Victoria
Bridge Bus Station - Salford
The image above is shown with the generous permission of Joseph McGarraghy
The image above is shown with the generous permission of Joseph McGarraghy
One of my childhood
memories, as a trainspotter and holiday maker who
occasionally visited Exchange Station, is of a clutch of
green buses congregated in a bus station beside the
River Irwell. Salford's Victoria Bridge Bus
Station sat on a plot of land bounded by the Irwell,
Victoria Bridge Street, Chapel Street and the approach
ramp to Exchange Station.
In the 1840s before Exchange Station existed the site was occupied by the Red Lion Inn and a Woollen Cloth Hall
In the 1840s before Exchange Station existed the site was occupied by the Red Lion Inn and a Woollen Cloth Hall
By the 1880s Exchange
Station was in place and the approach ramp, called
Cathedral Approach, now defined the northeastern
boundary of the site. Among the occupants of the
site were J. S. Morris & Son's Oil Works and
Sutton-Holmes & Co Leather Goods Factory.
There were also shops, a restaurant, stables and a
smithy.
At some point these
buildings were demolished to make way for the bus
station that you can see in the aerial photograph below,
shown with the permission of English Heritage.
1. Exchange Station 2. Manchester Cathedral 3. Victoria Bridge Bus Station 4. River Irwell
In this atmospheric photograph taken in 1955 by Joseph McGarraghy, and shown here with his generous permission, you can see the bus station in operation on a snowy day.
I believe that the Victoria Bridge Bus Station closed in the 1970s but was revived once again, on a temporary basis, during the reconstruction of the Shudehill Interchange.
1. Exchange Station 2. Manchester Cathedral 3. Victoria Bridge Bus Station 4. River Irwell
In this atmospheric photograph taken in 1955 by Joseph McGarraghy, and shown here with his generous permission, you can see the bus station in operation on a snowy day.
I believe that the Victoria Bridge Bus Station closed in the 1970s but was revived once again, on a temporary basis, during the reconstruction of the Shudehill Interchange.
*******************
Today the view
shown at the top of this page has changed.
Exchange Station has been gone for a long time.
The bus station
became a car park.
However, that
changed in 2011 when work began on a new
development called the Greengate
Embankment. One stage in this enterprise
is the creation of a new Public Realm which in
March of 2011, when I took the images below, was
beginning to take shape on the site of the old
bus station.
The website for the new development says this about it, "Greengate Embankment — a joint development between Ask Developments and Network Rail — is situated along the banks of the River Irwell where the two cities meet, revitalising an area of Salford that is literally a stone's throw away from the retail heart of Manchester city centre. The extensive regeneration of this long-neglected and underused site, which includes Manchester's old Exchange Railway Station, will turn it into a vibrant new residential, retail and business destination right at the core of the city region."
The website for the new development says this about it, "Greengate Embankment — a joint development between Ask Developments and Network Rail — is situated along the banks of the River Irwell where the two cities meet, revitalising an area of Salford that is literally a stone's throw away from the retail heart of Manchester city centre. The extensive regeneration of this long-neglected and underused site, which includes Manchester's old Exchange Railway Station, will turn it into a vibrant new residential, retail and business destination right at the core of the city region."