Preston Bus Station will not be listed
Preston City Council are welcoming the decision that Preston Bus Station will not be listed.
Councillor Ken Hudson Leader of Preston City Council said “We are delighted that common sense has prevailed and Preston bus station has not been listed. The building is an eyesore and is simply not worthy of being listed. It is too big, expensive to maintain and does not meet the needs of modern day bus passengers. At least now we can focus on securing planning permission for the Tithebarn development and proposals for a brand new bus station that is fitting for the city of Preston.”
This decision removes a potential obstacle to the proposed Tithebarn development of Preston City Centre which provides for a new bus station, revitalised Preston Markets, a new cinema, cafes, bars as well as new offices, improvements to the shopping district and homes.
What do you think? Do you think the bus station should have been listed?
image credit: Tony Worrall
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Should be surprised, but I’m not really as the fate of this iconic building was in the hands of people with little idea of history. My guess is that the building will be knocked down with undue haste then Blackburn will scupper the proposed Tithebarn development with a lengthy and costy battle against it leaving the city with a useless empty site. This decision ranks up there with the Preston ring road that goes through the centre of town (cutting the historic Public Hall in half), the pitiful redevelopment of Preston Docks, the dreadful positioning of Preston Guild Hall and giving up the fight with the National Football Museum.
English Heritage called the building one of the most innovative pieces of transport architecture in Britain. The Twentieth Century Society describes it as “one of the most dramatic public buildings of the 20th century”. In 2000, Chris Smith, the Culture Secretary, noted the bus station’s “considerable elegance”. It has been noted as a tourist attraction in some books, one of the few reasons for people to visit Preston. You can build a new identikit shopping complex anywhere!
Love it or loathe it so much more could have been done with a little effort. Hang your heads in shame Councillors
[img]http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4030/4325890736_f3cd52548d.jpg[/img]
Admittedly it doesn’t look like much now but it is a seriously important 60’s structure which was also designed locally… it is just about unique in this part of the world.
http://www.msa.mmu.ac.uk/continuity/…reston/page/2/
http://www.guardian.co.uk/artanddesi…ture.transport
Why replace an iconic building with an off the shelf design ?
Imagine the elegant uninterrupted lines of a CONVERTED Bus Station with maybe 4 or 5 major retailers facing out towards the Ring Rd. Take away those buildings that block most of the view (from the traffic lights near the Prison) which I think is part of the plan anyway and you have a very very distinctive long frontage and a visible landmark for people arriving from the south and east. It would be very eye catching. For me the main element I like about the Bus Station is the exterior frontage.. not many new retail developments could match such an exterior.
It really would take very little alteration to the plan to make this happen.
Seriously this is probably the most distinctive 20th C building in the north west.
I agree that an identikit shopping centre is not the gateway to a shining new utopia that some would like to make it out to be. I would support the demolition of the bus station if I thought that what would replace it would be visibly more pleasing and contirbuted in some way to a Preston-specific identity. Shopping centres are 10 a penny.
I bow to the superior knowledge of architectural merit from other quarters – English Heritage, 20th Century Society, etc. The first time I came to Preston I got off at the bus station. I remember thinking of how it looked like something Stalinist municipal architects might have built in the 50s somewhere in the Urals.
But do any of the people that constitute these heritage organisations actually have to USE the station? It’s dreary, grim, unwelcoming and drab. As someone who uses it regularly, I actually find it quite a depressing place.
One thing’s for sure, I’m tired with the endless hand-wringing over it. I wish people would just reach a consensual and informed decision on it and just get on with it once and for all.
Me too. I wish the supporters of the bus station all the luck in the world in saving this iconic and useful building for future generations to use.