London Buses route 143

London Buses route 143 is a Transport for London contracted bus route in London, England. Running between Brent Cross Shopping Centre and Archway Station, it is operated by Metroline.

History
Route 143 commenced operating on 5 December 1924 as a Sunday only service between Hendon and Addiscombe via East Finchley, Great North Road, Archway Road, Holloway Road, Upper Street, Angel, Islington, City Road, Finsbury Pavement, Bank, London Bridge, Borough, Elephant & Castle, Kennington, Brixton Road, Streatham Hill, Streatham, West Croydon station and Croydon.

The Monday to Saturday service was provided by a 143A which ran between Hendon and London Bridge station which had commenced operation four days earlier than route 143. There were also two supplementary suffixed operations for shortworking buses: 143B Hendon - Streatham Common and 143C Archway station - Addiscombe. The 143 group of routes was closely connected to the 43 group of routes and was in fact a renumbering of route 43A.

The daily route was standardised as the 143 by 1934 on the formation of the London Passenger Transport Board. By 1940 the route was shortened to run from Hendon Central to Highgate. On 26 November 1958, the Sunday service was withdrawn and replaced by route 133 (Hendon Central - South Croydon garage).

On 1 February 1961, the route was extended from Archway to Farringdon Street as part of the Trolley Bus Replacement Program, transferred from Holloway garage (J) to Highgate and received AEC Routemasters. This extension was modified in November of that year to run to Farringdon Street on Monday to Friday and Saturday Mornings, to King's Cross Saturday afternoons and to Archway Saturday evenings. This arrangement lasted until 31 December 1966 when the Saturday service between Farringdon Street and Kings Cross was withdrawn.

In 1968, the route was converted to one man operated with AEC Merlins and the route was withdrawn between Farringdon Street and Archway at all times on 30 November. A Sunday service was added at this time to cover the withdrawn section of route 133. The single deck buses were replaced by double deck Daimler Fleetlines in April 1975. The route received an extension from Hendon to Brent Cross Shopping Centre during shopping hours on 31 January 1976.

The route transferred garages on 28 October 1978 to Hendon, and the Daimler Fleetlines were replaced by MCW Metrobuses during February 1980. The Sunday service was withdrawn on 4 September 1982 and reintroduced for a brief period between 4 February 1984 and 6 June 1987 but only running between Hendon Central and East Finchley, when it was replaced by route 271. The closure of Hendon garage saw the route pass to Holloway garage during June 1987, and to Edgware garage in November.

On 2 February 1991, the route was diverted to serve narrow roads in Finchley and so the Metrobuses were replaced by Optare StarRider minibuses and the Sunday service was also reintroduced. Some Schoolday journeys followed the old routing using the number 143A.

The allocation was transferred to Cricklewood (W) in January 1994, and double deck schoolday journeys using Metroline's Metrobuses were added between Archway and East Finchley on 2 September 1996. The school journeys were transferred on 2 June 1998 to London Traveller, later Metropolitan Omnibus, but returned to Metroline in 2003.

The allocation was transferred once again in March 2000 to back to Holoway (HT), and the renewal of the contract with Metroline saw low floor Plaxton Pointer bodied Dennis Dart SLFs introduced. A garage reshuffle took place in November 2002, when the 143 was moved back to Cricklewood (W). On 28 June 2003, the route was extended to Brent Cross at all times.

Upon being re-tendered, the route passed to Thorpe, West Perivale (PA) garage on 21 May 2005 which at the time was owned by Metroline's parent ComfortDelGro but operated as a separate entity. On 6 January 2007 the Thorpe business was integrated into Metroline.

On 26 June 2010, route 143 was retained by Metroline with new Alexander Dennis Enviro200Darts. On 9 June 2012, route 143's allocation was transferred to Cricklewood (W) garage.

Current route

 * Brent Cross Shopping Centre Bus Sstation
 * Hendon Central Station
 * Hendon The Quadrant
 * Finchley Central Station
 * East Finchley Station
 * Highgate Village
 * Archway Station