Transport for LondonHistory
Then, following the Great War, a twenty-eight seater owned by Turnham & Co., of Eccleston Street East, Victoria, London, set off on an advertised journey to Brighton, when vehicles were in short supply and roads in a poor condition.
With the desire of Londoners, many returning service men, to visit the seaside after the years of deprivation, Turnham & Co. were to play a vital part in the success of future coach travel. Indeed, 1919 saw the start of similar services by other operators, all being helped considerably when, between 26 September and 6 October that year, the railways were paralysed by a strike. Many visitors to the seaside were stranded, and coastal based operators, such as East Kent and Southdown, provided emergency services to get the visitors home to London.
In 1920 other operators "jumped on the wagon", and the rapid development of services made it essential for the London based organisation to become an entity in its own right and accordingly, on 30th April 1925 London Coastal Coaches Limited was incorporated.
Originally, seats were specifically allocated on each vehicle, but by 1925, this procedure had to be discarded due to the number of duplicate coaches that were being operated on many departures. Specific allocations entailed the holding back of each vehicle until its full-charter load had arrived. At this time of increasing pressure from the Police, the resultant congestion was unacceptable to the streets of Victoria.
