with SW on these plates you can say "Aha! I know where you live, Mr. Bus" or something of the same anthropomorphic tendency. Well, it passes the time.
A building that has stood the test of time! Nothing that a little paint or even power washing can’t spruce up!! Are there any tube depots that are this cool and listed?
Jago. The London General taxi garage in Brixton Rd is worth investigating. As is Queen Victoria's Elephant House in Brown Hart Gardens, off of Oxford St. Great video thanks.
I wasn't previously aware of Stockwell Bus Garage. Stockwell has loads of interest as it turns out, what with that beautiful building, it being a terminus of London's first deep underground railway line (world's first too?), and one of London's deep level shelters. Thanks for this wonderful and informative video, and for bringing the bus garage to my attention.
We use a lot of concrete and so we also use a lot of white wash. Looks like this building could do with some. It does not cost much and would make it look so much better.
Skylights were a bold and optimistic statement about the future in 1953. They had caused no end of trouble with the blackout, which had ended less than 10 years before this garage opened. To design back on this weakness (if war should come) was really committing to an optimistic view of the future.
Oh dear, that is a big rabbit hole opening for Bus Operation and Bus Garages in London. Its Complex. Starts With Corporation and Company Tram Depots, with additional stabling for horses for the horse tram era with additional sites for tralier cars, plus works sometimes were adjacent operational depots (like Fulwell as you depicted) or separate (Charlton). Central Area The Horse Buses - mainly, but not exclusively LGOC ( ironically owned by the French, a la some Private Bus companies of today) , Thomas Tilling ( by eventual agreement they took on SE London Originating Routes and had TB (Bromley- built by LGOC - Garage), TL-Catford Garage (likewise but Replaced Tilling's Lewisham Premises), and TC- Croydon - an original ? Tilling one but much rebuilt. Tilling also had somewhat started at the Bull Yard in Peckham , but this passed somehow to LGOC and was used by LTPB in WW2 mainly for storage and got hit by a bomb - SW replaced this along with P- Old Kent Road ( too small really for modern buses of the time). RL - Rye Lane in Peckham I think got replaced into PM - Peckham - site of the present bus station and Morrisions. Motorbuses Arrived with the the London Motor Bus Company (Vanguard) and its Associated Engineering Company , based in Walthamstow (the museums their have details ) , but LGOC fairly quickly acquired them and moved AEC elements of AEC into its Chiswick Works (AEC actually becoming separated and into its own facility in Southall , its Regent series of chassis and engine range being rather similar to Leyland's Titans (probably because Rackham from Leyland moved to AEC in the 1920s). Tilling replaced its horse buses with Petrol-Electrics and created an association with Stevens to produce those vehicles, later acquiring an interest in Commer Cars of Maidstone with the post WW2 TS series of underfloor engine single deck buses often with integral Beadle of Dartford Bodies. When LPTB took over Tillings London Buses Tilling used them to expand their operations in Brighton, Hove and District, and interests in the National company, later getting investment from the Railways when they gained powers (1928 Act?) to invest in road vehicles, and hence when nationalised railways Tilling Group buses became the bus part of the British Transport Commission ( during the war there was a complex exchange of cross-shareholdings in bus companies that the one time British Electric Traction Co had built up from its intial Tramway operations and that the Railways had in BET and other bus companies so some companies found themselves under different administrative control - I nearly digress ,we shall return to this. ). Meanwhile in Chelmsford and I think the Kings Cross N/E London area National Steam (Clarkson) (National also had the AH and F Garages before they passed to the LGOC via Vanguard )were persisting with Steam Powered Omnibuses - I cannot recall their exact depot locations. LGOC did revenue pooling deals with National and granted them 'rights' to operate to the North of London in what would become the London Country area when LPTB created - with a bit of oddities around Wood Green (ex City Coach co Garage) ,for coach services, and Tilbury/Grays where LGOC and the by then LNER invested into Eastern National both had garages and services, tidied up after 1948. South of London LGOC did agreements / later invested in the East Surrey Automobile Company and built many of its distinctive White clapboarded brick garages (Godstone, Swanley and similar), and Autocar of Maidstone including Tunbridge Wells to Dartford/Gravesend Areas plus deals with BET owned Maidstone and District. Back in the Red Bus area oddities included LGOCs Uxbridge Garage - similar in style to Godstone from memory which after 1970 was one of the bus garages outside the GLC area (Potters Bar and Loughton being the others ). Aside from concrete use the brick faced new post WW2 garages at North Street, Romford (built for expansion of services in Havering ) and Elmers End ( its prewar standard LGOC design destroyed by a V1 ). LGOC had a fairly recognisable design, marked by the use of Blue Doors and Brick frontal plinths. A- Sutton, B-Battersea a Vanguard Original soon extended accross the road, used post privatisation for the OLST and Tour Fleet before it moved to WD. , C-Athol Street, Poplar , D-Dalston (actually earlier design with lovely stucco plastering above the narrow doorway), E - Enfield (Ponders End) , F- Had been ? an acquired? garage Farm Lane Fulham , replaced by F- Putney Bridge Former National Steam Car Garage (now the location of the Cinema), G- Forest Gate Extant until at least recently as a market, H Hackney - Well Street , (replaced by Ash Grove) was still standing last I looked as some kind of local authority store ) J- Holloway ( rather complete exchanges after the demise of trolleybuses ), K - Kingston inc Bus Station side view still visible opposite Wood Street Bus Station, L-Loughton, M-Mortlake - famously was for some time an all RM garage for the 9 and the 33 but also held some preserved and trainer RTs and some of the LT collection not otherwise on display, N-Norwood (rebuilt - see detail later), P-Old Kent Road ( London Tramways Trailer Cars, then LCC Electrics, then Vanguard Buses aquired LGOC then closed). , Q- Camberwell - effectively one of the major works for South London and held the recovery trucks for trolleybus fleet too . R- Hammersmith (known as Riverside, but its no where near Hammersmith Riverside , its actually Butterwick. see old films of area , Bradmore House facade stands, but was resited by the LGOC when the garage was built to face a different way ! the tesco in the station area stands there with Butterwick bus station much changes as was more side on with Green Line stops in it too.). S- Shepherd's Bush ( but that had been a tramway depot so maybe LGOC had different code), T-Leyton (Again ex tramway), U-Upton Park, V-Turnham Green , being close to Chiswick works used as a test bed site for assorted experiments often on the 27 bus, code, later used for Chiswick High Road ex LUT Tram depot sill in use), W- Cricklewood- site of main North London major works , X- Middle Row, North Kensington, re-used for Westbourne Park under the Westway.
In the UK, outside London, garage rhymes with large, as in "large garage". Londoners / Eastenders pronounce it slightly harder, as "garridge". This ensures that UK Garage ("garridge") music can't be confused with Large Garage punk music.
That wavy roof line reminds me of one of the buildings from the 1950's edition of Hafodyrynys Colliery. Fashionable at the time maybe? At least it looks more in keeping with its surroundings than the colliery ever did. (Most of it was demolished back in the 80s and only the shell of the coal washery remains) Good to see that architects were capable of doing something decent with concrete.
Great Video as always Jago! You and Geoff Marshall have the best videos about London's transport. Also, Can you make a video, for Stockwell tube station? It has a lot of history. (Similar to Euston)
Yours is a most inspiring channel! My next visit will include Stockwell, the Imperial Airways Terminal, and of course all of the tube stations built during Frank Pick's time. I've been admiring him since I read his book some thirty years ago.
It really is beautiful. Shame no one at TFL has access to a jet washer - but still very lovely. Maybe they could borrow the National Theatre’s one?! They seem to be able to keep concrete clean.
One of the most iconic bus garages in the country, I'd wager. Looks a tad tired now and would greatly benefit from a power wash, but I of course know that TfL have more important things to be getting on with right now. At any rate, should I find myself in London post-COVID (if such a time ever comes), I'll definitely be stopping by this underappreciated gem. Top job as always. :)
The most important building in London? I couldn't help imagining the French invading and all the queen's guards run off to protect the bus garage. "Priorities, your majesty!"
Yes, Will Self is so right. As always. Who needs the Pyramids, or the Parthenon, or the Hanging Gardens of Babylon? I’m so glad we’ve got Stockwell Bus Garage to contribute to World Heritage from all the other buildings that the people of this country have designed and built throughout history. Perhaps the bus shelter near the Ikea in Croydon comes a very close second, with its alfresco waiting experience, artistic uncensored community graffiti, roof covered with an increasing collection of discarded bric-a-brac, such as empty drink cans and used condoms, lavishly adorned by a lumpy white blanket of organic content regularly donated by passing pigeons. And not forgetting the multitudinous opportunity to catch a myriad tropical infections or the chance to take part in an interactive exchange of any valuable items on your person for the wonderful local specialty of being allowed to carry on living by many of the jovial talented nearby drug-addicted knife carrying street artists.
The garage is a typical 1950's building. All over Europe, there are these kind of building with long ribs out of concrete and a lot of glass in steel frames. It is the combination of start of the prefab era and the post-war ending of the 1930's functionalism/Bauhaus architectural style.
Places in London that dont really have 'traditional' bus garages (why?) but some might have bus stations. Harrow (its a distance from Harrow Weald, but served from Edgware Too). Hillingdon - Uxbridge Services a bit, but the area has had long distance services from Windsor and Slough and Alperton for local services over the years. Greenford only really got new parking land recently , there is the HGV test centre at Yeading though. Clapham Junction - Interesting LTE owned turning circle though. Epsom is outside the area just but is served from Kingston and Leatherhead until Epsom Coaches started their locals, - the hospitals sites used to be sundays only for visiting but are now M-S for the new housing in the areas. Orpington for years was ignored by London Transport, and so the independent Orpington and District Became quite famous, along with Richmond with Continental Pioneer's service from the Station up Richmond Hill. The Heathrow area had Whites Services mainly for airport use, and Feltham had Golden Miller's 4 routes covering the Shepperton Bedfont Area - still a bit the same today with Falcon Coaches acquired by Tellings who had acquired Golden Miller then sold out to National Express Travel London Travel Surrey. Its complex !!
There's Norbiton, down near Kingston upon Thames, which is brick-built and has some splendid arches of its own. I laid quite a few thousand with a lot of them radiused brick for building curved walls with. My friend and I spent a day or two forming the glass walls above the boiler room doors. We had a foreman who was born without any sense of humour. He was always moaning about something and he gave us a big lecture about the cost of Pilkington glass blocks and how we could be fired for breaking any. Just before lunchtime he came again, bleating about valuable materials and the care required..... After scarfing up a few sarnies with a pint of tea, we returned underground with an empty milk bottle. Having finished the job, bar clearing up and putting a polish on the glass, we had a few left over. We hadn't broken any at all, but this foreman came around again to have a moan. Once finished, he turned away to leave which was when the milk bottle flew to ground just behind his heels - it made a great noise when it broke! He spun around to find us with angelic smiles.
@@brando6BL Closed in Sept 1991..you and me both feel old last time I went there was the school summer holidays in 1975 age 15..if I remember the garage had a separate docking bay over the road..
I used to work for London Transport in the late 1960s, so visited this place. My breath was taken away by its structure. No columns inside to crash into, plenty of natural light during the day, and economic use of materials make it remarkable.
Later on, after I had lived in Newcastle for 30 years or so, I met a fellow transport worker who had spent over 20 years at Stockwell garage. I mentioned this marvellous structure but he was blissfully unaware of its clever design. He hadn't given it a second thought, despite it being his daily workplace for so long.
think it was built on aircraft hanger lines, also similar to Royal Festival Hall and the BEA air terminal at the south bank
And one tiny detail that I don't think was mentioned was that the garage has entrances/exits onto three separate streets making it quite fexible for routes arriving/departing in different diresctions
My father was a conductor at Stockwell, from it's opening until he died. 37 years on London transport straight from fighting WW2. Routes 68, 196, 2 and others. I remember the children's Christmas parties in the canteen, the London transport trips out and the social events.
@@ericlackford6718 I worked at Stockwell from 1975 until 1984 and remember well the Sunday trips on a Routemaster to the seaside. Happy days !!
I worked ou of there I noticed the roof but didn’t realise it was so significant to wales hahaha
It's like a mothership for buses.
Ha ha. You friends with Mr Self (gentle jibe btw)?
This fills the empty space where my travelling to London use to be
Stockwell Bus Garage: maybe not the most important building in London, but certainly one of the most important buildings in Stockwell. Cheers
Slim pickings there 😂😂
Certainly the most important bus garage in Stockwell
Lauder Marauder.
Not so.
The most important building in Stockwell is the Tube station so you can GTF out of there!!
@@simonwinter8839 It should be delisted and demolished. We need clean transport and housing. Buses will be a thing of the past.
@@PreservationEnthusiast Are you trying to put me out of a job ? !!!
People are always going to want to get around. Do you really think buses will become a thing of the past?
I used to walk past this garage every day on my way to school and always peeked inside whenever the doors were open to see the most beautiful interior. It always struck me as cathedral like in the vaulted roof, the way the light plays on the interior (amazing on a sunny day) and utterly elegant, effortless and deceptively simple. I still get a buzz when I occasionally go past it now.
Did you go to heathbrook by any chance? I used to walk past it too
A pressure wash and a repaint would help that building a lot. In current state it is far from pleasant to look at...
I wish more people would watch these amazing videos, I love just learning little things about london with little sides of humor
This channel has grown HEAPS in the last few months, so I'd say plenty of people are enjoying his content. Insane growth in just a few short months.
@@CarlosEmilioEsq Absolutely. Was it six months ago he had maybe 600 subs?
I am from the Netherlands, and have visited London as a tourist lot of times, and these video's are so informative. I watch them all.
I used to sneak in here (and other garages) in the late sixties to collect bus numbers. It then emerged in reinforced concrete design lectures in my Civil Engineering degree as an exemplary example of design. The Poultry Market roof at Smithfield is another fabulous example of a long span roof built about 10 years later than Stockwell, TP Bennett architects and Ove Arup as structural engineers. Picture here en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Inside_Smithfield_market_III,_EC1.jpg
If you don't mind, what do you mean by "collect bus numbers"?
Similar design for the rebuilt Upton Park Bus Garage - alas lost to housing development in recent years as flat temporary structures replaced it on the now olympic (legacy) sites (waterden way?) were then replaced by housing and the garaging moved to part of the ex GPO sorting site at Stephenson Street West Ham (also replacing West Ham Corporation ex Tram Depot / Bus Garage formerly north of Greengate, though I think the tramcar tralier depot is still standing as light industrial just south of Greengate at Plaistow.
@@zanizone3617 We used to collect the stock numbers of buses (not route numbers) which were classified by type and number in the series. So the first Routemaster was RM1 and the last RM2876. You would then cross them out in a book with all the London bus types and numbers in it published by a guy called Ian Allan. The idea being to see all buses of a particular type. Train spotters did the same but with locomotive numbers. We must have been a bloody nuisance to London Transport and British Railways for that matter. Here is a film showing train spotting at its height in 1951. ua-cam.com/video/v0o-MbHTGzk/v-deo.html
@@highpath4776 Upton Park was certainly similar but used steel trusses not reinforced concrete as I recall.
Didn't you read the note at the front of your Ian Allan guide which said not to trespass on LT property! Naughty.
When you said the roof is compared to Whales I thought “Wales” for a moment and wondered why
Same
Must be his pronunciation ;) - I'm one more for the counter !
same
😅 I first thought Wales too
Cos the Welsh have "Humped backs!" Silly! ... Haha!
A video on the history of the trams and their demise in London would also be fascinating, along with remnants of what is left of that infrastructure if any. Thanks for another fascinating video
Much of the tram infrastructure survived into the 1960s due to the trolley busses, which used the tram catenary and turntables.
@@Peasmouldia Thanks that's very interesting. It was similar here in South Africa I think we had trolley busses until early 70s in Jhb and other big cities. One can still see tram lanes at Church Sq in Pta.
Jay Foreman has a great video about exactly that.
A video of the Kingsway/Holborn tram tunnel? ua-cam.com/video/SFQ2BpgaLic/v-deo.html
@@goesbysteve Thanks!
Learned of this building in a series of lectures offered by Princeton University some years ago on the subject of the Art of Engineering. The vaulted shells achieved an efficient use of materials through distribution of forces, and are relatively thin, particularly when considering the long spans achieved. The cost of labor to construct the formwork (shuttering) for the concrete was low at the the time, enabling it to compete with steel framing for long spans. Many of these thin shell buildings date from that period. Glad to see this wonderful building survives.
You've got a most fascinating series going. If you've a mind, digging up more Hawksmoor would be fun.
"to cover for the tram services that were wound down and would end entirely in 1952" I felt sad about the loss of the trams for the entire video afterward.
Never knew bus barrages were so fascinating. Love this channel.
I love this channel too !
I presume you meant "garages", but now I just want to imagine lines of electromagnetic railguns that fire Routemasters at invading hordes.
@@sirrliv 😮 😅
@@sirrliv 🤣🤣🤣
In South Australia, a barrage is a barrier in an estuary. In particular there is one on Hindmarsh Island where the River Murray neets the sea.
What I love about the Wood Green garage is that you can still see the rails from the time it was used for railed vehicles
Love these kinds of videos about lesser known structures with a colourful history
I'm from Sheffield. I used to play in this bus station as a kid in the 60s throwing great rolls of bus tickets around my nan lived around the corner .Great memories.😇
There’s not much postwar architecture I like, but this truly is a well-designed structure - fit for purpose, yet elegant. Deserves a renovation, though.
Dear Jago, that was great. When I was a lad, I took three buses from Wood Green to my school in North Finchley. I used to change at Ballards Lane where all sorts of buses would be parked at the junction of Woodhouse Road and High Road. I often got on the wrong bus -- just for the thrill of it. Happy days! Perhaps you could make a video about this: the places where buses wait. Best wishes, John in the Peak District.
Woodhouse by any chance? My alma mater.
Excellent video about an iconic and amazing building.
As you correctly mention, it was built because of a lack.of steel, but if I recall correctly, due to that constraint, the design was also made to include the fact that, being made of reinforced concrete, it was held up by pressure, thereby needing much less material, as it didn't need internal pillars. These are always an extra obstacle in a bus garage, or any structure where vehicles are constantly moving about, so it was win, win.
It basically uses the"Three library books" principle of if u hold the two outer books with enough force, the middle one stays in place without any other support.
Simple, effective and beautifully designed. Just like all your videos. Lol
The ceiling looks pretty neat inside! I am quite a fan of the "clean future" look, of which it defintely encapsulates. I'm rather intrigued by the way in which those beams were constructed, I'm not aware of anything that has that sort of supporting arch of which the keystone is a part, while all the others rest in the traditional manner. It's certainly an unusual and quite pleasant bit of architecture, and it would be nice to see it replicated elsewhere, though I guess the concrete has somewhat gone out of style.
Correction: upon closer look, those aren't gaps, just fixtures for lighting or fire extinguishing
I love the smell of freshly brewed urban videos in the morning ( ͡❛ ᴗ ͡❛)
As a little boy I frequenty visited my grandma who lived in Stockwell in the 1960's and I recall peering into the Stockwell Bus Garage, just 9 minutes walk from my grandma's home, but never realised that I was looking at a building which was as interesting as the buses inside it! I am sure you understand a 9 year old boy was more interested in the buses! 😅 A good clean up would be a great project! Thanks for sharing this story JH
I loved this.
I lived from 1973 to 1990 just behind the Garage just off of Binfield Road (the main entrain IN to the garage). In fact when my Mum died in 2018 she was still living there.
Stockwell bus garage used to have open days and we all used to go in and have a look around. Mind you we used to try doing that when it wasn't an open day too.
Sitting at Mum's if she had her windows open you'd hear the announcement of Driver so and so take the bus out or conductor so and so report to the office.
Thanks brought back memories including the lightening strikes on the tower near the rear of the building, the noise of the revving buses and the queues of buses waiting to get in to the garage blocking Binfield Road many evenings.
You might like the large bus shelter at Newbury Park tube station on the Central Line. It's a large, covered area over the station's bus stop that the public has full access to.
I was about to suggest the same thing. It’s from the same era, and won a design award at the Festival of Britain. It still carries a ceramic plaque an the left side of the main arch bearing the logo of the Festival. It was also shown in one of the productions of British Transport Films, but I cannot remember which one.
www.flickr.com/gp/190182740@N02/7kFuBb
And it's been step free for a while
You've now got me reminiscing of my time on the Central Line Project back in the early to mid nineties: I always loved stopping off at NEP and admiring the bus station.
The Hainault Loop has several interesting stations; Wanstead neat box, Redbridge sub-surface, Gants Hill with its Moscow-style concourse and sadly defunct ornamental escalator lights (what philistine removed them?) and the ex-GER stations at Fairlop, Chigwell and Grange Hill. Didn't know about the NP bus shelter though!
They blew up the bus station in Northampton a few years ago, evil 70's design, this, pleasing on the eye and the roof span is impressive. Thanks for sharing.
Unfortunately they forgot to replace Greyfriars with anything with the same capacity, and it's still a barren wasteland last I saw!
You said tram services ended in 52. I was born in 53. And remember riding a tram in Tooting Bec/ Broadway, in the late fifty’s or early sixty, The main reason I remember it was because it was freezing weather. Love your stuff.
I learned some interesting things from this video and, also, that Mel C is still recording music.
I live not far from the bus garage and I every time I walk past it I appreciate it's barelled roof. Thanks for adding some context to it.
I have to admit, I'm with Mr Self on this one. Okay, perhaps not London's most important building but I can't help but admire it's blend of form and function. Architecture of that period seems to always favour massively, one at the expense of the other.
LOL , when I worked as a courier I delivered stuff to the Stockwell Bus Garage on a number of occasions, given that it's a "garage" I was always surprised at how spotless it was inside. I also delivered to Will Selfs' home which is just a few minutes away , can only assume it was equally spotless inside.
I love pictures of the interior of Stockwell from the 1950s: this sleek epitome of modernism, filled from one side to the other with RTs. It's a beautiful mix of the old fashioned with the modern that I absolutely love.
Just found this because I live next door to the garage. When I was little they used to get angry at me for playing football against their wall
Another gem, I'm a fan, never would have thought nearly 70 years old. By the by, I grew up in Morden a stones throw from the Morden Underground Station, one of Charles Holden's first major projects for the Underground, built in 1926 when Morden was farmland. Externally quite austere but very 20's, in fact Frank Pick (who picked, no pun intended, Holden for the job) explaining the thought behind the stations' design to a colleague said "The station will be simply a hole in the wall, everything being sacrificed to the doorway and some notice above to tell you to what the doorway leads", for me as a youngster what awaited inside was a stunning ticket hall with an octaganal vaulted ceiling that conjured a sort of temple, to transport maybe...I was an impressionable lad :) ......Drew (with thanks to WikiP)
The main reason why I moved to London 11 years ago is because it is such a fascinating city and its history is so interesting. I love your videos and tales 🇬🇧😀
I like how you say garage, I just realised that I've been saying it the US way and not the UK way.
I am not a native English speaker, but even I cannot even fathom why anyone would say it any other way! I thought for years that his way was the only way until someone called me out on it for "saying it wrong". That was the day my world crumbled.
It's garage, not "gäriz".
The UK pronunciation sound a bit rough. Sounds like a workmen's word.
Didn't expect to see you hear Haigs
It's a french loanword and the pronunciation in this video is closer to it's origin.
Most Brits say it "garij", "garahj" is for people trying to sound posh.
I drive past it a lot, delivery driver here. It's just a bus garage to me, I will look at it with fresh eyes now. Thanks.
While the Routemaster is more famous, there's something about the RT and it's variants. Beautiful vehicles.
When it was built the 196 didn't pass it on the way to the Elephant and Castle it then went via Camberwell Green and on to Tufnell Park
.
My mother used to be a [Clippy] Bus conductor in London East, she started at Well street bus garage, before it was knocked down for an Aldi and other things, similar bus garage to Well street bus garage was in Seven kings, London North East where similarly it was knocked down for an Aldi :) :) ;) ;) You might want to look at Hackney bus garage in Hackney central, East London, the days of having something to eat when our mother took us there was like 'On the buses' real cutlery, tea cups etc :) ;) ;) ;) :) it is also a very old building.
Hi Jago
Love watching your videos if you do anymore bus garages might i suggest Cricklewood i used to be a driver there and was so sad to see it demolished there was alot of history in the old building. I am living in Australia now and would have loved to have seen the old building one more time.
Keep up the good work very enjoyable regards Ron.
North Street Garage in Romford is quite impressive architecturally. Although it's more 1930s art deco than 1950s brutalist. It's probably worth a visit if you get the time. And, if you do venture that far east, the quaint Romford- Upminster railway (now part of the Overground) is worth a visit too!
Between 1955 and 1961 I attended school in this area. During the lunch break we used to sneak into Stockwell Garage to collect bus numbers. I can well remember the Bedford Mobile Canteens and the fuel truck 1014MY which were housed at Stockwell. Fond memories. Thanks for the video.
1:05 Why Fulwell, is that you?
The original tramlines can still be seen from the other side (which is a different Bus Garage) if anyone's interested.
Another fun little fact (ok fun may have been overstating), that little pavement island in the middle with all the signs on it used to have a entry/guard/something hut on it, but a driver who'd been fired (iirc) nicked a bus in the middle of the night and plowed it into the hut.
There's an intermediate between trams and internal combustion buses, i.e. trolley buses. Thanks to them I remember the cats cradle of overhead wires that trams required. The complicated weave of overhead at major junctions must have been a proximity and maintainance nightmare . I remember what it was like at Bakers Arms in Leyton. Some of the support poles are still around I'd guess.
Thanks JH.
I've been on a trolly bus in Athens. I didn't know they ever existed in Britain.
The dismantling of the trams in favor of buses has been the biggest urban homicide in the last century
Aye. Buses have a place, but Trams are more efficient in the long term on high use routes.
Marples has a lot to answer for.
Amazing architectural investigation and reporting, London is quite the surprise, I'll gladly have a look at this Stockwell gem myself, thank you 👍
Great video. As a fan of Will Self, I enjoyed it - and it was about a building that I didn't know about until now. I did, though, have a mental image of Blakey, from the 70's sitcom 'On The Buses', in my head for the duration of the video. For this, I apologise.
Hi, sorry it’s me again, I remember driving past a bus station/ tube station (I think ) in north London. Very vague, I know, it is a covered bus station, may be worth following up on, figure many viewers in north London will know what I am mentioning. While I am typing, I hear your voice and try and include that in my message. Great stuff. Keep going.
What about the old tram lines? For example, I used to live in Sutton, and I was amazed to read a book in the library at Carshalton that showed that the tram used to go out to Sutton, and along Carshalton Road, and then down Ringstead Road.... and I think along Westmead Road, and then Benhill Ave, to terminate at Throwley Way. ...
654 and 657. Out of Carshalton Depot in Benhill Ave
Impressive building. Never heard of it until now. Will have a look at it next time I'm over. 👍
Practical, purposeful, making good use of material capabilities and build around strong shapes which which also look good. Fab piece of architecture and engineering.
Brilliant, a great building that I knew nothing about, thank you! Personally I think it should be Grade 1 not 2. Visually interesting and excellent functionality - no pillars inside, great for manoeuvring buses, not like 1960s concrete par parks with narrow spaces. I just hope it doesn't get concrete rot. Pity about the external staining.
I have to point out that the RT family of vehicles - totalling more than 7,000 buses built by both AEC and Leyland - was of greater significance to both the passenger transport industry and the passengers themselves than the Routemaster, of which there were less than 2800 examples.
As you would expect in these times in which we live, the Routemaster was seriously over-hyped by many people who, in many cases, seemed not to know a great deal about the buses themselves but who became particularly emotional whenever the word 'Routemaster' was mentioned towards the end of the type's life.
Interestingly, when the vast Stockwell Garage was first opened, it was a home to just a dozen RTL buses (the Leyland-engined variant of the RT)!
Yes, the RT (RTL & RTW) was the true London bus. I think the RM was a probably worthy successor (unlike the DMS!) and it had the advantage of a proper name which meant that the "media" could more easily refer to it and popularise it.
So glad the garage is still with us.
@3:48 Exciting, modern, and in need of a good clean and a lick of paint!
I worked on the West Ham bus garage circa 2008-9 similar concept but with a timber (glulam) structure and aluminium roof with grass too.
There's a bus garage near Seven Sisters station, but is much older. Behind a church.
Tottenham Garage...on Phillip Lane..
The internal ribs remind me of the inside of the Sydney Opera House.
Yes I liked it. As I used to walk down past it from the159 bus from Streatham to go to South BankPoly in 1974 to study Architecture. Even then it was grade 2 listed and our history lecturer made a point of keep saying so.
The tower block behind is where my great aunty Liz would go for Lambeth council pensioners lunch club. They would dance in the afternoons. I d really think that is good and they used to go on cheap holidays to Spain. The other place u lived in 1974 was Courland Grove overlooking Larkhall Park. In 1974 this was a bombed out site and all the people living locally around could remember the night of the bombing.
There were some empty houses nearby and believe it not AA architect students had been encouraged to squat there for part of their course. We also visited to see see how they managed and did our own project. Can you still squat? These were kids of the affluent
@Jago Hazzard Thanks for another excellent video. Nice to see suggestions of topics being followed up. Can't think of many really special bus garages, although a few older ones like Harrow Weald are quite distinctive. Holloway (or more correctly Highgate) in Pemberton Gdns N19 is an old one and is huge.
One subject worth persuing might be the philanthropic architecture of London. I'm thinking specifically of things like the Passmore Edwards/Carnegie public libraries gifted to the people of London, and the working class "model dwelling" type housing built by the Peabody Trust and Samuel Lewis Trust.etc. Some nice surviving examples of the model dwellings near the Royal Opera House in Covent garden. Pear Tree Court/Farringdon Lane in Clerkenwell, and around Whidbourne St near St Pancras station to name just three. There's also some really old Almshouses on the Mile End Road, a few more in Spitalfeleds near Hawksmoor's Christ Church IIRC, and yet more way out near High Barnet underground (Potters Lane).
My former step father worked in that station until he got ill. He worked there for nearly 30 years until he passed in 2000.
Strange to relate,the ancestors of Stockwell,were the Art Noveau building of the early 1900's,a prime example being Grand Central Terminal in New York! Barrel vaults leave a great deal of floor space,and are decorative to boot! The military used that design for the Quonset huts,and tunneling,as it can be self supporting! So what was old,again,just got recycled! History repeats,with a different cast!Enjoyed the video,and I saw part of that documentary on Stockwell garage! (EXTRA note,on the SNCF,a garage is a rail yard,as in England- sidings,or US,class yard!)Small world!!
Never expected a brief appearance from my local garage ( 1:03 ) that was a nice surprise :)
My father worked for London buses most of his life based at Camberwell Garage. As a kid l had lots of lovely outings to circuses, pantomimes, seaside where fleets of buses would take us and we were amply supplied with goodies. Happy Days. Stockwell common is famous for the grizzly executions of the 1745 Scottish rebels, hanged,drawn quartered etc and Chartist meetings. Stockwell Tube Station was where Mr Menezes was killed by police in the mistaken belief that he was a terrorist .
Morning fellow lockdownees
Nearby old tube station tunnels are now used as document storage and the old war time bunk beds are still in there used as shelves as well as the old 1940s lift
Video suggestions:
-Charlton strange bell gates
-bromley north weird two car branch line
Thanks
This will be the nerdiest comment I have made. If you look at the old bus at 0:33 you see just behind the driver's door a rectangular plate. The same thing is visible on the modern bus at 1:18 above the front wheel. This tells which garage the bus lives in, and sometimes where in the garage. So when you are passed by a bus with SW on these plates you can say "Aha! I know where you live, Mr. Bus" or something of the same anthropomorphic tendency. Well, it passes the time.
A building that has stood the test of time! Nothing that a little paint or even power washing can’t spruce up!! Are there any tube depots that are this cool and listed?
I remember that place from when my Dad drove buses out of it back in the 1970s.
I lived on Studley Estate in the 60's - 70's, we used to sneak in and get on the busses looking for the paper rolls the conducters used....
At 2:53 I used to live in that ground floor flat on the right and my grandma lives there now so you see the buses over the garden wall.
Jago. The London General taxi garage in Brixton Rd is worth investigating. As is Queen Victoria's Elephant House in Brown Hart Gardens, off of Oxford St. Great video thanks.
I believe the bus shelter at Newbury Park tube station is deserving of coverage on this channel as well.
I wasn't previously aware of Stockwell Bus Garage.
Stockwell has loads of interest as it turns out, what with that beautiful building, it being a terminus of London's first deep underground railway line (world's first too?), and one of London's deep level shelters.
Thanks for this wonderful and informative video, and for bringing the bus garage to my attention.
We use a lot of concrete and so we also use a lot of white wash. Looks like this building could do with some. It does not cost much and would make it look so much better.
Skylights were a bold and optimistic statement about the future in 1953. They had caused no end of trouble with the blackout, which had ended less than 10 years before this garage opened. To design back on this weakness (if war should come) was really committing to an optimistic view of the future.
Oh dear, that is a big rabbit hole opening for Bus Operation and Bus Garages in London. Its Complex. Starts With Corporation and Company Tram Depots, with additional stabling for horses for the horse tram era with additional sites for tralier cars, plus works sometimes were adjacent operational depots (like Fulwell as you depicted) or separate (Charlton). Central Area The Horse Buses - mainly, but not exclusively LGOC ( ironically owned by the French, a la some Private Bus companies of today) , Thomas Tilling ( by eventual agreement they took on SE London Originating Routes and had TB (Bromley- built by LGOC - Garage), TL-Catford Garage (likewise but Replaced Tilling's Lewisham Premises), and TC- Croydon - an original ? Tilling one but much rebuilt. Tilling also had somewhat started at the Bull Yard in Peckham , but this passed somehow to LGOC and was used by LTPB in WW2 mainly for storage and got hit by a bomb - SW replaced this along with P- Old Kent Road ( too small really for modern buses of the time). RL - Rye Lane in Peckham I think got replaced into PM - Peckham - site of the present bus station and Morrisions. Motorbuses Arrived with the the London Motor Bus Company (Vanguard) and its Associated Engineering Company , based in Walthamstow (the museums their have details ) , but LGOC fairly quickly acquired them and moved AEC elements of AEC into its Chiswick Works (AEC actually becoming separated and into its own facility in Southall , its Regent series of chassis and engine range being rather similar to Leyland's Titans (probably because Rackham from Leyland moved to AEC in the 1920s). Tilling replaced its horse buses with Petrol-Electrics and created an association with Stevens to produce those vehicles, later acquiring an interest in Commer Cars of Maidstone with the post WW2 TS series of underfloor engine single deck buses often with integral Beadle of Dartford Bodies. When LPTB took over Tillings London Buses Tilling used them to expand their operations in Brighton, Hove and District, and interests in the National company, later getting investment from the Railways when they gained powers (1928 Act?) to invest in road vehicles, and hence when nationalised railways Tilling Group buses became the bus part of the British Transport Commission ( during the war there was a complex exchange of cross-shareholdings in bus companies that the one time British Electric Traction Co had built up from its intial Tramway operations and that the Railways had in BET and other bus companies so some companies found themselves under different administrative control - I nearly digress ,we shall return to this. ). Meanwhile in Chelmsford and I think the Kings Cross N/E London area National Steam (Clarkson) (National also had the AH and F Garages before they passed to the LGOC via Vanguard )were persisting with Steam Powered Omnibuses - I cannot recall their exact depot locations. LGOC did revenue pooling deals with National and granted them 'rights' to operate to the North of London in what would become the London Country area when LPTB created - with a bit of oddities around Wood Green (ex City Coach co Garage) ,for coach services, and Tilbury/Grays where LGOC and the by then LNER invested into Eastern National both had garages and services, tidied up after 1948. South of London LGOC did agreements / later invested in the East Surrey Automobile Company and built many of its distinctive White clapboarded brick garages (Godstone, Swanley and similar), and Autocar of Maidstone including Tunbridge Wells to Dartford/Gravesend Areas plus deals with BET owned Maidstone and District. Back in the Red Bus area oddities included LGOCs Uxbridge Garage - similar in style to Godstone from memory which after 1970 was one of the bus garages outside the GLC area (Potters Bar and Loughton being the others ). Aside from concrete use the brick faced new post WW2 garages at North Street, Romford (built for expansion of services in Havering ) and Elmers End ( its prewar standard LGOC design destroyed by a V1 ). LGOC had a fairly recognisable design, marked by the use of Blue Doors and Brick frontal plinths. A- Sutton, B-Battersea a Vanguard Original soon extended accross the road, used post privatisation for the OLST and Tour Fleet before it moved to WD. , C-Athol Street, Poplar , D-Dalston (actually earlier design with lovely stucco plastering above the narrow doorway), E - Enfield (Ponders End) , F- Had been ? an acquired? garage Farm Lane Fulham , replaced by F- Putney Bridge Former National Steam Car Garage (now the location of the Cinema), G- Forest Gate Extant until at least recently as a market, H Hackney - Well Street , (replaced by Ash Grove) was still standing last I looked as some kind of local authority store ) J- Holloway ( rather complete exchanges after the demise of trolleybuses ), K - Kingston inc Bus Station side view still visible opposite Wood Street Bus Station, L-Loughton, M-Mortlake - famously was for some time an all RM garage for the 9 and the 33 but also held some preserved and trainer RTs and some of the LT collection not otherwise on display, N-Norwood (rebuilt - see detail later), P-Old Kent Road ( London Tramways Trailer Cars, then LCC Electrics, then Vanguard Buses aquired LGOC then closed). , Q- Camberwell - effectively one of the major works for South London and held the recovery trucks for trolleybus fleet too . R- Hammersmith (known as Riverside, but its no where near Hammersmith Riverside , its actually Butterwick. see old films of area
, Bradmore House facade stands, but was resited by the LGOC when the garage was built to face a different way ! the tesco in the station area stands there with Butterwick bus station much changes as was more side on with Green Line stops in it too.). S- Shepherd's Bush ( but that had been a tramway depot so maybe LGOC had different code), T-Leyton (Again ex tramway), U-Upton Park, V-Turnham Green , being close to Chiswick works used as a test bed site for assorted experiments often on the 27 bus, code, later used for Chiswick High Road ex LUT Tram depot sill in use), W- Cricklewood- site of main North London major works , X- Middle Row, North Kensington, re-used for Westbourne Park under the Westway.
In the UK, outside London, garage rhymes with large, as in "large garage". Londoners / Eastenders pronounce it slightly harder, as "garridge". This ensures that UK Garage ("garridge") music can't be confused with Large Garage punk music.
That wavy roof line reminds me of one of the buildings from the 1950's edition of Hafodyrynys Colliery. Fashionable at the time maybe? At least it looks more in keeping with its surroundings than the colliery ever did. (Most of it was demolished back in the 80s and only the shell of the coal washery remains) Good to see that architects were capable of doing something decent with concrete.
Great Video as always Jago! You and Geoff Marshall have the best videos about London's transport.
Also, Can you make a video, for Stockwell tube station? It has a lot of history. (Similar to Euston)
Another fantastic video, the inclusion of Will Self made it spookier than your Halloween offering!
It's crying out for a good clean and weeding out the front.
Yours is a most inspiring channel! My next visit will include Stockwell, the Imperial Airways Terminal, and of course all of the tube stations built during Frank Pick's time. I've been admiring him since I read his book some thirty years ago.
I agree, it still looks good
Thanks for this video. The outside is striking and the interior is beautiful.
It reminded me of the TWA terminal at JFK, and Dulles terminal in DC.
"I 'ate you Butler! I'll get you! Just you see if I dont!"
Aha! It wasn't just me who thought of Blakey, whilst watching this!
@@brianartillery No, not just you ....
Darren Sykes.
RIP Stephen Lewis and alas most of the rest of the cast.
excellent as always - Suggestion would be keen for you to do a video about Newbury Park Underground station and its Bus shelter . regards Geoff
It really is beautiful. Shame no one at TFL has access to a jet washer - but still very lovely. Maybe they could borrow the National Theatre’s one?! They seem to be able to keep concrete clean.
One of the most iconic bus garages in the country, I'd wager. Looks a tad tired now and would greatly benefit from a power wash, but I of course know that TfL have more important things to be getting on with right now. At any rate, should I find myself in London post-COVID (if such a time ever comes), I'll definitely be stopping by this underappreciated gem. Top job as always. :)
The most important building in London? I couldn't help imagining the French invading and all the queen's guards run off to protect the bus garage. "Priorities, your majesty!"
I was expecting to see a foam mouthed Blakey every time you filmed inside 😉
"I 'ate you Jago 'Azzard!"
@@harbl99 😂😂😂
You're slowly getting closer to where I grew up.
The huge advantage of the design was no pillars or posts inside to avoid when parking up to 150 buses at night.
Yes, Will Self is so right. As always. Who needs the Pyramids, or the Parthenon, or the Hanging Gardens of Babylon? I’m so glad we’ve got Stockwell Bus Garage to contribute to World Heritage from all the other buildings that the people of this country have designed and built throughout history. Perhaps the bus shelter near the Ikea in Croydon comes a very close second, with its alfresco waiting experience, artistic uncensored community graffiti, roof covered with an increasing collection of discarded bric-a-brac, such as empty drink cans and used condoms, lavishly adorned by a lumpy white blanket of organic content regularly donated by passing pigeons. And not forgetting the multitudinous opportunity to catch a myriad tropical infections or the chance to take part in an interactive exchange of any valuable items on your person for the wonderful local specialty of being allowed to carry on living by many of the jovial talented nearby drug-addicted knife carrying street artists.
The garage is a typical 1950's building. All over Europe, there are these kind of building with long ribs out of concrete and a lot of glass in steel frames. It is the combination of start of the prefab era and the post-war ending of the 1930's functionalism/Bauhaus architectural style.
Lovely building! Love the sweep...
Always thought the Lansdowne Way BG looked sort of "Post-War Brutalism meets 'On The Buses'" . Didn't know it was THAT old though!
I’ve walked/driven past this building so many times and never knew it was so large inside!
Woo 69.4k subsribers. Getting very close . What an amazing building very worth celebrating
Places in London that dont really have 'traditional' bus garages (why?) but some might have bus stations. Harrow (its a distance from Harrow Weald, but served from Edgware Too). Hillingdon - Uxbridge Services a bit, but the area has had long distance services from Windsor and Slough and Alperton for local services over the years. Greenford only really got new parking land recently , there is the HGV test centre at Yeading though. Clapham Junction - Interesting LTE owned turning circle though. Epsom is outside the area just but is served from Kingston and Leatherhead until Epsom Coaches started their locals, - the hospitals sites used to be sundays only for visiting but are now M-S for the new housing in the areas. Orpington for years was ignored by London Transport, and so the independent Orpington and District Became quite famous, along with Richmond with Continental Pioneer's service from the Station up Richmond Hill. The Heathrow area had Whites Services mainly for airport use, and Feltham had Golden Miller's 4 routes covering the Shepperton Bedfont Area - still a bit the same today with Falcon Coaches acquired by Tellings who had acquired Golden Miller then sold out to National Express Travel London Travel Surrey. Its complex !!
There's Norbiton, down near Kingston upon Thames, which is brick-built and has some splendid arches of its own. I laid quite a few thousand with a lot of them radiused brick for building curved walls with. My friend and I spent a day or two forming the glass walls above the boiler room doors. We had a foreman who was born without any sense of humour. He was always moaning about something and he gave us a big lecture about the cost of Pilkington glass blocks and how we could be fired for breaking any. Just before lunchtime he came again, bleating about valuable materials and the care required.....
After scarfing up a few sarnies with a pint of tea, we returned underground with an empty milk bottle. Having finished the job, bar clearing up and putting a polish on the glass, we had a few left over. We hadn't broken any at all, but this foreman came around again to have a moan. Once finished, he turned away to leave which was when the milk bottle flew to ground just behind his heels - it made a great noise when it broke! He spun around to find us with angelic smiles.
Sadly pulled down a good few years ago..now a DIY store is on the site..
@@ianwatts8446 Ouch, really? I feel really old....
@@brando6BL Closed in Sept 1991..you and me both feel old last time I went there was the school summer holidays in 1975 age 15..if I remember the garage had a separate docking bay over the road..