Topic: Preston Bus Station

[johnha]

Preston Bus Station and car park have been in the news recently because of the decision to list is at Grade II despite the council wanting to pull it down. When built in the '60s it was the largest bus station in Europe and capable of serving 80 double-decker buses (40 along each side). Above the bus stands there is a 9-level car park for 1100 cars which has iconic curved concrete balustrades along each side. It is considered by many to be an iconic example of Brutalist architecture, to others an eye-sore that needs to be demolished and to the council as a money pit (with prime development potential).

I learned of the council's desire to knock it down in 2003 and photographed it that year in an attempt to document it as it was then (rumours were it would be knocked down shortly after). The undeveloped films languished in a cupboard until recently when I finally found and developed them (commercially). The photos seem to show a deserted building, at the time I wanted to exclude people to avoid confrontation, apologies if this gives an empty feeling to the photos.

These were shot on a variety of film (TC400N, HP5+ & Porta 160NC IIRC) on a Mamiya 645 camera:


Preston Bus Station by John Halliwell, on Flickr


Ramps by John Halliwell, on Flickr


Subway to Bus Station by John Halliwell, on Flickr


Arrows by John Halliwell, on Flickr


Car Park Entrance by John Halliwell, on Flickr


Walkway by John Halliwell, on Flickr


Stand 80 by John Halliwell, on Flickr


Four Payphones by John Halliwell, on Flickr


Payphone & Photo Booth by John Halliwell, on Flickr


Stand 48 by John Halliwell, on Flickr


Car Ramp by John Halliwell, on Flickr


Dry Riser by John Halliwell, on Flickr


Lightning Conductor by John Halliwell, on Flickr

A few more at: http://www.flickr.com/photos/john-halliwell/sets/72157633274923031/

John.

[SLVR]

The payphones, stand 48 and dry riser all stand out to me. But I like all of the shots. Very interesting. I love bus stations or subway stations. Always so interesting the way they are built. I also like how they really show their use with thousands of people passing through each day.

[Adam Doe]

John, I like this series very much. The first thing that flew into my mind when I saw the car ramp picture was "Scalextric!", which is a bit odd since I'm not English and we didn't have that brand here. Love that shot.

[johnha]

Thanks for the kind comments. When I first got the films back I felt the photos left the place looking deserted and empty. I'd purposely avoided people if possible (I hung around for ages waiting for them to disperse) and probably tried to avoid the cars on the ramp too. The shots of the exterior were quite difficult due to the shear scale of the building, a more abstract approach might have helped perhaps.

Tin Tin - It's interesting to compare the original furniture (like the wooden railings in Stand 48) with the modern information displays (the backs of which are just visible in the background). Originally all of the signage was consistent across all of the stands but as bus companies competed more against each other, they started to use their own signs and information displays.

Adam - Having thought about it you're right about Scalextric, the ramps take cars above the bus stands, some people have commented they're quite scary to drive up/down.

I recently went back with the intention of documenting how it is now. I took a d*****l camera but once there, I couldn't get into the right mood, although I plan to return with the original equipment/film one day.

[Verian]

I like how devoid of people the images are, they, at times, have an apocalyptic feel about them that I think works really well.

[KevinAllan]

A fine documentary set. "Car ramp" is my favourite

[Ed Wenn]

A fine set of images that work really well together; I thoroughly enjoyed looking through them.

[gsgary]

Very nice, i enjoyed every shot

[Late Developer]

Great photos but it's a bleak place. Been there a few times down the years and always been glad when the bus pulled out...

[calbisu]

Number 7 and 10 my faves