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Go Ahead London Camberwell Garage [Q]

After visiting Walworth Garage which is literally across the road I took the short trip across the road to London Central's Camberwell Garage which is arguably one of the company's biggest Garages. 


The garage is the second maintenance point for London General with the first being Merton which is head office. Although the garage was opened in 1914, it did not operate a single bus service for much over 5 years when it was requisitioned for the war. However when it did start to operate, it became one of the largest garages in London, the mammoth base was used to carry out body overhauls in 1940s, however in that said year, it was severely damaged following a bomb attack during the war. Following the attack, 13 vehicles were seriously damaged while four were completely destroyed.

The garage was promptly repaired, however in early 1950s the garage underwent a modernisation programme which is sounds funny to say considering the 1950s was so many moons ago. However the programme included the reconstruction of the welfare and operational block, with the addition of a new extended parking area which greatly increased capacity of the garage. The new and improved facilities incorporated a new pit and workshop which also took on the duties of heavy maintenance for the Walworth Garage ironically situated across the road from the base. The changes took the the capacity of the garage to a respectable 350 buses.

Despite its mammoth size, the allocation steadily decreased over the years as many routes were shifted out, until the closure of Walworth garage in 1985. This saw the allocation of vehicles rise back up to 142, although a shadow of the amount it did operate in the 1950s, which was close enough to 200 buses.

For a bit of trivia, the garage held three Leyland Titans, that were fitted with electronic blinds on an experimental basis. The vehicles were used on night bus standby duties.

On the 1st of April 2006, the based commenced the running of Routes 68, 468, N68 & X68 often referred to as the '68 group' after respectively winning it off Arriva, the chosen vehicles were Wright Gemini B7TLs, which are said to be some of the best in London.

On the 1st of May 2010, the garage gained more work, as Routes 42 and 185 moved in, following the takeover of East Thames Buses a year earlier.

I hope you have enjoyed reading this post as much as I have writing it and more photos are available below. Please do not hesitate to comment as your feedback is much appreciated.

A mini fact file has been provided at the end of the post for those who would rather look at pictures and take out segments of information from the post.




WVL233  LX06 DZR

R471 LGH

WVL236 LX06 DZU

WVL309 LX59 CYJ

WVL262 LX06 EBN

VWL4 LB02 YXA

ELS4 YU02 GHK

WVL309 LX59 CYJ

PVL307 PJ02 RGV

WVL309 LX59 CYJ (Rear)

WVL271 LX06 ECE

PVL82 W482 WGH

LDP153 Y853 TGH

PVL300 PJ02 RFN

NML 604E

CUV 305C

PVL60 W996 WGH

PVL331 PJ52 LWL

ELS2 YU02 GHH

R471 LGH (Rear)

London Central E19

PVL272 PN02 XBW

WHY7 LX57 CLZ

LDP170 Y907 TGH

LX06 EBK
Garage Fact File
  • Opened in 1914
  • Did not operate a single bus until 1919 
  • Bombed in 1940 with 13 buses badly damaged and four being completely destroyed
  • Became a major base for overhauls in the 1940s
  • Modernised in the 1950s which included a new workshop which undertook maintenance for Walworth Garage
  • Capable of holding 300 buses
Read more »
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Abellio London Walworth Garage [WL]

Today we visited Walworth Garage in Camberwell, which is one of two Garages we visited today.

8323 YX10 EBD

The Garage is leased by London Transport to Abellio London. It is Abellio's head office in London and all major decisions regarding bus repaints, refurbishments and types of buses that are to be used on specific Routes are discussed here. It currently has a capacity of 98 Buses, for Routes  40, 100, 129, 188, 343, 381, and night routes N343 and N381. It does not have a wide fleet of Buses in terms of variation, and it really does show. Anyway credit to Abellio London staff for allowing me on their premises.


More Photos below: 
Abellio 90101 BX54 DHZ and 9705 V305 KGW

Abellio 8803 LJ57 YBA

Abellio 8303 BX54 DKE

Abellio 8476 LF06 YRM

Abellio 9055 BX55 XNJ
Abellio 9049 LF55 CYY

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Arriva London & CT Plus Ash Grove [AE] & [HK]

Today I visited Ash Grove Garage in Hackney, the Garage is ironically shared by both CT Plus and Arriva under the codes of AE for Arriva and HK for CT Plus. It is only one of a few Garages in London to have shared garage space. The only other one I can think of is  Edgware Garage which is shared by London Sovereign and Metroline.


The Garage was opened in 1981 and has  a capacity of 170 vehicles. It is currently home to Routes  153, 212, 385,388, 394, 812, W12, W13 and 675 on the CT Plus side and home to Routes 78 and 168 on the Arriva side.I must send out a big thanks to all the staff at the Garage for allowing me on the premises! Just one more note; the silver Scania Omnicity Single Deckers have come from Menzies's of Heathrow. 

More Photos below:
VLW134 LJ03 MHK
SO 19 YN53 GGO
MM51 XVB
SO 19 YN53 GGO
HTP 6 PN03 ULY
HTL 3 LR52 LTJ
PDL 85 X485 GGO
OS4 YJ10 EYF
HTL 3 LR52 LTJ
PDL32 X532 GGO
PDL26 X526 GGO
VLW131 LJ03 MHA
HTP6 PN03 ULY
X595 ORV and HV02 OZT
PDL 75 X475 GGO
HDC 12 T433 LGP

PDL 85 X485 GGO
DE 4 PN07 KRE
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