Hip hip huzzah! “Newspaper does something imaginative with web design, that has absolutely no relation to newsprint design”, shock! I really like the look of this new architecture series on Guardian Unlimited.
[Particularly enjoy Germaine Greer's contribution. 1930s New York is "crystal meth". Hate to pick up on Jonathan Glancey though, but the Empire State was only used in two King Kong films. The Jessica Lange 1976 one used the World Trade Center].
So. Preston Bus Station. The point is that, yes, it’s one hell of a building, but it’s also in a hell of state. Public opinion seems to be that it just needs looking after.
Let’s be honest though. What we’re talking about here is largely a car park. There are five storeys of parking space above the bus concourse, and I have been there when all five have been full. For the minority of the world’s population who don’t know the building, it’s on the edge of Preston city centre, sandwiched between the main ring road and the Charter Theatre/Guild Hall complex [familiar to snooker fans], which in turn is just across the road from the Victorian splendour of the Harris Museum and the Crown Court and old town hall. So what you’ve got basically, is a typical northern town centre square, built at a time when the industry money was flooding in. It has nothing as spectacular as, say, Middlesbrough or Bolton, but the Harris and surrounding area can still be quite impressive on the right day. Then the civic theatre complex, built around the same time as similar buildings like The Hexagon in Reading, and The Crucible in Sheffield [again, with the snooker!]. And then an extraordinary brutalist concrete bus station with a multi-storey car park above it.
The problem is, if you’re going to convince the people of Preston that the station building is worth saving, you’re going to have to do a hell of a lot of work on its surroundings.
The station was designed for motor transport only. The buses come in from all sides, and the car park has dramatically sweeping ramps which lift cars over the whole comings and goings of the public transport, and pretty much straight onto the ring road.
Pedestrians are told by a host of signs that there is NO access across the bus concourse. Everyone does it though. Taking their life in their hands. Instead you’re shunted down some pretty grim subways which direct you into one of two shopping centres leading either into the theatre complex, or the top of the town’s open air market. Both shopping centres have vacant property and have seen better times, but they ain’t all THAT bad. There’s charity shops and discount frozen food, but there’s also quite a few local traders, and there’s even been a relatively upmarket Thorntons chocolate shop clinging on in there for as long as I remember.
But to get from the town centre, through the shopping centres, to the station, you have to go through this kind of thing …
And inside you’re constantly being told what to do.
The view from the car park can still be spectacular though. I remember as a kid being terrified my dad was going to drive straight off one of those extraordinary balustrades.
It’s obviously been left to run itself down over the past 15 years or so. I don’t remember it being this grotty as a kid. The period features inside the station are in a diabolical state and parts of it can be unpleasant to be in. But it still works as a spectacular building and it still has potential. But god knows how it could be saved [though, quite clearly, it's going to be demolished]. I’m going to research and return to this I think.
Meanwhile, nine miles down the road in Chorley [from where I took the bus to Preston] is the astonishingly bland ‘Chorley Interchange’ [bus station, basically] which is probably exactly the kind of building they’d rather have in Preston.
[The thing is, if you're going to have a big sign saying 'Lancashire. A place where everyone matters' {which is a worthy sentiment} at least make the typography and sign look as if you MEAN it, as opposed to one worthy of a temporary Christmas shop!]
And it’s full of yet more warning signs.
Is this a public service building? Or a prison?
Slightly bizarre to see Jonathan Glancey giving a shout out to Preston bus station. I’m there tomorrow so will return with pictures and thoughts.
He’s certainly right on one point though - its biggest problem is that, despite being designed for public transport, the environment around it is completely given over to cars, with pedestrians [and presumably most people take to the bus on foot!] being herded down horrible underpasses to get to the town centre. It is a stunning building though, and Preston is spectacularly short of interesting architecture, particularly at a time when we’re being told that “in Manchester even the skyline is a canvas for self-expression.” Though I don’t think my spectacularly grey picture of the greyest bit of the Hilton Hotel taken against a grey sky on a grey day (featured up top) is QUITE what they have in mind.
[Quite like that film by the way. It's got a couple of groans from cinema audiences I've been in, but I think it hits the mark. Just a shame the wonderful Big Pink record shop in Manchester shut down shortly after featuring.]
