1930s Origins The
London Transport site at Elstree had originally been bought for the
Northern line extension to
Bushey Heath, as part of the 1930s
New Works Programme. Construction of the railway extension was underway and the tube depot was partially complete at the outbreak of
World War II. The railway works were stopped and the site was modified for use as an aircraft factory, producing
Handley Page Halifax bombers as part of the London Aircraft Production consortium, together with Handley Page,
Duple,
Park Royal and London Transport. After the war, the construction of the railway extension was not restarted and the plan was finally dropped in September 1949. With the wartime bus fleet worn out and the existing
Chiswick Works struggling to cope, it was decided to redevelop the site for bus overhaul, specifically body and chassis structures, with Chiswick continuing to specialise in the running units (engines, gearboxes, etc.). Construction of the new facility began in 1952. The post-war standardisation and huge size of the London Transport fleet allowed maintenance along modern production line principles, with work being carried out on a number of buses at once. Several mechanics could focus on specific parts of the vehicle rather than a single mechanic working on a single bus at a time. Indeed, by this time, the very existence of London Transport as a bus operator was under review, with private sector operation under competitive tender eroding its domination. Bus overhaul was moved to Chiswick Works on a much smaller scale, then taken over by a short-lived private company called Bus Engineering Ltd (BEL). The site was acquired by property developer
Slough Estates and stood mostly empty except for occasional storage of cars on the vast site until being demolished in July 1996 to make way for the Centennial Park Business Park. Aldenham was an ambitious project, designed to cope with maintenance of a massive bus fleet and geared to the concept of frequent, comprehensive overhauls - something that dated back to the early days of London's motor buses when the Metropolitan Police (the regulator of the time) required that each wooden-framed bus body be rebuilt every year. Even in its early days. Aldenham never worked to its full capacity (part of the works site was eventually leased to
British Leyland as a repair and spares storage centre). The Aldenham Overhauls resulted in a bus that was almost back to as-new condition, something that eventually became an expensive and unnecessary luxury. Whilst the cessation of Aldenham overhauls and the transfer of maintenance work to individual bus garages initially resulted in a rather shabby bus fleet, not helped by lack of money and the upheaval in
London Transport prior to
privatisation of the bus services, subsequent improvements in bus construction standards - London buses are now designed for a 15-year service life with one mid-life heavy overhaul - and the use of specialist contractors to carry out non-garage maintenance have meant the London buses have long since re-assumed a smart appearance and mechanical efficiency. ==Films==