Preston bus station
Coordinates: 53°45′40″N 2°41′46″W / 53.761°N 2.696°W
Preston  |
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| Location | |
| Locale | Preston, Lancashire |
| Local authority | Preston |
| Operation | |
| Opened | 1969 |
| Managed by | Preston City Council |
| No. of stands | 80 |
| Operators | Stagecoach in Preston, Stagecoach in Lancashire, Stagecoach in Lancaster, John Fishwick & Sons, Transdev Lancashire United, Megabus, Blue Bus of Penwortham, National Express. |
| Travel centre | Yes |
| Rail connection | Preston  800 m away |
| Annual usage | Not known |
Preston Bus Station is the central bus terminus in the city of Preston in Lancashire, England.
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[edit] Design
Built in the Brutalist architectural style between 1968 and 1969, designed by Keith Ingham and Charles Wilson of Building Design Partnership with E. H. Stazicker, it has a capacity of 80 double-decker buses, 40 along each side of the building. Some claim that it is the second largest bus station in Western Europe.[1] Pedestrian access to the Bus Station is through any of three subways, one of which links directly to the adjacent Guild Hall, while the design also incorporates a multi-storey car park of five floors with space for 1,100 cars.
The building's engineers, Ove Arup and Partners, designed the distinctive curve of the car park balconies "after acceptable finishes to a vertical wall proved too expensive, contributing to the organic, sculptural nature of the building. The edges are functional, too, in that they protect car bumpers from crashing against a vertical wall. The cover balustrade protects passengers from the weather by allowing buses to penetrate beneath the lower parking floor." [2][3]
[edit] Threatened demolition
The building was threatened with demolition as part of the City Council's Tithebarn redevelopment project. Although the Tithebarn development has now collapsed, there are still proposals to demolish the bus station and replace it with a small interchange near the railway station.
In 2000, opposition to the demolition led to a failed application for listed building status by English Heritage. Preston Borough Council (as it was then known) opposed the application.
Putting forward the case for a smaller terminus, a report, commissioned by the council and Grosvenor in 2000, stated that "buses arriving and leaving the bus station have very low bus occupancy rates indicating that passengers alight and board elsewhere in the town centre. The bus station car park similarly suffers from the poor pedestrian linkages." [4] Listing was subsequently rejected.[5]
A survey conducted by the Lancashire Evening Post in May 2010 found that Preston Bus Station was Preston people's favourite building.[6]
A further application to list the bus station was rejected in 2010 [7] and a review of the decision was turned down in 2011.[8] It featured on the 2012 World Monument Fund's list of sites at risk.[9] [10]
It featured in a song on the show All Over the Place (view here [1])
In 2012, John Wilson of Fulwood in Preston and a member of the 'Save Preston Bus Station' campaign presented a petition of 1435 signatures to Preston City Council calling for a referendum on the future of the bus station and argued that 80% of Preston people surveyed supported keeping the bus station and investing in it. Councillors voted to reject a referendum, with only 1 councillor, Terry Cartwright of Deepdale ward voting in favour. [11]
The bus station will feature as the venue for a Passion Play involving thousands of people forming a 'human cross'. The Bus Station Passion Play will be televised live on BBC Television on Good Friday 2012.[12]
[edit] External links
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Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Preston bus station |
- http://www.michaelmackenzie.co.uk - Series titled last bus - New images of Preston bus station
- Preston Bus Station in pictures
- Lee Garland Photography shots of Preston Bus Station, Sept 07
- Website to save Preston bus station
[edit] Notes
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This article uses bare URLs for citations. Please consider adding full citations so that the article remains verifiable. Several templates and the Reflinks tool are available to assist in formatting. (Reflinks documentation) (November 2011) |
- ^ "Second-best city". Lancashire Evening Post. http://www.lep.co.uk/news/opinion_2_1845/second_best_city_1_162364. Retrieved 2010-07-07.
- ^ "Keith Ingham for Building Design Partnership. Ove Arup and Partners, Structural Engineers. 1967". http://groups.msn.com/TheSavePrestonBusStationCampaign/heritagenote2.msnw. Retrieved 2007-01-31.[dead link]
- ^ "Risky Buildings Transport". The Twentieth Century Society. 2006. Archived from the original on 22 June 2009. http://web.archive.org/web/20090622084258/http://riskybuildings.c20society.org.uk/docs/28preston/index.html. Retrieved 22 November 2011.
- ^ "Preston Town Centre Analysis Précis document" (PDF). Archived from the original on 29 September 2007. http://web.archive.org/web/20070929092445/http://www.preston.gov.uk/Documents/General/Public%20Relations/summary.pdf. Retrieved 2007-01-31.
- ^ "Department of Culture, Media and Sport: Minister's Decision on Central Bus Station and Car Park, Preston". The Save Preston Bus Station Campaign. http://groups.msn.com/TheSavePrestonBusStationCampaign/listingdecision.msnw. Retrieved 2007-01-31.
- ^ "Preston's Favourite Building", Lancashire Evening Post 17th May 2010
- ^ "Preston bus station will not be listed". Lancashire Evening Post. 28 January 2010. http://www.lep.co.uk/news/preston_bus_station_will_not_be_listed_1_135102. Retrieved 22 November 2011.
- ^ "Preston bus station to be bulldozed". Lancashire Evening Post. 7 April 2011. http://www.lep.co.uk/news/traffic-and-transport/preston_bus_station_to_be_bulldozed_1_3261380. Retrieved 22 November 2011.
- ^ "Preston bus station on UK monument 'at risk' list". BBC News. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-15180978. Retrieved 2011-10-05.
- ^ "British Brutalism-World Monuments Fund". http://www.wmf.org/project/british-brutalism/. Retrieved 2011-10-05.
- ^ Lancashire Evening Post 3rd Feb 2012|http://www.lep.co.uk/community/plea_over_bus_station_falls_flat_1_4208456
- ^ Passion Play Will Make A Shining Star of Station|http://www.lep.co.uk/news/opinion_2_1845/passion_play_will_make_shining_star_of_station_1_4073247
