Birch Brothers opened route 214 in October 1928, between Hendon
Central and Canons Park via Mill Hill Broadway, with most journeys
operating as 214A only as far as Edgware
Hale Lane, Premier Parade. Buses ran up to Hendon
from their Chalk Farm garage. At the end of 1930, the route
was double-decked, but shortened (as 214C) to run only
to Mill Hill Broadway. Birch Bros' London bus
services were taken over by London Transport in February 1934 and
the 214C was allocated STLs from Hendon garage
(AE). Hendon would operate the route continuously until it
closed in 1987, assisted only by Cricklewood (W) between 1935 and
1939.
In the renumbering later that year,
the route became the 113 (with the existing 113, being single-deck
operated, becoming the 213).
Two months later, the route was re-extended to Canons Park, but by
a different routing, which was to change again in 1940 before
permanent shortening to Edgware in 1941. A much more
substantial change to the route was just after the outbreak of the
second world war, when the route was extended south via Finchley
Road and Baker Street to Oxford Circus. Overnight, a
Hendon local became a trunk route, providing a link
from Edgware to the West End that survives to this day.
When Cricklewood joined Hendon in operating the 113, it provided
LTs alongside AE's STLs and occasional ST. The end of 1936
saw the LTs replaced by more STLs, whilst the delivery of the STDs
during early 1937 in turn replaced AE's STLs. When W
stood down, the STDs had the route to themselves, except for some
STs in that latter part of the war, until finally replaced by RTs
in 1954.
The first Routemasters appeared on the route,
initially only on Sundays, just before Christmas
1962. Full conversion was in September 1966, with RMs and
then 10 years later RMLs. In what was, from memory, the
first Oxford Street route to lose its Routemasters, the 113
converted to one-man Ms in 1986.
The route is now operated by Metroline from Edgware garage,
although the long period of stability on the Edgware to Oxford
Circus route was finally broken in late 2009, when the London end
was diverted to Marble Arch, to help reduce the number of buses
along Oxford Street.