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Red RF routes
Kenwood Concerts Express Service
In June and July of 1961, 1962 and 1963, and possibly of
1960, a special RF-operated express service operated on
Saturday evenings along the 210 between Golders Green and Archway
Station, stopping only at Kenwood. Little is known about this
operation; that which has been discovered is given here.
Dates of RF operation
10 Jun 61 to 22 Jul 61, summer 1962, 1 Jun 63
to 20 Jul 63. Possibly 1960.
Destinations
GOLDERS GREEN to ARCHWAY
History
The Kenwood open-air concerts, by Kenwood House on Hampstead
Heath, started in 1951 and are a popular feature of north London
summers. The nearest road to the concerts was, and is,
served by the 210.
It would appear that the 210 had become over-burdened with
concert-goers on Saturday evenings, as an additional Express
service was introduced by London Transport. The records show
the production of blinds for the service in 1960, although it is
not known whether it operated that year, or indeed in any earlier
year.
In 1961, the PSV Circle recorded that a ‘Special EXPRESS
service was introduced on Saturday evenings between 18.30 and
24.00 between GOLDERS GREEN STATION and ARCHWAY STATION stopping
only at Kenwood. Buses carried blue blinds marked
EXPRESS'. The service is recorded as running from 10 Jun
61 to 22 Jul 1961.
The service is not mentioned in the
timetables or the LT allocation books. The services operated
again in 1962, and in 1963, the LT Central Buses Traffic
Committee minutes state that the Kenwood Concerts Express Service,
Sats 1 June to 20 July, was approved ‘as 1962’, with two
buses 'forward traffic' from Edgware (EW) garage and
five buses 'return traffic' (2 EW, 3 MH). On 24
June, staff shortages and allocation problems are noted and
the service was experiencing losses. On 8 July, the
service is still loss-making, having not operated 6 July due
to bad weather but the staff were paid. On the other
hand, the minutes note that in fine weather, reliefs
were required, especially at the break. Whilst the
minutes do not confirm that RFs were used on the service, the use
of buses from MH and EW, the route following the 210, where it is
believed that double-deckers were not acceptable to residents,
together with the blind records (see below) all suggest that the
service was RF-operated.
Stuart Perry confirms that the service
did not operate from 1964 onwards, and that the RF blinds in use at
MH in late 1963 did not include the service, although they did
include the 251, which had moved away that spring. This ties
in with details from blind records provided by George
Jasieniecki. He records that, in 1960, a special
RF blind was produced for Muswell Hill garage, with just one
panel (as well as the obligatory 'blank', but no 'private').
The records show that 12 sets were produced, dated 10/6/60.
He assumes that the printed panel was blue, and the blank panel
black, but the schedules didn't actually state this. The
wording on the panel was arranged in four lines, with 'Express' at
the top. The second line read 'To & from Kenwood &', third
line 'Golders Grn or Archway' and 'Single fare 6d' in the fourth
line. All lettering in capital letters at that time.
Since it seems very unlikely (whatever the inside staff at the
garage might have had to say about it) would not have been dressed
(or at least intended to be dressed) front and back, this suggests
a maximum of six buses, probably only five. The fact
that they were individual blinds, not added to the usual garage RF
blind, suggests that there might have been an intention for
some buses to be borrowed. However, in summer 1960, MH put
out 28 RFs on Sundays but only 19 on Saturdays – so why would they
borrow? The staff shortages and the use of buses from EW in
1963 (at least) seem to provide the answer.
Although sometimes loosely referred to as the
'210 Express', and having used the same roads, the blind details
indicate that the workings were not regarded as part of the
210. We have no evidence that these blinds were actually
used, although the lack of any Express panel on the MH garage
RF blinds in 1963 suggests that they were.
Stuart Perry adds 'My experience of concerts at Kenwood [from
1964] was that you left Archway or Golders Green with a standing
load, often with much grumbling from the queue, but I have no
memory of getting help from any "extras". I do know that if
the weather was good a lot of passengers used the 271 to Highgate
Village and enjoyed the walk from there. If the weather was
bad there were a lot less passengers anyway as of course the
concerts were all open air and only the hardiest bothered to turn
out. I always got the impression that those who supported the
concerts were choosy about the weather which was the major factor
in how busy we were during the evening.'
It seems likely, given the losses recorded in 1963 and the
well-known staff shortages at that time, that the service was
withdrawn for some time. George Jasieniecki comments
'Personally, I would not be surprised if it failed to appear
as a London Transport operation for a while from 1964 onwards.
There were extreme staff shortages around that time, and all
resources available were concentrated on running normal scheduled
routes with numbers. Private Hire, and special services for other
events, such as Race Specials, football and so on, were contracted
out and operated by commercial private coaches. Even the Round
London Sightseeing Tour lost its Routemasters from New Cross, and
was run by private coaches for several years. Bad for LT's image,
of course, but they would have been criticised just as much if
the resources on RLST were not redeployed.'
There seems to be no record of the period
between 1964 and about 2004 (can anyone help?). However, there
is still a special service for Kenwood these days, but
it operates separately to and from Golders Green and East
Finchley stations. This service has been operated by
Sullivan Buses since about
2005, and Dean Sullivan provided the following details in early
2010:
'Yes we do run the Kenwood Shuttle and have done so for about
five years. The PVR is a minimum of 4 depending upon the
concert. If it's busy, we put extra buses out. The bus is normally
SLF double deck but Routemasters have regularly appeared. Other
than the Routemasters, all SLF DD’s carry Kenwood displays.
The loadings do vary with the concert. One weekend when they had
Simply Red and we were VERY well loaded. Golders Green creates the
majority of passengers, roughly about double the loadings from East
Finchley.
English Heritage [owners of Kenwood] run the free service for
two reasons, firstly the 210 is unable to cope with the loadings at
tip out, even though they now run double-deckers. There are
also concerns expressed about the concerts by the local
residents. The concerts were cancelled in 2007 due to noise,
and there are issues about the parking on event days.
The bus services are an attempt to reduce this problem.'
RF route in detail
GOLDERS GREEN STATION, North End Road, Spaniards Road,
Hampstead Lane, Kenwood House,
Hampstead Lane, Highgate High Street, Highgate Hill, HIGHGATE
Archway Station.
Garages
MH Muswell Hill
EW Edgware
RF allocation
1960 to 1962 unknown
PVR 1963: Sat 2 (EW), 3 (MH)
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How the blind might have
looked. We have been unable to locate any photos of the buses
in service - can you help?
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