London Buses route 210

London Buses route 210 is a Transport for London contracted bus route in London, England. Running between Brent Cross Shopping Centre and Finsbury Park Station, it is operated by Metroline.

History
Route 210 commenced operating on 3 October 1934 as a re-numbering of route 110 in the London Transport re-numbering scheme introduced on that day. It ran daily between Golders Green and Finsbury Park Stations via Hampstead Heath, Highgate, Highgate Hill, Archway station and Hornsey Rise,

On 3 March 1963, route 210 was extended on Sundays only to Leyton Green via Highbury Barn, Dalston, Hackney Wick and Leytonstone Station to replace route 236.

On 24 January 1970, the route was converted to one-person operation using the same "RF-Type" vehicles that had previously been used as crew operated vehicles. At the same time, the route was cut back from Leyton to Finsbury Park, with route 236 being re-introduced. It was decided route 210 as a one-person operated route wouldn't be able to cope with the large influx of passengers carried on Sundays to Hampstead Heath, so the crew-operated 236 was further extended on Sundays to Golders Green duplicating route 210. This situation continued until the 17 April 1971 when the larger AEC Swifts were introduced on the route, allowing the Sunday 236 extension to Golders Green be withdrawn at the same time.

Route 210 was extended on Mondays to Saturdays (evenings excepted) from Golders Green to Brent Cross Shopping Centre on 31 January 1976, but in the first few weeks after the extension, the service was disrupted by disgruntled residents in the Brent area. The problems were eventually resolved and Brent Cross bus station has remained the terminus ever since.

On 21 June 1986, the route was transferred from Muswell Hill garage to Holloway (HT) garage. This resulted in the end of the peculiar garage journeys from Archway to Muswell Hill garage via route 43, or from Golders Green to Muswell Hill garage via route 102. Holloway took over with Mark II Leyland Nationals rendered spare following the withdrawal of Red Arrow route 555, which represented a small improvement over the Mark I Nationals from Muswell Hill.

By January 1988 the Mark II Nationals were gone, needed for new route 510, and Mark I Nationals returned, mainly from Harrow Weald (HD) garage following the introduction of the Harrow Buses scheme. These vehicles stayed with route 210 until it was tendered and Grey-Green took over on 22 September 1990. Additionally, throughout its operation by Holloway garage (21 June 1986 - 21 September 1990), Bristol LHs, meant for route C11, were used occasionally on route 210, despite their inadequate capacity.

On 19 May 1996, the Sunday service was also extended (evenings excepted) to Brent Cross Shopping Centre with the complete service being extended there from 30 November 2002.

Since the privatisation of London bus services, route 210 has been operated by different companies. On 22 September 1990 it was taken over by Grey-Green's Stamford garage using East Lancs bodied Volvo B10M single deckers. On 26 September 1998, route 210 was passed to Thorpes with Plaxton Pointer 2 bodied Dennis Dart SLFs. Later the allocation moved to the new Perivale West (PA) garage.

Route 210 was included in the August 2004 sale of Thorpes to Metroline.

On 16 February 2008, route 210 was converted to double-deck operation using Alexander ALX400 bodied Dennis Tridents. On 7 March 2009, route 210's allocation was transferred from Perivale West (PA) garage to Cricklewood (W) garage. On 25 September 2010, route 210 was retained by Metroline with brand new Alexander Dennis Enviro400s introduced.

Current route

 * Brent Cross Shopping Centre Bus Station
 * Brent Cross Station
 * Golders Green Station
 * Kenwood
 * Highgate Village
 * Archway Station
 * Hornsey Rise
 * Stroud Green
 * Finsbury Park Station