Colindale Running Day

Route 113

 
Originating in 1928 as route 214 between Canons Park and Hendon Central, the 113 and its home Hendon garage were famous for many years as the home of the pre-war STD class.  Routemasters succeeded RTs in the early 1960s, lasting until 1986.  The route still provides a link from the outer suburbs to central London, now a rare feature.
 
Hendon's RM2030 loads at a joint central bus compulsory and Green Line request stop, on Finchley Road in West Hampstead, in the early 1970s.
Photo © Paul Redmond
 
Route
EDGWARE Station Road via Edgware Way, Apex Corner, Mill Hill Circus, HENDON CENTRAL.  Journeys extended to COLINDALE RAF Museum
 

Timetable

The 113 will operate every 30 minutes during the day. 

 

Main boarding points

Edgware Station Road bus stop B

Apex Corner Watford Way bus stop D (towards Edgware), bus stop K (towards Hendon)

Mill Hill Circus Watford Way bus stop S (towards Hendon), bus stop R (towards Edgware)

Hendon Central Watford Way bus stop E (towards Edgware)

 

Note that buses will not serve Edgware Bus Station.

 

Route history

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.