Palmers Green Bus Garage

About the Book

Palmers Green bus garage in north London is more than just a storage depot for  London’s iconic red double decker buses. For almost 100 years it has been home to the men, women and machines that have not only carried us all around the capital, but also served society faithfully through two world wars.

 Local residents probably recognise the garage on Regents Avenue, and some will know that it started out life as the Rosalie Skating Rink in 1910. But few will know that when tops were first put on double deckers in the 1920 and 30s (yes, they were all open-topped until then!), rather than look for a new home the garage’s 300-ton roof was simply raised on jacks to accommodate the new, tall fleet.

If you wondered why London’s bus drivers take part in the annual Remembrance Day parade at the Cenotaph, then this book has the answer. During World War One, buses and their drivers joined the war effort carrying rations in their vehicles to the front (including the hay and oats for the horses). During World War Two the drivers delivered coffee and doughnuts to the American Troops.

There are also funny stories which bring vivid colour to London life through the 20^th century. Like the time when in 1916 one of the first female conductors  was suspended for three days after she and her driver took an unscheduled stop with all their passengers to pick up a sack of fresh potatoes from a friendly farmer on route. Or when a bus driver had to stop a man carrying his new ladder home on the bus by sticking his arm out of a top deck window to hang on to it.

Locals, historians and bus enthusiasts alike will all find something to love in this book.

About the Author

Three bus drivers have spent the past four years turning a scrapbook about the imposing building where they work into a published, historical tome. After hundreds of emails from all over the world, many hours and days lost in the basements of north London libraries and also enlisting the help of work colleagues they have produced their first book.

Mike Wormall, Maurice Cullum and Ted Simpson, who are in their late 50’s and early 60s, combined their skills and mutual interest in their workplace to fit together all the pieces of the Palmers Green garage jigsaw - all while still juggling the various roles of Garage Rep, Company Convenor and Branch Chairman between them for their local branch of the Transport & General Workers Union, now part of Unite.

Between them they have more than 80 years of driving buses between them, and now they have charted 100 years of local history through the eyes of the bus industry.