London Forest was a subsidiary of London Transport that operated bus services in London between April 1989 and November 1991.

History

London Forest was formed as one of the eleven operating units of London Transport in readiness for

privatisation Privatization (rendered privatisation in British English) can mean several different things, most commonly referring to moving something from the public sector into the private sector. It is also sometimes used as a synonym for deregulation w ...

. It commenced operating on 1 April 1989, being managed by Tom Young, who had previously worked for Midland Red North before moving to London Transport. The company employed around 1,300 staffEarly Day Motions 1143
House of Commons 16 July 1991 and owned 370 buses. The company initially operated from garages in Ash Grove,

Walthamstow Walthamstow ( or ) is a town within the London Borough of Waltham Forest in east London. The town borders Chingford to the north, Snaresbrook and South Woodford to the east, Leyton and Leytonstone to the south, and Tottenham to the west. At ...

and

Leyton Leyton ( ) is a town in East London, England, within the London Borough of Waltham Forest. It borders Walthamstow to the north, Leytonstone to the east, and Stratford to the south, with Clapton, Hackney Wick and Homerton, across the Ri ...

on a network of routes in North-East London. Clapton garage was later added: this had been closed in 1987, but reopened as an outstation of Leyton and later regained full depot status. The company's logo was a stylised image of an

oak tree An oak is a hardwood tree or shrub in the genus ''Quercus'' of the Fagaceae, beech family. They have spirally arranged leaves, often with lobed edges, and a nut called an acorn, borne within a cup. The genus is widely distributed in the Northe ...

. Forest was wound up in 1991 when the tenders to operate eleven routes in the Walthamstow area were won on the basis of reduced costs. A proposed wage cut and closure of Leyton garage led to strike action which saw the routes lost. Walthamstow garage was closed, and the remaining garages and operations taken over by other London Buses subsidiaries. In May 1991, all 11 London Forest routes in the Walthamstow area came up for re-tendering. Forest won the contracts to operate all of the routes, but found that it had bid too low for the work and was forced to cut wages. Reports differ as to the cut proposed, with 9.5%, 18% 21% and no pay cut if a 20% increase in the working week was accepted all suggested. London Forest's management also announced that they intended to close Leyton garage. In July 1991, all of the company's 1,300 staff at its four garages went out on strike against these changes, leading to the suspension of services for two weeks. This was the first official strike by London bus drivers since 1958, and prompted

Harry Cohen Harry Michael Cohen (born 10 December 1949) is a British people, British Labour Party (UK), Labour Party politician, who was the Member of Parliament (United Kingdom), Member of Parliament (MP) for Leyton (UK Parliament constituency), Leyton f ...

, the Member of Parliament for

, to issue an Early day motion in the

House of Commons The House of Commons is the name for the elected lower house of the Bicameralism, bicameral parliaments of the United Kingdom and Canada. In both of these countries, the Commons holds much more legislative power than the nominally upper house of ...

. The company was forced to abandon the routes, with work taken on by Country Bus & Coach,

Ensignbus Ensign Bus Company Limited, trading as Ensignbus, is a bus and coach operator and bus dealer based in Purfleet, Essex. As of March 2023, it is a part of FirstGroup. History Ensignbus was formed in 1972 by Peter Newman, who remains involved ...

and Thamesway. Ensignbus, whose bus operations had recently been acquired by

Hong Kong Hong Kong)., Legally Hong Kong, China in international treaties and organizations. is a special administrative region of China. With 7.5 million residents in a territory, Hong Kong is the fourth most densely populated region in the wor ...

operator Citybus, used the opportunity to launch a new brand, Capital Citybus on the routes it had won. Following the loss of these routes it was announced that Walthamstow garage, operational since 1905, would close; Leyton was retained in its place, initially temporarily. Tom Young resigned as Managing Director of London Forest on 20 August 1991. Despite the fact that the company still had three garages and 250 buses, London Transport decided that London Forest would be wound up on 21 November 1991. Ash Grove garage was also closed and its routes split between other London Transport subsidiaries in the area, while Leyton was transferred to the

East London East London is the part of London, England, east of the ancient City of London and north of the River Thames as it begins to widen. East London developed as London Docklands, London's docklands and the primary industrial centre. The expansion of ...

division and Clapton to Leaside Buses.

Legacy

Following the closure of London Forest, no large packages of tenders were offered at once by London Buses. Ash Grove garage reopened in 1994 for temporary use by Kentish Bus, and reopened fully in 2000 with the formation of East Thames Buses. East Thames later moved to another site, with CT Plus moving in.

Arriva London Arriva London is a bus operator operating primarily in Greater London and partially in Essex, Hertfordshire, Kent and Surrey. It is a subsidiary of Arriva UK Bus and operates services for London Buses under contract to Transport for London. Oper ...

operated former Forest route 38 from the garage between 2005 and 2009. Walthamstow garage never reopened and was redeveloped as housing, although the office building remains. Tom Young went on to operate West Midlands independent Choice Travel.

References

{{Defunct British Bus Companies Former London bus operators 1989 establishments in England 1991 disestablishments in England

History

Legacy

Further reading

References