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

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.


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.