Orange Luxury Coaches

[transportbloke]

Hi Folks.
I am a retired Somerset bloke interested in the history of "Orange Luxury Coaches" that used to reside in Ewer Rd, Lambeth.
I have managed to find a few photos of their depot which was the first coach station in London when built in 1927 and I think lasted into the 1970s before being demolished.
I would be grateful to hear from anyone who remembers them, worked for them,
or used the coach station and if anyone has or knows of any exsisting photos.

Thanks for your time.

Mike stones@mail.org

[happyshopper]

I think that it's Effra Road, not Ewer Road.

There are then and now pictures here on the Urban 75 site http://www.urban75.org/brixton/history/windrush.html

[lang rabbie]

Much of the roof structure of the garage survived until the 1990s. There was a failed attempt (funded by Brixton Challenge if I recall correctly) to convert the building to small business units for the fashion industry. As the roof was mostly glass, they were impossible to heat and nobody wanted to rent them.

Don't know whether you have found these images on Lambeth's Landmark picture library...

1936 Picture

1940 Picture

1961 picture

[transportbloke]

Hi, Happy Shopper and Lang Rabbie.

Yes I do apologise it is Effra road,...........slip of the tounge.......,Ewer is from the George Ewer group who bought out Orange Luxury Coaches .
Thank you for your information and links they have come in very useful,
I am hoping to get some idea of what the inside looked like, for instance if there was a platform that coaches pulled up to from which passengers boarded,
if there was a cafe inside,so any ex passengers or employees who might remember i would be grateful for your memories.
Once again thanks for the information.now I have dragged you into this quest I will let you know how I progress in the future.

Merry Christmas to you all

[Mrs Magpie]

Have you tried writing to the South London Press? They have a regular feature about the History of South London written by a bloke from the Lambeth Archives which is based in the Brixton area. They also publish letters from people such as yourself in search of information about places and people in times past.

[transportbloke]

Thanks Mrs Magpie that was a great help ......will let you know how I got on.

Mike

[orangeluxury]

Originally Posted by transportbloke

Hi, Happy Shopper and Lang Rabbie.

I am hoping to get some idea of what the inside looked like, for instance if there was a platform that coaches pulled up to from which passengers boarded,
if there was a cafe inside,so any ex passengers or employees who might remember i would be grateful for your memories.

Hi, I was a driver for Orange Luxury during the summer of 1969. I'd just finished teacher training in Streatham, and had a gap of about three months before taking up a teaching appointment at William Penn School, Red Post Hill. As I was living in Burton Road, Brixton, the Orange garage was fairly local.
I visited the garage, met Don Royle the manager, and asked him if I could work for the summer. He told me he would hire a coach to me for £25 so I could take the PSV test and if I stayed working for them for the summer they would refund the £25! In the event he never charged me!
Driver training was very informal. In those days anyone with a car licence could drive a PSV as long as there were no fare-paying passengers in it and you were accompanied by a qualified PSV driver. So I would spend all day out in a coach and jump in the driving seat as soon as there were no passengers on board. After a week I went up to the Public Carriage Office in Islington, took the test, and gained my "badge" - N91496. (I still have it to this day.)
I have to admit that, though I was with the company for three months, my memories of the garage building are fairly hazy. Not surprising really, as we didn't spend much time in and around it, other than cleaning and polishing the coaches or refuelling. (It was an instant sackable offence to run out of fuel!) Don wanted us all out on the road earning revenue!
The building was basically a parking area for the coaches, and not just Orange coaches. There was a great swapping of coaches with Grey-Green on an almost daily basis. Also, because Grey-Green were part of the East Anglian Express "pool" we often found ourselves driving coaches from eg Eastern Counties. We did have a full-time mechanic based at the garage, but there was no heavy machinery as he was only responsible for minor running repairs. Major work was undertaken at the Grey-Green depot at Stamford Hill. I can't recall a cafe on the premises. Just inside the entrance was the manager's office where the day's duties were posted on the window, and I believe I can remember a crew room either joined on to this, or fairly nearby. Outside, on the forecourt, were diesel pumps and there was a kiosk where punters could buy tickets for all the trips. The regular ones were painted on a large signboard, and day "specials" were advertised on A-boards. I can't recall any special platform for passengers. If they were travelling on a route that started from Brixton they just wandered around the forecourt or Effra Road until they found the right coach, or if it was a route that had started elsewhere, the coach would pull up at the pavement on the main drag.
Security wasn't a big issue in those days, and I don't believe the garage was ever locked. Often, if returning late to the depot, eg in the early hours, you could disturb a couple of the local "ladies of the night" entertaining their customers on the back seats of empty coaches!
I haven't been able to find much in print about the Brixton depot. There is an excellent chapter on the history of Orange Luxury in "Grey-Green and Contemporaries Book One (to 1960)" by Tom McLachlan (ex-General Manager of Grey-Green). On p45 there is a sepia print of three charabancs outside the garage in 1928.
Sorry I can't remember too much more. If you'd asked me about the coaches I could probably have been more forthcoming!

ATB

Andy

[Minnie_the_Minx]

hello OrangeLuxury

How did you stumble upon this thread?

[editor]

Thanks for your interesting post, orangeluxury. I can remember the old petrol station on the site. That survived into the mid nineties.

[Fenian]

Echoed orangeluxury

[orangeluxury]

Originally Posted by Minnie_the_Minx

How did you stumble upon this thread?

It came up on google, when I was looking for a photo of the Orange depot.
Cheers!

[editor]

Originally Posted by orangeluxury

It came up on google, when I was looking for a photo of the Orange depot.
Cheers!

Hi

Do you mind if I add your earlier post to the feature on urban? Be nice to add a bit more detail and local knowledge!

[orangeluxury]

Originally Posted by editor

Thanks for your interesting post, orangeluxury. I can remember the old petrol station on the site. That survived into the mid nineties.

I haven't been back to the Brixton area for years. Must try sometime just to see what's changed and what's stayed the same!

[orangeluxury]

Originally Posted by editor

Hi

Do you mind if I add your earlier post to the feature on urban? Be nice to add a bit more detail and local knowledge!

No problem!