Brief History
Fulwell was originally built as Tram shed for “London United Tramways” in 1902. It had an entrance at each end. One in Stanley Road, and the main one in Wellington Road. The shed had 20 tracks under cover but was never used to its full capacity.
In 1931 London’s first trolleybuses moved in alongside the trams and the last trams left in 1935. In 1933 the newly formed London Transport Board took over London United Tramways. Fulwell became London Transport’s main trolleybus works making use of some of the space available. It was thus one of the last two depots to convert to Motor Buses (together with nearby Isleworth) on 9th May 1962.
As a bus garage Fulwell was divided in half along its length with the sports ground between the garage and South Road. The northern half of the garage, together with the front yard at the Wellington Road end, and a small rear yard where used for bus operation. The southern half of the garage, together with the Stanley Road entrance, and the remainder of the front yard where let out. In the seventies they where used by the Grundy company, manufacturers of brewing equipment, and the metal boxes that school dinners are cooked in!
The amount of work
increased from 18/4/1970 when the small Twickenham Garage (AB) closed.
In 1986/7 the garage was rebuilt, and it remained open throughout. Instead of being split along it’s length, it is now split across the width. The result is a very large square garage, with an even larger front yard. The rear part of the garage was initially used by London Bus sales, for the sale of withdrawn London Transport buses. With the split up and privatisation of London Buses Limited, the sales dept was wound down and closed.
The construction company Kelly used the site for a short time whilst they where laying cable TV in the area.
In March 2000 a group of travellers moved in.
Tellings-Golden Miller are shortly to use it as an operating base for there growing local bus network, including routes R68 & R70, currently run from the other end of Fulwell Garage!
Following route
losses under the tendering process, Norbition Garage closed in 1987. It’s 2
remaining routes, 57 & 71, together with 26 buses transferred to Fulwell.
The privatisation of
London Buses Limited in 1994 saw the creation of London United Busways. The new
company had garages at Hounslow, and Shepherds Bush & Stamford Brook, as
well as Fulwell.
In 1995 London
United took over Westlink, and thus acquired Kingston garage. In 1996 the
old coal yard used for parking many of that garages buses had to be vacated, to
enable the construction of the new Cromwell Road Bus Stn. Thus from 29th
June 1996, Fulwell had a large increase in it’s allocation.
Ironically, today
the old Norbition Garage (now a Wicks store) is in a better location than
Fulwell for many of it’s routes.
