Originally numbered the 111, the route was introduced in April 1914 from Finsbury Park to Muswell Hill.  Due to a weight restriction over the railway bridge on Muswell Hill, the route was operated by single-deckers until 1960, despite being one of the businest routes in London.  Indeed, in 1921 the LGOC and two drivers were fined at Highgate Police Court for running double deckers on route 111 over the weight restricted railway bridges at Crouch Hill and Muswell Hill. 

 

Initially worked by Holloway garage (J), the 111 was reallocated to Muswell Hill (MH) when that garage opened on 23 Sep 25.  Using LT 'Scooters' from 1931, the route was renumbered on 3 Oct 34 into the new 200-series of single-deck routes. 

 

The LTs lasted until 1946/7, when there was a phased replacement by new 14T12 Regals during 1946.  However, the 7.7 litre AECs proved underpowered (presumably the burden of full loads up Muswell Hill was too much for them), so from December 1946 they were in turn replaced by the whole of the first batch of 31 TDs, with 7.4 litre Leyland engines and Weymann bodywork, a process completed in June 1947.  With a few now spare, the TDs also appeared on the 210.  Meanwhile, Muswell Hill's 244 was still LT-operated (until 1952), and some joint allocation meant that one LT working reappeared on the 212, Mondays to Fridays in the late 1940s.

 

Providing important links for Muswell Hill and Crouch End, the 212 was always a very busy route, with a bus every two minutes in the 1930s to 1950s.  LT would have dearly loved to run double-deckers - in 1950, the route was losing £20,000 p.a. due to the higher staff cost per passenger of single-deckers.  Following inconclusive correspondance with the railway company about strengthening the bridge on Muswell Hill, under which coal trains still ran, in 1953 this moved on to correspondence about possible closure of the line 'if the coal traffic could be redirected'.

 

The peak requirement of the 212 increased steadily over the years, to a maximum of 23 LTs, then 27 when run by a mixture of LTs and Ts and finally 30 TDs in 1952, falling back slightly to 29 after the introduction of the larger RFs (but 29 41-seat RFs provided 20% more seats than 30 33-seat TDs).

The 212 was the second route at Muswell Hill garage operated by the RF class, from February 1953.  The first of the second batch of RFs was licensed on 4 February and the last few were held back and not licensed until 1 March.  The route required many more buses than the 210, but was busiest Monday to Friday, whereas the 210 was busier at weekends, particularly Sundays.  Hence the 31 new buses allocated for the 29-bus peak requirement on the 212 also provided just enough (at least in theory) for the 210 to convert fully to RF at the weekends.  In addition, there were enough buses to allocate some RFs to the 251 on Saturday and, when the winter schedules came in and the 210 requirement reduced, on Sunday as well.  Meanwhile at Muswell Hill, the 244 kept its TD allocation.  In practice, it seems likely that the picture was less clear-cut than this.

 

The route finally converted to RTs in January 1960, once the bridge on Muswell Hill over the abandoned railway was finally removed.  The majority of the RFs moved overnight to Kingston for the 218/9, which needed 22 buses.  RTs remained on Monday to Friday up to the end of the route, but operation switched to RMs at weekends in June 1963.  The route converted to one-man flat-fare operation in the changes of May 1969, being renumbered W7 in the Wood Green series.  The last 212 was an RT on 9 May 69.

 

The W7 continues over the same route today.  Still very busy, it is one of the few (the only?) suburban double-deck routes that is pay-before-you-board.

 

New RFs delivered Feb 53: 436, 443, 449-453, 462, 466-467, 469-473, 475-478, 480-487 (total 27 + 4 second hand = 29 + 2 spare)

 

PVR 1953 (Feb): Mon-Fri 30, Sat 23, Sun 20

PVR 1953 (May): Mon-Fri 29, Sat 23, Sun 20

PVR 1953 (Oct): Mon-Fri 26, Sat 19, Sun 18

PVR 1954 (Mar): Mon-Fri 24, Sat 19, Sun 16

PVR 1955 (May): Mon-Fri 23, Sat 18, Sun 16

PVR 1955 (Oct): Mon-Fri 23, Sat 18, Sun 15

PVR 1958 (Nov): Mon-Fri 21, Sat 15, Sun 15

Looking at these allocations, it is worth remembering that the route only took 15 minutes from end to end.

 

Dave Wangford lived on Crouch Hill for about 18 months in 1954.  One of his abiding memories is the frequency of the service on the 212:

'I was about 11 years old and used the 212 service to get to school in Finsbury Park at Blackstock Road School, which was a short walk from the terminus in Wells Terrace.  I can recall coming out the front door and seeing a bus heading towards Finsbury Park coming down the hill, but not worrying about not getting to the bus stop (about 100 yards away) in time because there would be another bus in a couple of minutes!

I also remember that there was quite a heavy fall of snow during the winter that we lived on Crouch Hill and coming out the door to see the amazing sight of three or four RFs stuck at different angles up the hill, going nowhere. 

Happy days - what wonderful buses the RFs were.  But soon afterwards we moved to Southend on Sea; I thought that the buses there were very poor things after being used to the splendid London RTs & RFs.'

 

See also Stuart Perry's memories of driving RTs on the 212 while based at Muswell Hill, here.