An hour at Stockwell Bus Garage…

Behind the Scenes at Stockwell Bus Garage: London's Transport Past and Future

Article by Harry Claude Corbett

This afternoon, I alighted from my mainline train at Vauxhall and changed onto the Victoria Line Tube. I was not heading into Central London, which is my normal practice, but instead heading south to Stockwell, where my ultimate destination was Stockwell Bus Garage, operated by Go-Ahead.

With buses being in the news a great deal recently, I felt that I had timed my visit well.

I was being shown round the depot by Andrew Edwards, the Managing Director of Go-Ahead in London.

Whilst I was waiting for Andrew, I met many of the Go-Ahead team going in and out of the reception area, who really were the most polite and helpful of people. I felt that this was an exceedingly good start to the afternoon.

Andrew Edwards has worked in transport in Singapore, Hong Kong, Ireland and London, and has an enthusiasm and professionalism for bus transport and all of its wider benefits for society.

Andrew started by showing me the Centralised Operations Control, which replaced six previous regional hubs.

In this department, a team of 200 performance and control staff monitors 2,400 buses across 170 routes, responsible for one million passenger journeys daily.

It is what I imagine Mission Control in Houston must be like.

Then Andrew escorted me to the bus depot, where the buses are serviced and housed. The building became operational in April 1952.

The roof of this building is magnificent. It is made of reinforced concrete (due to a post-war shortage of steel), and when it was built, it was Europe's largest unsupported roof span.

It is still an awesome sight today.

It is a Grade II listed building, and the architects were Ardie Button and Partners, in collaboration with Thomas Bilbo (architect to the London Transport Executive) and consulting engineer Alfred Edward Beer.

This must have been a source of great optimism and hope to London passengers in the immediate post-war years.

As Go-Ahead moves towards more zero-emission electric buses and continues to transport passengers safely around London to the places they wish to go, it was very positive to meet some of the transport professionals who work behind the scenes to make it all happen.