Park Royal Vehicles was one of Britain's leading

coachbuilder A coachbuilder or body-maker is someone who manufactures bodies for passenger-carrying vehicles.Construction has always been a skilled trade requiring a relatively lightweight product with sufficient strength. The manufacture of necessarily ...

s and bus manufacturers, based at Park Royal, Abbey Road, in west

London London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...

. With origins dating back to 1889, the company also had a

Leeds Leeds () is a city and the administrative centre of the City of Leeds district in West Yorkshire, England. It is built around the River Aire and is in the eastern foothills of the Pennines. It is also the third-largest settlement (by populati ...

-based subsidiary,

Charles H. Roe Charles H RoeCompanies House extract company no 188071
Charl ...

. Labour problems and slowness of production led to its closure in 1980.Ron Phillips. ''A History of the Leyland Bus'', Crowood Press, Ramsbury 2015.

Associated Commercial Vehicles

Associated with AEC from the 1930s in 1949 it became part of Associated Commercial Vehicles Ltd., which included AEC (the chassis manufacturer). This formidable combination of AEC and PRV supported the demanding requirements of London Transport and many other major fleet owners and operators. The famous

AEC Routemaster The AEC Routemaster is a Front-engine, rear-wheel-drive layout, front-engined double-decker bus that was designed by London Transport Executive, London Transport and built by the Associated Equipment Company (AEC) and Park Royal Vehicles. The ...

bus was built at Park Royal.

Leyland Motors

In 1962 the ACV Group merged with the

Leyland Motors Leyland Motors Limited (later known as the Leyland Motor Corporation) was a British vehicle manufacturer of lorries, buses and trolleybuses. The company diversified into car manufacturing with its acquisitions of Triumph and Rover in 1960 and 1 ...

group to form Leyland Motor Corporation. In 1968 Leyland Motor Corporation and British Motor Holdings merged, becoming

British Leyland Motor Corporation British Leyland was an automotive engineering and manufacturing conglomerate formed in the United Kingdom in 1968 as British Leyland Motor Corporation Ltd (BLMC), following the merger of Leyland Motors and British Motor Holdings. It was partl ...

. BL (British Leyland) was nationalised by the

Labour Labour or labor may refer to: * Childbirth, the delivery of a baby * Labour (human activity), or work ** Manual labour, physical work ** Wage labour, a socioeconomic relationship between a worker and an employer ** Organized labour and the labour ...

Government in 1975, following which many subsidiaries were closed, including AEC in 1979 and Park Royal in July 1980.

Other vehicles

Park Royal was also responsible for many other coachworks besides London buses. It had a vast array of vehicles to its name including the first

diesel Diesel may refer to: * Diesel engine, an internal combustion engine where ignition is caused by compression * Diesel fuel, a liquid fuel used in diesel engines * Diesel locomotive, a railway locomotive in which the prime mover is a diesel engin ...

London Taxi A hackney or hackney carriage (also called a cab, black cab, hack or London taxi) is a carriage or car for hire. A hackney of a more expensive or high class was called a remise. A symbol of London and Britain, the black taxi is a common s ...

, a number of

railcar A railcar (not to be confused with a railway car) is a self-propelled railway vehicle designed to transport passengers. The term "railcar" is usually used in reference to a train consisting of a single coach (carriage, car), with a drive ...

s and railbuses (e.g. the

British Rail Class 103 The British Rail Class 103 diesel multiple units were built by Park Royal Vehicles with diesel engines by British United Traction (BUT). Ordered in the first half of 1955, 20 of these sets were built by Park Royal at the Crossley Motors works ...

and one of the British Rail Railbuses) and

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

vehicles. During World War II it also played a part in the production of

Halifax bomber The Handley Page Halifax is a British Royal Air Force (RAF) four-engined heavy bomber of the World War II, Second World War. It was developed by Handley Page to the same specification as the contemporary twin-engine Avro Manchester. The Halifa ...

s as the outer wings and engine cowlings were built at the Park Royal site. Park Royal built 150

Green Goddess The Green Goddess is the colloquial name for the RLHZ Self Propelled Pump manufactured by Bedford Vehicles, a fire engine used originally by the Auxiliary Fire Service (AFS), and latterly held in reserve by the Home Office until 2004, and a ...

es during the period November 1954 to January 1955 with PRV body numbers B37444 - B37593 and registrations PGW51 - PGW200.

References

External links

Site dedicated to Park Royal Vehicles

{{Authority control Defunct bus manufacturers of the United Kingdom Vehicle manufacture in London Associated Equipment Company Companies based in the London Borough of Brent History of the London Borough of Brent Park Royal