76 The London Bus
In 1970 the Greater London
Council took control of London
Transport, which had been in
state ownership for the past
22 years. The notion of the
GLC having political control
of services outside its area
was clearly contentious and
the Country Area bus services
were kept in state ownership,
transferred to the newly created
London Country Bus Services,
a subsidiary of the National Bus
Company.
Over 60 Central Area bus
routes crossed then into what
London Transport described as
the ‘out counties’, while London
Country operated almost as
many bus services into Greater
London in addition to 23 Green
Line coach services.
This represented about 20%
of London Country’s mileage
and one of its routes, the 493
(Orpington-Ramsden Estate), ran
entirely within Greater London.
Conversely, London Transport’s
206 (Hampton Court-Claygate)
operated entirely within Surrey
while Sunday-only routes 205
(Upshire-Fleamstead End) and
205A (Hammond Street-Epping
Forest) skirted the GLC’s
northern boundary. To the
north-east of London, a sizeable
network operated from Loughton
garage, which sat outside theGLC area, all of which crossed
the border.The Wood Green
connection
Although London Transport or
London Country provided most
cross-border services, there
were other operators. In 1927,
A. H. Young, trading as The
Empress Bus, launched a service
between Southend and Wood
Green. The following year the
City Motor Omnibus Company
bought a two-thirds share in it
and although it initially retained
the New Empress name, it
painted vehicles in City’s livery.
The service was subsequently
extended to Kentish Town.
In 1928, Westcliff on Sea MotorServices extended its Southend-
Wickford service to Wood Green,
where it opened a garage,
although by 1934 City had
acquired control of both routes.
In a strange twist, Westcliff on
Sea acquired its operations in
1952 with acquisition by Eastern
National following in 1955.
By 1970 three routes were
being operated — the 151 and
251 linked Wood Green and
Southend while route 251 ran to
Chelmsford. By then they were
operated largely by 31ft long
Bristol Lodekka FLFs dating
from 1967/68. These were the
double-deckers that featured in
the popular television comedy
series On The Buses.
The 351 was cut back toBeyond London
RIGHT: Eastern
National 2917, a
Bristol Lodekka
FLF, in Southend
in 1979 on the
service that ran
into London as far
as Wood Green.
EAMONN KENTELL
BELOW: Uno
services include
the 614, linking
the University of
Hertfordshire’s
Hatfield campus
with Underground
stations at
Edgware and
Queensbury. It was
relaunched in 2017
as The Comet —
named after the
jet airliner built
at Hatfield — with
a new fleet of
Alexander Dennis
Enviro400 City
double-deckers.
This bus design
was developed
initially for London
with styling
influenced by the
New Routemaster,
but has proved
more popular
beyond London.