Greyfriars bus station was a
bus station
A bus station or a bus interchange is a structure where city or intercity buses stop to pick up and drop off passengers. While the term bus depot can also be used to refer to a bus station, it generally refers to a bus garage. A bus station is l ...
which formerly served the town of
Northampton
Northampton () is a market town and civil parish in the East Midlands of England, on the River Nene, north-west of London and south-east of Birmingham. The county town of Northamptonshire, Northampton is one of the largest towns in England; ...
,
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...
. It was owned and managed by
Northampton Borough Council
Northampton Borough Council was the borough council and non-metropolitan district responsible for local government in the large town of Northampton in England. In 2021 the council was abolished and succeeded by West Northamptonshire Council; a uni ...
.
The bus station was situated in the Northampton Town Centre between Greyfriars (street) and Lady's Lane. It could accessed from the
Grosvenor Shopping Centre
The Grosvenor Shopping Centre (for a time known as ''The Mall Grosvenor'' or ''The Mall Chester'') is a large shopping precinct in Chester, England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with W ...
, The Mounts and Sheep Street. The access from street level to the bus station was via subway, with the bus stands accessible via an escalator or lift.
Services were relocated to
North Gate bus station from 2 March 2014, and the structure demolished using explosives on 15 March 2015.
[
]
History
Built at a cost of £7,250,000 (£50,000,000 at 2013 prices), Greyfriars Bus Station was opened in 1976, replacing the previous facility at Derngate
Royal & Derngate is a theatre complex in the Cultural Quarter, Northampton, Cultural Quarter of Northampton, England, consisting of the Royal Theatre and Derngate Theatre. The Royal was built by theatre architect Charles J. Phipps and opened i ...
,[With plans to build a new bus station in Northampton expected to be approved within months and the demolition of Greyfriars to follow close behind, The Chron explores the history of the notorious bus station . . .](_blank)
''Chronicle & Echo''. 3 March 2013. Retrieved 26 February 2013. and was designed by Arup Associates
Arup (officially Arup Group Limited) is a British multinational professional services firm headquartered in London which provides design, engineering, architecture, planning, and advisory services across every aspect of the built environmen ...
and built by Kyle Stewart. The building was designed to accommodate 40,000 passengers and 1,700 buses a day and included a complex brief of a bus station, with car park over, topped by a three-storey office block (Greyfriars House). The office block was supported over the clear spans below by a complex structural design based around reinforced concrete trusses.['An Architects Vision of Northampton'](_blank)
, Northampton with vision. The new station was built in response to the needs in the town at the time, namely bringing visitors into the town to the Grosvenor Centre.
Having been first proposed in 1972 with a budget of £2,578,000, construction work started in August 1973 with a revised budget of £3,308,000 and an original opening date of 1 October 1974. but the building eventually opened (although the office block was still under construction) on 25 April 1976. Initial reviews were mixed and some deficiencies in the design started to manifest themselves early on. On the first weekend of operation, one of the lifts broke down and just a month after opening the building was labelled "useless" by disabled bus users. Eighteen months after opening, in September 1977, mineral stalactites (Calthemite
Calthemite is a secondary deposit, derived from concrete, lime, mortar or other calcareous material outside the cave environment.Smith, G.K. (2016). "Calcite straw stalactites growing from concrete structures", Cave and Karst Science 43(1), 4â ...
s) had started forming on the ceilings of some of the underpass walkways within the building, an issue which would continue throughout the building's life.
Greyfriars House was envisaged as a way for the building's owners, Northampton Borough Council
Northampton Borough Council was the borough council and non-metropolitan district responsible for local government in the large town of Northampton in England. In 2021 the council was abolished and succeeded by West Northamptonshire Council; a uni ...
, to pay off the increased construction cost of the building; however, despite being completed at the end of 1976, this section of the building remained empty until 1981. Council officials were able to broker a deal with the Dutch engineering firm Lummus whereby they would relocate from their offices in London, to Northampton. Whilst one of the conditions on the new tenants was that they would have to spend £1.5 million modernising the building, the Council granted a five-year rent-free period in exchange. In 1986, as the five-year period was coming to an end, Lummus announced plans to pull out of the UK and the offices once again became vacant. Barclaycard
Barclaycard (; stylized as barclaycard) is a brand for credit cards of Barclays PLC. , Barclays had over ten million customers in the United Kingdom.
History
Barclays launched Barclaycard on 29 June 1966, initially as a charge card, but followin ...
agreed to take the lease of the top floor of the building the same year, later taking on the whole three floors in 1987. A decade later, however, Barclaycard also left the building in a move which cost the Council an estimated £1,800,000 (1998 figures) in rental income. The office space remained empty until the building was closed on 2 March 2014.
In 2007, the 300-space first floor car park was closed, albeit temporarily, over concerns that chemicals were leaking through the upper stories of the building and causing damage to vehicles parked in the car park below. The car park later reopened although closed for good a year later after the Council were unwilling to make the investment (reported at the time to be on the order of £250,000) to rectify the situation.
Services
The main operators at Greyfriars Bus Station were Stagecoach
A stagecoach is a four-wheeled public transport coach used to carry paying passengers and light packages on journeys long enough to need a change of horses. It is strongly sprung and generally drawn by four horses although some versions are draw ...
, Centrebus, Uno and Meridian Buses. There were some smaller operators who also used the facility.
Buses ran from the bus station all around the town and went as far afield as Milton Keynes
Milton Keynes ( ) is a city and the largest settlement in Buckinghamshire, England, about north-west of London. At the 2021 Census, the population of its urban area was over . The River Great Ouse forms its northern boundary; a tributary ...
, Bedford
Bedford is a market town in Bedfordshire, England. At the 2011 Census, the population of the Bedford built-up area (including Biddenham and Kempston) was 106,940, making it the second-largest settlement in Bedfordshire, behind Luton, whilst ...
, Peterborough
Peterborough () is a cathedral city in Cambridgeshire, east of England. It is the largest part of the City of Peterborough unitary authority district (which covers a larger area than Peterborough itself). It was part of Northamptonshire until ...
, Leicester
Leicester ( ) is a city status in the United Kingdom, city, Unitary authorities of England, unitary authority and the county town of Leicestershire in the East Midlands of England. It is the largest settlement in the East Midlands.
The city l ...
, Rugby
Rugby may refer to:
Sport
* Rugby football in many forms:
** Rugby league: 13 players per side
*** Masters Rugby League
*** Mod league
*** Rugby league nines
*** Rugby league sevens
*** Touch (sport)
*** Wheelchair rugby league
** Rugby union: 1 ...
and Bicester
Bicester ( ) is a historical market towngarden town and civil parishes in England, civil parish in the Cherwell (district), Cherwell district of northeastern Oxfordshire in Southern England that also comprises an Eco-towns, eco town at North Wes ...
.
National Express Coaches
National Express is an intercity and Inter-regional coach operator providing services throughout Great Britain. It is a subsidiary of National Express Group. Most services are subcontracted to local coach companies. The company's head office is ...
also operated to Northampton on routes serving many other parts of the country.
Services included a travel centre, operated by Stagecoach
A stagecoach is a four-wheeled public transport coach used to carry paying passengers and light packages on journeys long enough to need a change of horses. It is strongly sprung and generally drawn by four horses although some versions are draw ...
, as well as a newsagent, public toilets, optician, hairdressers, barber shop and a large cafe.
Closure
As the bus station was below both Greyfriars House and the car park, only a small amount of natural light reached the concourse, which did not help the building's reputation. The building was listed in a survey carried out by ''The Guardian
''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...
'' for Channel 4's ''Demolition
Demolition (also known as razing, cartage, and wrecking) is the science and engineering in safely and efficiently tearing down of buildings and other artificial structures. Demolition contrasts with deconstruction, which involves taking a ...
'' series, as the third most hated building in Britain and dubbed "the mouth of Hell".
In 2009, Northampton Borough Council announced plans to redevelop the bus station along with the neighbouring Grosvenor Centre
The Grosvenor Centre is a shopping centre in the town centre of Northampton, England. Work started in 1972 and the building opened in 1976.
The two-level centre is located adjacent to Market Square, and is owned by Legal & General. In 2014 it un ...
. The plan proposed moving the bus station to a new site, and then extending the Grosvenor Centre on to the cleared land.
In September 2011 it was announced that the site of the former Fish Market was the preferred site for the new bus station and that work to build the new bus station could start as soon as September 2012. The building was expected to be finished by May 2013, although the date of completion was later delayed. At the time of this announcement it was claimed by the council that the cost of refurbishing the Greyfriars building would be over £30 million, with currently £500,000 spent on superficial maintenance.[‘Demolition of bus station and offices is necessary’ claims Northampton Borough Council leader during site tour. Chronicle & Echo: 8 March 2012. Retrieved 26 February 2013](_blank)
Greyfriars closed after the final bus services on 1 March 2014, with North Gate opening the following day.
Redevelopment
Demolition work within Greyfriars House began in March 2013 with works to strip the interiors of the office spaces and clearing of the overgrown landscaped courtyards within the office complex, which had lain untended since Barclaycard
Barclaycard (; stylized as barclaycard) is a brand for credit cards of Barclays PLC. , Barclays had over ten million customers in the United Kingdom.
History
Barclays launched Barclaycard on 29 June 1966, initially as a charge card, but followin ...
vacated some 16 years earlier. The bus station was demolished on Sunday 15 March 2015 in a controlled implosion by DSM Demolition. using over 2,000 separate charges. 414 properties were evacuated and the Grosvernor shopping centre was closed the night before. The demolition was scheduled to take place at an unannounced time between 08:00am and 10:00am, and occurred at approximately 09:40am.
Gallery
Image:Greyfriars901.JPG, Inside Greyfriars bus station
Image:Greyfriars903.JPG, A subway entrance to the bus station
Image:Greyfriars Bus Station, Northampton - geograph.org.uk - 178651.jpg, Another entrance to the bus station
References
External links
Eyesore or gem - Greyfriars bus station BBC News Magazine
{{Northampton, state=collapsed
Former bus stations
Brutalist architecture in England
Bus stations in England
Transport in Northamptonshire
Transport infrastructure completed in 1976
Buildings and structures demolished in 2015
1976 establishments in England
2014 disestablishments in England
Demolished buildings and structures in England
Buildings and structures in Northampton
Buildings and structures demolished by controlled implosion