Vanguard

It was Vanguard, a competitor to the London General Omnibus Company (LGOC or 'the General'), that introduced numbers to its routes in April of that year, to enable motor buses to be used on more than one route. There were 12 routes by the time Vanguard merged with the General in 1908; several of today's routes have a direct lineage from those original Vanguard numbers, including route 2.

The network expanded dramatically and there were over 100 routes by 1914. The first use of a letter suffix was on the 35A in 1912, indicating an offshoot to a different destination. Much use was made of letter suffixes throughout the 20th century - the last was the 77A that was renumbered 87 on 6 Jun 2006. Suffixes were to achieve a particular importance in 1924.