Way back in 2004 before the cinema was built we had a busy bus station in its place. The Stroudie Central wayback machine has dug out some old photos of the bus station and the cinema construction.
A lot of us will remember standing around in the cold waiting for their bus (mine was the 421 to Chalford) and going into the big news agents or the cafe to escape the freezing winter cold while waiting for the bus.
That all changed when a plan was hatched to demolish the bus station and move it to the main road beside it. A cinema and bowling alley were built in its place.
If you want a bus now you have to wait on the noisy windswept pavement of Merrywalks without any shelter from the elements, hoping that every bus you see in the distance is yours. The likelihood of it being the one you want being less the worse the weather is.
The old bus station housed the worlds longest escalator to haul people from the bus station up to the shops.
Or did it take people down, I can’t remember. Lets face it, most of the time the thing wasn’t working anyway due to somebody having pushed the emergency stop button.
So, after much controversy the money machine went ahead. The bus station was demolished and the cinema was built. As I was working near it I photographed its construction, shown in the gallery below. I have also included a couple of the bus station taken in 1998 / 99.
Bus Station 1998
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Bus Station 1999
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Bus Station 1999
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Starting Construction 2004
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