24 The London Bus
B
uses operated
from Croydon
garage display
the code TC.
The C stands for
Croydon and the T for Thomas
Tilling, which by the early years
of the 20th century operated
a significant number of buses
largely in south-east London.
An agreement with the much
larger London General Omnibus
Company saw General provide
three garages for use by Tilling
at Bromley, Catford and Croydon.
The Croydon facility opened
on 23 January 1916. Tilling’s
London bus operations passed
to the newly formed London
Transport in October 1933.
Although officially this
is Croydon garage, it has
usually been described on busdestination blinds
as South Croydon
Garage.
This was the last
London garage to
operate open-top
buses in normal
service, having
received five Park
Royal-bodied AEC
Regents built for
C. H. Pickup of
Dulwich as late
as 1932. London
Transport included
them in its STL-
class and they were
allocated to Croydon
in January 1934
for route 254 (West
Croydon-Selsdon),
which passed under
a low bridge in
Croham Road.
This arrangement
did not find favour
with the Metropolitan Police and
the route was diverted in May
1934, allowing Tilling ST-type
Regents with roofs to be used.
In October of that year the 254
was renumbered 64. The STLs
revived new, covered-top bodies
built at London Transport’s
Chiswick Works.
During World War 2, Croydon
garage was the victim of one
the worst bombing raids of the
Blitz, in terms of vehicle losses,
when on the night of 10/11 May
1941 it was attacked first by
incendiary bombs followed by
high explosives. Fifty-eight
buses were lost and many others
damaged. There were also four
deaths.
The fabric of the garage was
almost completely destroyed and,following a clear up operation,
buses were parked in the open
for several years. The garage was
rebuilt and enlarged between
1952 and 1954.
In July 1947 it was the
second garage, after Leyton, to
receive new postwar RT-type
AEC Regent IIIs, beginning
an association with the class
that lasted until 1974. Croydon
also operated London’s first
driver-only double-deck route
in November 1969 when the
233 (West Croydon-Roundshaw)
was converted from single-deck
operation. The unique rear-
engined Routemaster, FRM1,
was a regular sight on this
service alongside the XA-class
Leyland Atlanteans, most of
which were allocated to Croydon
between 1969 and 1973.
During the mid-1970s London
Transport suffered from a
severe vehicle shortage, which
led to it hiring buses from
Southend Transport. Between
September 1975 and February
1976, Croydon operated some
of Southend’s Massey-bodied
Leyland Titan PD3s — with
manual gearboxes long gone
from London — on route 190
(Thornton Heath-Old Coulsdon).
When London Buses
transferred its operations to
smaller companies in 1989
in advance of privatisation,
Croydon garage became part of
South London Transport which
was acquired by the Cowie Group
in January 1995, making it the
last of the big red bus companies
to be sold. In late 1997 Cowie
rebranded itself as Arriva with
the South London operation
becoming Arriva LondonLondon Bus Garages
RIGHT: Aerial view
of Croydon garage,
sandwiched
between Brighton
Road towards the
bottom of the
picture and the
London-Brighton
railway towards
the top. GOOGLE
Croydon
Today’s services are provided by a subsidiary of the German state
railway, but the two-letter code on its buses reveals the identity of
the original operator of this 102-year-old facility that was rebuilt
and extended following devastating wartime damage