British Bus Garages- A Portrait

Bus garages, or depots if that is your preferred nomenclature, come in all shapes and sizes and basically had their origins in the tram depots which were established by the various tramway companies of the pre-electrification era. Tram 'depots', as a place to house railed vehicles was commonly referred to, were originally built for horse-drawn and steam-hauled tramcars and, in the case of the former, often had stables attached. Hardly any two bus garages were the same as they varied in both size and type of construction. Some, such as London Transport's Stockwell garage (which is still in use) and Salford Corporation's Frederick Road tram/bus depot, could be considered to be architectural gems. The capacity of a garage could vary enormously; examples of this were Ribble Motor's outstation at Bowness-on-Solway with space to garage just one bus and Oldham Corporation's Wallshaw Street garage which when built to hold 300 buses. This book takes a look at the various garages around Britain.