EAW043867 ENGLAND (1952). The Aldenham Bus Overhaul Works, housing off Sullivan Way and the surrounding area, Elstree, 1952. This image was marked by Aerofilms Ltd for photo editing.

Aldenham Bus Overhaul Works



The main London Transport Bus overhaul works. Actually located on the edge of Elstree, and not Aldenham despite being officially called Aldenham Works.



Originally bought for the Northern line extension to Bushey Heath and almost complete at the outbreak of World War II, the railway extension works stopped.



The site was used as an aircraft factory, for Handley Page Halifax bombers.



After the war the Northern line plan was finally dropped in September 1949.



The site was then developed for bus overhaul - much needed after the war years. The construction began in 1952 and the existing buildings were extended and converted into a bus overhaul works over a 53.3-acre (216,000 m2) site: Aldenham Works. Part of the works site was leased to British Leyland as a repair and spares storage centre.



Although the site was used for repair work and preparation of new buses before 1956, the official opening was on 30 October 1956, when it had a staff of 1,800. At its peak fifty buses per week received overhaul.



To save wasting road tax, London Transport had special dispensation to re-register their buses so that the registration of a vehicle arriving for overhaul would be taken off and given to the next vehicle to leave the works after overhaul.



The Country buses were taken from London Transport in 1970, and by 1985 economies produced a rethink on the three-five yearly overhaul policy (preventative maintenance gave way to allowing buses to fail in service before repair work) and the workflow shrank. More modern bus bodies would distort if separated from their chassis and the basic concept of the works overhaul system had gone. Buses requiring work could now be off the road for much longer. The works was closed in November 1986.



In 1986 bus maintenance moved to Chiswick (which had handled chassis renovations until 1955 when that moved to Aldenham)



Demolition took place in 1996 for the Centennial Park business park.



The opening ten minutes of the film Summer Holiday took place at the works.