Park Royal Vehicles
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Dating its origins back to 1889, Park Royal Vehicles along with its Leeds-based subsidiary Charles H. Roe was one of Britain's leading coachbuilders based in West London, UK.
In 1949 it became part of Associated Commercial Vehicles Ltd., which included AEC (the chassis manufacturer). This formidable combination of AEC and PRV supported the demanding requirements of London Transport and many other major fleet owners and operators. The famous Routemaster bus was built at Park Royal.
Park Royal was also responsible for many other coachworks and had a vast array of vehicles to its name including the first Diesel London Taxi, a number of railbuses (railway carriages) and WW2 vehicles. During WW2 it also played a part in the production of Halifax bombers as the outer wings and engine cowlings were built at the Park Royal site.
In 1962, the ACV Group merged with the Leyland Motors Ltd that in 1968 became the British Leyland Motor Corporation by the merger of Leyland and British Motor Holdings. BL (British Leyland) was nationalised by the Labour Government in 1975, following which many subsidiaries were closed: AEC in 1979 and Park Royal in July 1980.
