Bus Stations (Depots)

[amethyst]

What do we remember about old bus depots

Lots of Double Decker buses with the drivers and conductors

The manual turning of routes and bus numbers

Smell of diesel

Passenger queues waiting to board the buses

[Twocky61]

Re: Bus Stations (Depots)



Preston Bus Station in Lancashire was in the seventies was the largest bus station in Europe plus as you see a multi-story is above. One side was for Ribble Buses (now swallowed by Stagecoach) & the other side was for Preston Corporation Buses. Also at Preston Bus Station had probably the most vending machines in any bus station. There were obviously tea/coffee vending machines but there were also vending machines dispensing milk in those triangle cartons, hot dogs & pies, chips (then deep fat fried; now microwaved) etc.

Pure heaven for a vending machine geek like me lol

[Twocky61]

Re: Bus Stations (Depots)



Preston Bus Station as it is today

[Richard1978]

Re: Bus Stations (Depots)

Stockport Bus Station hasn't changed too much from when I was young.

[80sChav]

Re: Bus Stations (Depots)

Preston is a classic (though I have only had the honour of visiting twice in 40 years). Even then both visits was 25 years -part but what a marvel the place is with it'd Art Deco inside too. I am so so glad it got saved from the the demoltion Team - it is a piece of pure English Heritage and beauty (almost)!!!

80sChav

[Mulletino]

Re: Bus Stations (Depots)

We used to catch the bus home from Southend from the depot at the top of the High Street when it was still there, is now a cinema.

The passenger part was along one side, where you'd wait for the bus, it was covered so always a relief when it was raining, it smelled of buses and metal. The buses entered either end and left either end as both opened out on a main road.

[big kid]

Re: Bus Stations (Depots)

my dad was a bus driver from about 1974 - 1984. he had to retire due to having a heart attack. the bus depot where he worked was awesome. the staff were great and whenever i went to meet my dad, they made me feel as though i was a part of them. even got to go out with them whenever they were trying new buses out for the fleet.

[zabadak]

Re: Bus Stations (Depots)

My mum's dad lived in Blackburn and anyone who caught a bus from there knows it was near a Whitbread brewery - terrible smell!!!

[George 1978]

Re: Bus Stations (Depots)

They have finally closed the Broad Marsh bus station in Nottingham, and they are redeveloping it.

About time too as well.

[darren]

Re: Bus Stations (Depots)

PORTADOWN BUS DEPOT FAIR GREEN.

THIS PIC IS AT LEAST 25YRS AGO.
THE YARD YOU SEE IS NOW USED BY THE LOCAL COUNCIL.

[George 1978]

Re: Bus Stations (Depots)

I visited Preston myself in 2005. Sorry to say this, but as the pictures above show, their bus station looks really ugly. It was on par with Nottingham's Broad Marsh.

[Trickyvee]

Re: Bus Stations (Depots)


And the most grotty bus station award goes to...Eldon Square, Newcastle! This is where I caught the bus home throughout my childhood. Conveniently located below the shopping centre with no ventilation, you could practically cut the diesel fumes with a knife. Thankfully my buses moved out of there around the late 90's and the whole thing was redeveloped in 2007. It's now forms the lower floor of the shopping centre.

[Richard1978]

Re: Bus Stations (Depots)

Manchester's Arndale Centre used to have a small bus station inside it.

It had a cafe that looked like it was last refitted in 1982 until the time it closed in the late 1990s.

For a few years it was empty, before it was pulled down & built over with more shops.

[George 1978]

Re: Bus Stations (Depots)

And the most grotty bus station award goes to...Eldon Square, Newcastle! This is where I caught the bus home throughout my childhood. Conveniently located below the shopping centre with no ventilation, you could practically cut the diesel fumes with a knife. Thankfully my buses moved out of there around the late 90's and the whole thing was redeveloped in 2007. It's now forms the lower floor of the shopping centre.

I visited Newcastle in 2007 and didn't see any bus station like the picture above, perhaps they had already redeveloped it by then? - I was referring to the place where the National Express coaches stop in the city.

The Nottingham Victoria Centre bus station right up until the mid 1990s where the National Express coaches going north often picked passengers up, could have been another candidate, although thankfully that was redeveloped.

[Trickyvee]

Re: Bus Stations (Depots)

That bus station had gone by 2007, but the National Express coaches never went there. They used to go to the old bus station up in Gallogate. That too has gone and they go to another elsewhere in the city - the latter I think was already in operation in 2007.