Which Coach Station?

I was wondering if you chaps might recognise where this 1950's/60's photo was taken because of the rather distinctive Coach Station? I am grateful for any info.

Colin Robinson

21/10/12 - 10:38

I wish I had an answer but I have been looking through many pages of Art Deco designs, illustrations and pictures but found nothing that looks quite like it. The picture to me looks like the South Coast between Littlehampton to Hastings but nothing fits at all. I pondered Bexhill on Sea because that does have art deco influences but again, that seems not the answer.
Looking at the people and their dress I'm thinking 1958/9 Brighton and leaning towards the infamous "Teddy Boy" generation. I've also tried Margate, Southend on Sea etc. and it looks completely wrong for any northern location.
I'm not much help except that I think I might have eliminated the South East or simple search results. We need the luck to find someone who lived there..wherever it was.

Richard Leaman

21/10/12 - 19:01

My first instinct was to think Blackpool Coliseum, going by the sort of properties in the background. However, having trawled the net for old photos, I haven't been able to find an exact 'match'.
There can't have been so many places with a dedicated 'coach' station, can there?

David Call

21/10/12 - 19:02

Another stab in the dark http://www.geograph.org.uk/ only because of the curvatures. The buildings in the background would seem to be in the sea though. One of the happy holiday-makers may surface and put us all out of our misery ??

Nigel Edwards

21/10/12 - 19:04

This is driving me nuts. When I was a lad my Dad was a rep for an electronic engineering company and covered most of the UK. During school holidays I would go with him, sitting in the car outside his calls. I got to see much of the UK's bus, rail and air transport at the time and I have been to this coach station - the Moorish figures stick in my mind - but I can't place it at present. I suspect it's actually in the North of England.
As to date, I think it's earlier than the late 1950s. The large floral print dress, the Bobby Soxer look clothing, which started in the UK later and lasted longer than in the US, of three of the women would be typical of around 1954-1956 and this could tie in with the haircut of the man in the hat on the right.

Phil Blinkhorn

22/10/12 - 06:12

It's not Blackpool, the Coliseum is from that period but if memory serves its brick built and the buildings to the rear of it are the bus garage and tram sheds. I've operated out of most of the Coach Stations in the north and this doesn't ring any bells, and just before we have any wise cracks about 'it cant be in the north because its sunny and nobody's wearing a top coat' it does get above freezing up here from time to time

Ronnie Hoye

22/10/12 - 13:20

I daresay that many of us have been racking our brains, without sucess.
The 'PARCELS' sign narrows it down, since only a moderate number of bus companies carried parcels.
It's certainly a puzzler.

Chris Hebbron

22/10/12 - 15:40

It is only a suggestion because I have know idea but could it possibly be Skegness or somewhere like that.
I was thinking that Barton's carried parcels and am assuming they would operate to Skeggy, at least in the summer season.

Eric Bawden

22/10/12 - 15:42

Phil...I've puzzled over the date of the picture trying to pick up clues. The man and woman to the right look to be wearing button hole flowers so might it be their wedding day? Then, move left and look at the man in the light coloured suit but dark hat and he also has a flower. the woman holding what looks like a white bucket has a hat more like those from an American Drive 'thru but that "bucket" is a handbag because my mother had one like it from about 1955 onwards. Then to the furthest right is the "cool dude" look from the man with the Woodbine and he looks more like 1964 onwards..maybe he was just ahead of time!
I have books with both US and German Art Deco building design and it could be from either but the background and lettering confirm it is in England.
I'll call in the forces of my grey haired old chums in the Vintage Sports Car Club who enjoy a challenge like this and report back with any inspiration!

Richard Leaman

22/10/12 - 15:45

Definitely not the splendid Seaton Carew (although that crossed my mind) - that was only ever a bus station.
One thought - need it be at the seaside? The passengers certainly have their buckets and spades, but could they actually be setting off for a day out? If this were to be the case it could be one of the coach stations established in the outskirts of London in the early days of coaches. This is just a suggestion - I still have no idea where it could be!

David Todd

22/10/12 - 15:45

It could be Morecambe's Euston Road bus and coach station which was still in use in a very poor state in the seventies It has now disappeared under new build.

Chris Hough

22/10/12 - 17:20

The lady fourth from the right as a Monkey on her shoulder. Glad this is testing the little grey cells.

Peter

22/10/12 - 17:46

Clues:
1) Art Deco COACH Station, so quite separate from town buses.
2) Seaside, but with houses behind on a higher piece of ground.
3) Moorish statues/lamp holders. Remember Black Boy Road in Exeter.
Seaside-SW England-Coach Traffic in large numbers.
Try using Google Images for TORQUAY COACH STATION, then look at the buildings behind. Some have 3 windows between chimney stacks, some have 2.
My money is on Torquay.

Dave Farrier

23/10/12 - 07:51

Some interesting observations. I had thought of Morecambe and that would certainly resonate with me as I used to go there regularly until I was about 8 (1955) but I can't find any period photos.
Skegness also occurred to me but I can't reconcile it to any of the photos I've found.
I've looked at Google Earth street view of Torquay Lymington Rd Coach Station. The houses in the background above the buildings in the photo have 2 windows between each chimney, those behind Lymington Rd generally have 3 windows between the chimneys on one side of the bus station, 4 on the other.
The monkey is interesting and opens all sorts of possibilities. Is the monkey the photographer's? There is a "Photos" sign behind the woman with the bucket bag so this group may have hired the photographer. It could be a wedding group but, taking the point about the "cool dude", I wonder if the group is in period costume from a theatre group or some other promotional activity at a time much later than their dress would indicate.

Phil Blinkhorn

23/10/12 - 07:52

I think Dave is on to something. Take a look around 'Beacon Quay' Torquay - Google Earth - buildings at the back with multiple chimney stacks and similar windows. We just-gotta-know, and soon . . . .

Nigel Edwards

23/10/12 - 07:53

Well gentlemen, I can report that my sleuth friends on another motoring Forum have been scratching heads and only seem to arrive at the same ideas as us! So let's think laterally..
What could be the significance of those two wooden statues in beads and African/Indian/Egyptian appearance?
The lady with the monkey and bucket/bag plus the one standing next to her are wearing base ball caps which was not something I ever recall in 1950's England.
Could this be a film set so not a real location and the car wearers be "extras" in some film? I still think the man on the far right looks more mid 1960's so are we looking at some kind of recreation of a 1950's American Diner/Station?
Hmmm....more ideas to trace!

Richard Leaman

23/10/12 - 11:05

I can see your thinking, Richard.
However, no disrespect to the group in the picture, but a casting/costume crew would struggle to recreate such "real" people as these. It looks like a street vendor photograph ("ready by 4pm"), probably set up by the Monkey Man in the centre. This is a huge generalisation, and apologies to our south-of-Watford Gap readers, but the blokes look like southern "Jack the Lads" rather than northern working folk.
Although the lady's hats look like baseball caps, I suggest they are soft caps with peaks. The lad on the right looks like an early Teddy Boy (the ponytail effect being someone else's hair). The flowers worn by some suggests a wedding/honeymoon group?
It must be a location where the town rises away from the shore, so I suggest East Anglian/Essex locations can be ruled out. It seems to fit Torquay but, like others, I can't find any illustrations of this bus station with these art deco buildings. If it was Torquay, then they had gone by the late 1950s. Paignton also looks potential, but the houses to the rear aren't elevated sufficiently. I think we can rule out Ireland, and the houses in the rear don't look Scottish.
Please.....someone, somewhere, put us all out of our misery!

Paul Haywood

26/10/12 - 22:25

Just to tell you that this picture has so far completely foxed the members of the VSCC Forumists and tonight I learn that the picture now has gone on to a Forum of Yachtsmen who are good at location identifications. It has gripped the interest of many people who are driven to get an answer.

Richard Leaman

26/10/12 - 23:09

MARGATE!!! The yachtsmen have cracked it! I have just had a message from one of my VSCC Forumist friends who tells me that a picture exists taken in the 1930's and that the frontage has been extended sometime during the 1950's. I have asked for a copy of the picture and will send it over asap!
I've tried Google searches but not yet found it so I'm researching more! Anyway..PHEW!!! At last!

Richard Leaman

27/10/12 - 09:14

So now we know and here is a picture showing the building when new in the 1934. It was part of the Dreamland Cinema complex which was a beautiful art deco building and there are lovely pictures of it when new. Dreamland survives but in a very poor state and badly bodged about but I read that it is being restored and may be better than the current Google Earth image. I cannot see anything of the coach station but drivers on here may know more.
What a shame it has been lost..imagine a line of favourite coaches lined up dropping off their passengers for a day at the seaside.
The location was finally found by a friend of mine in a Yacht Club on the Isle of Mull! Now we can all rest.

Richard Leaman

27/10/12 - 09:42

I'm one of the yacht type nuts from the other forum refered to in your hunt for the mystery coach station. It wasn't actually me that made the initial discovery as I was taking too long searching through photos of Dreamland amusement park at Margate.
The photo we came up with was on this page
There are also some aerial views showing a large coach park and a mock up of the Queen Mary, where I think the station building was located, or so it appears to me.

Steve

27/10/12 - 11:04

Just to explain that it was not I that tracked down the photo, but "pvb", a member of the Yachting and Boating World forum, living on the east coast. I'm sorry I don't know his name to give him the full credit.

Phil Siddall, Tobermory

27/10/12 - 11:05

Congratulations, Richard! Your name will be toasted throughout the land! Now, all we need are some photos of coaches using this station.

Paul Haywood

27/10/12 - 11:06

Well, I'm glad that somebody has solved this one, but why do I have no recollection of this building despite having visited Dreamland during summer holidays in the 1960s. I didn't take any photos there until the 1970s so perhaps it had been demolished by then or it could just be my failing memory.

Nigel Turner

27/10/12 - 13:26

I'm glad that is solved as I admit to searching out the miniature railway at Dreamland at Margate and never the coach station.

Ken Jones

27/10/12 - 13:28

Thank you so much. I am sorry to have caused you all so much trouble. By the way, the guy in the white T-shirt is my dad. Once again thank you!

Colin Robinson

27/10/12 - 16:57

Colin, your dad is in the white T-shirt, so was the monkey his?

Berisford Jones

28/10/12 - 05:57

No, the monkey must have belonged to the photographer.

Colin Robinson

28/10/12 - 09:11

In the detective work trying to find the location, I studied this picture and did, as above, finally ponder that this was a staged or film picture. I noticed the unusual base ball caps that looked wrong for 1950's England and those odd statues seemed a very strange thing for a bus company to chose as decoration. However the answer came now that I have read up about Dreamland and find that the owners wanted to create an American theme to the park hence did indeed use many US "props". That explains why the picture has things no doubt handed out by the photographer such as those hats, the monkey and maybe even the button hole flowers.
I'm pleased to have been able to get the answer to the mystery and that is down to the help of Phil (above) and his boating friends.
On to the next!"

Richard Leaman

28/10/12 - 09:12

Well done to Richard and the yachtsmen. However this left me with a personal puzzle. Margate was one of the few bus/coach stations I didn't visit in the 1950s/1960s so why did those Moorish figures stick in my mind and why did I connect the picture with Northern England?
The answer came, of all places, when I was soaking in the bath.
In 1979 or 1980 I attended a presentation at a conference I'd organised in Manchester on Urban Planning. This dealt with the development of transport infrastructure and buildings. The presenter showed pictures of rail and bus stations as part of his theme of how they had both altered the urban landscape and had followed trends in building design. For the art deco period he chose a number of LT bus and underground stations and Margate coach station and made a point about extraneous decoration, highlighting the Moorish figures as being extravagant.
I assume because I saw the presentation in Manchester, had become fixated on the figures, the old memory placed the location in the North.

Phil Blinkhorn

12/03/13 - 08:26

I remember the Dreamland Bus Station well. I went to Dreamland regularly during the 1960's and the building matched the Art Deco frontage of the park that still stands today.
In the sixties hundreds of coaches per day would call and park at this station (to the left of the people in the picture. In front of them would be a giant size recreation of the Queen Mary liner and a small miniature bus would carry around 8 kids at a time around the huge coach park (for a small fee).
When they dismantled Battersea Park Funfair, they brought The Water Chute ride which was placed just in front of where the people are standing in the pic. The Water Chute ride can often be seen in 60's tv series like The Saint and The Champions.
The monkey in the picture was owned by the photographer who used to use the monkey to sell photos of it sitting on customers shoulders. He worked the bus queue passengers.
The Bus Station stood on the site until the early 1980's when it was demolished to make way for more attractions.
There was a lot of Art Deco buildings on the site all of now gone except for the seafront frontage which is Listed and cannot be demolished.
Hope this helps.

David Waters

02/03/14 - 15:56

It does appear to be from Margate. I've attached a fairly current photograph. The buildings in the background seem to be the same as those on the original photograph. I think I'd prefer to have gone there when the original photograph was taken.

Brian Purvis

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