Park Royal Vehicles was one of Britain’s leading coachbuilders and bus manufacturers, with origins dating to 1889. Park Royal Coach Works Limited was registered in 1930 and became a leading maker of single- and double-deck buses and trolleybuses. In the Second World War it produced bodies for the Ministry of Supply and the Air Ministry, and worked on Halifax bombers.
After the war it supplied the London Passenger Transport Board, the Tilling Group and many municipalities. Park Royal Vehicles Limited was incorporated in 1946 and in 1949 joined Associated Commercial Vehicles, alongside AEC, which built the chassis. That combination produced the AEC Routemaster bus at Park Royal. In 1962 ACV merged with Leyland to form the Leyland Motor Corporation, and after British Leyland was nationalised in 1975 many subsidiaries closed, including AEC in 1979 and Park Royal in July 1980. Park Royal also built the first diesel London taxi, British Rail railcars including the Class 103, and 150 Green Goddess fire engines in 1954 and 1955.
