Grey-Green 123 (F123 PHM) in London – 25 Sep 1991 (152-18)

Wednesday 25 September 1991 (approx 0800) - Grey-Green Coaches (T Cowie PLC) 123 (F123 PHM) seen passing the Marlborough Hotel in Bloomsbury Street, London WC1 when operating service 24 (Hampstead Heath to Pimlico).

Service 24 was the first central London LRT (London Regional Transport) route to be put out to tender and from 5 November 1988 Grey-Green began working the contracted service. Thirty Alexander RV bodied Volvo B10M-50 Citybus double deckers numbered 115-144 were delivered in readiness to take over the contract one of which was 123 (F123 PHM) new in October 1988. In the earlier days of the London contracts the ‘all red livery’ edict did not apply and the buses employed carried the operating company’s own livery.

The Cowie Group’s main business was connected with cars and they owned numerous countrywide car dealerships. Grey-Green was their first venture into buses and coaches as a result of Cowie’s attraction to and subsequent acquisition of the Ewer Group. The Ewer Group had a car dealership network in the capital although had originated as a coach operator in the early days of coaching.

The bus carries an advertisement for ‘Cowie Interleasing’, the Cowie Group’s car fleet leasing and fleet management company with whom I had daily dealings in my job for many years.

I was attending a two day time management seminar at the Marlborough Hotel as a last minute substitute for another company employee that became ill. I had not been given the exact details of the start time and it was with great embarrassment that I arrived late for a time management seminar! Particularly embarrassing in that time keeping is a virtue on which I have always placed great emphasis.