Preston Bus Station

Image: © Matt Harrop Taken: 6 Dec 2016

Preston Bus Station, the largest in Europe when it was completed in 1969, was developed to provide the added services needed to serve the emergence of Central Lancashire New town in the late 1960s of which Preston would form the core. Designed by Preston architectural practice BDP, It was also to serve the long distance services that would be made possible by the opening of the M6, the first motorway in Britain, which gave Preston a unique place in coach travel. The design of this bus station consciously sought to offer bus passengers greatly enhanced comforts with clean modern facilities, with refreshments and heated waiting rooms separated by sliding doors from the buses outside. It was to be a bus station that overtly aspired to some of the glamour of air travel, combining rational modernity with expressive architectural forms. Constructed in concrete the building was at the forefront of the use of GRP moulds giving a smooth finish and the compound curved surfaces which have become the predominant feature of the building.

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