AEC Centenary 1912-1979
photo: AEC Regents at Alton - Jon Jolliffe
The year 2012 marks the 100th anniversary of the founding of a separate manufacturing arm by the London General bus company. The Associated Equipment Company (AEC) specialised in engineering buses for the particularly demanding conditions of London's streets, and the restrictive standards of the Metropolitan Police who controlled licensing.
Demand was strong from the outset: the take-up of motorbuses in London was given a boost by the Coronation of George V in 1911, and hundreds of AEC 'B'-types were to find their way across the Channel as troop carriers in WW1. From its initial premises at Walthamstow the company expanded into a new purpose-built factory at Southall in 1926. The latter will be best remembered for product lines including the Regent, Regal and Reliance passenger vehicle chassis and the Matador, Mammoth and Mercury heavy goods vehicles. AEC products could be found all over the country but London remained the core customer: AEC buit 4800 RT-type and 2760 Routemaster double-deckers for London Transport between 1945 and 1967.
Post-WW2 rationalisation of vehicle manufacturers saw AEC absorb Maudslay and Crossley in 1948, Park Royal bodybuilders in 1949 and Thornycroft in 1961 before itself being merged into Leyland Motors in 1962. Thereafter Leyland designs began to edge out AEC ones: after the last Routemaster the single-deck Swifts were not a success, yet commercial chassis continued until the last Marathon heralded closure of the Southall site in 1979.
The centenary will be marked on 10 June by a vehicle pageant from Chingford to Walthamstow, now the site of the Pumphouse Museum.