Bit of bread and butter stuff from Birmingham but a nice enjoyable explore none the less.
Place is a complete tale of woe like everything with any association to Birmingham City Council. The Perry Barr area was host to the Commonwealth Games back in the Summer of 2022 and the closure of this garage was all linked in with the funding for that. It was announced back in 2018 that it would shut and National Express would move to a new garage 100 yards down the road. The land around the old garage was supposed to be used for the 'athletes village' but after compulsory purchasing a college, a pub, the garage, a load of flats and a whole street of terrace houses none of it ever really happened. The houses, flats and collage were demolished yet (supposedly due to covid) the whole athletes village idea crashed and burned and they just housed them elsewhere in the city insted. All the area has been left with is some half built flats and a swaith of empty plots of waste ground. (not to mention a much inferior road system and a cheap and cheerful 'new train station'!) Yay legacy! The new garage wasn't even finished in time for the games, busses finally moved in December 2022
Wasn't hoping for too much but was pleasantly surprised to find the place both untouched by vandals and sporting a whole host of nice original features. Spent a couple of hours taking photos on my own then went back a bit later in the day with Dweeb for another look. Done a few bus garages in my time and this was well up there with the better ones.
What happens with it now I don't know. The building is or at least was listed and is fairly historically significant being a 1932 build that had the largest single span roof in the UK at the time. Trouble is permission to demolish was granted by the council for the games works only for them to then later state that it 'almost certainly won't be demolished'. Read into that what you will but i'm not exactly confident it has a future. I mean it would make a nice bus garage but 'supposedly' it was unsuitable to hold the new electric buses and all anyone wants to talk about is how 'green' and 'energy efficient' the new building is... it recycles rainwater don't you know! I'm sure it will just sit there and rot away in the shadow of all the asylum seeker flats gradually dragging Perry Barr and the rest of Birmingham, deeper into the cesspit of shit it currently resembles..
Place is a complete tale of woe like everything with any association to Birmingham City Council. The Perry Barr area was host to the Commonwealth Games back in the Summer of 2022 and the closure of this garage was all linked in with the funding for that. It was announced back in 2018 that it would shut and National Express would move to a new garage 100 yards down the road. The land around the old garage was supposed to be used for the 'athletes village' but after compulsory purchasing a college, a pub, the garage, a load of flats and a whole street of terrace houses none of it ever really happened. The houses, flats and collage were demolished yet (supposedly due to covid) the whole athletes village idea crashed and burned and they just housed them elsewhere in the city insted. All the area has been left with is some half built flats and a swaith of empty plots of waste ground. (not to mention a much inferior road system and a cheap and cheerful 'new train station'!) Yay legacy! The new garage wasn't even finished in time for the games, busses finally moved in December 2022
Wasn't hoping for too much but was pleasantly surprised to find the place both untouched by vandals and sporting a whole host of nice original features. Spent a couple of hours taking photos on my own then went back a bit later in the day with Dweeb for another look. Done a few bus garages in my time and this was well up there with the better ones.
What happens with it now I don't know. The building is or at least was listed and is fairly historically significant being a 1932 build that had the largest single span roof in the UK at the time. Trouble is permission to demolish was granted by the council for the games works only for them to then later state that it 'almost certainly won't be demolished'. Read into that what you will but i'm not exactly confident it has a future. I mean it would make a nice bus garage but 'supposedly' it was unsuitable to hold the new electric buses and all anyone wants to talk about is how 'green' and 'energy efficient' the new building is... it recycles rainwater don't you know! I'm sure it will just sit there and rot away in the shadow of all the asylum seeker flats gradually dragging Perry Barr and the rest of Birmingham, deeper into the cesspit of shit it currently resembles..
