Building record 7203/128 - Birch's Bus Station

[Also known as The Old Bus Station]. A streamline Art Deco bus depot designed by Riley and Glanfied, and built by George Marriott Ltd. For Birch Bros. Bus Company in 1937-1937. The depot is constructed of reinforced concrete and finished with faience tiles. The building is of three storeys. The west and south elevations are banded horizontally and there is a tall semi-circular corner tower at the junction of the two roads that define the site. The tower has vertical vaning and a dome onto top shaped like the keel of a boat. The bus depot is of a standard design and is largely unaltered however the offices and café to th west have been heavily altered to accommodate a furniture showroom.

{1} Birch Bros Ltd's Coach Station, High Street North. Built in 1930's on land formerly known as 'The Shrubbery'. Ran a regular service to Bedford and London. A coach station in 'Odeon' style with restaurant, waiting room and ticket office which can still be discerned. Now used for other purposes. This probably the best example of a road transport building in Northamptonshire (and for quite a distance outside the county). The building is designed in a 1930's art deco style structure which is now utilised by a Chinese take-away and bed/furniture place. Film 15, photo 25, Film 16, photo 1.

{4} William Birch arrived in London in 1810 and founded a horse and cab business which was expanded by the family in 1847 to include horse-drawn buses. By 1919 motor vehicles were added and the company expanded to offer tours to resorts in southern England. In 1928 a scheduled bus route between London and Bedford was added and this expanded to Rushden and Kettering in 1930, which was unusual in a period when the rail network was at its greatest extent. In the 1930s the company amalgamated with several smaller bus companies in the Rushden area and developed a network of routes in the northern Home Counties with their London terminal at Kings Cross (their depot was in Kentish Town). A purpose-built terminal in Rushden was urgently required and Birch Bros. acquired the empty plot on the corner of Higham Road and Shirley Road (shown on the 1926 O.S. Map), and engaged the firm of Riley and Glanfield to design the station, which was constructed by George Marriott Ltd., now part of the Kier Construction Group.

Rushden had expanded rapidly from an agricultural village in the middle of the 19th century to an industrial town by the 1920s, with the introduction of shoe manufacture as the major local industry. The railway arrived from Higham Ferrers in 1893, which stimulated the construction of over a hundred shoe factories by the 1920s, and with them came a surge in population large enough to justify a direct bus link with London.

The bus deport is a streamlined Art Deco building of 1936-37 by Riley and Glanfield for the Birch Bros. Bus Company, constructed of reinforced concrete and finished with faience tiles. Three storeys in an indeterminate number of bays of steel-framed casements, some of which have been replaced with uPVC. The west and south elevations are banded horizontally and there is a taller semi-circular corner tower at the junction of the two roads which define the site. This has vertical vaning familiar from contemporary cinema design and a dome shaped like the keel of a boat. The bus depot to the rear is largely invisible from the main road and is of a standard industrial north-light system in three ranges designed to enclose a large open space.

The interior of the bus depot, which takes up the bulk of the building, is largely unaltered but of standard construction, with some cosmetic alterations. The offices and café to the west, contained in the Art Deco element, have unfortunately been heavily altered to accomodate a furniture showroom.

Historically, Birch Bros. were an important firm of carriers, with an unusually long history in London and the Home Counties transport industry, having been founded in 1810 and only wound up in 1971. Their expansion mirrored the industrial growth of the town, nevertheless, these factors do not comprnsate for the predictability of the design. The former Birch Bros. Bus Station in Rushden does not have the architectural and historic interest to be Listed.

Historic England, BIRCH'S BUS STATION, RUSHDEN, BF017291 (Archive). SNN115424.

<1> Ballinger J., 1999, Northamptonshire Extensive Urban Survey: Industrial Period, (unchecked) (Digital archive). SNN4.

<2> Cadman, G., 2010, Birch's Chambers, Higham Road, Rushden, (checked) (Photographic prints (COL)). SNN107044.

<3> CALLADINE T.; MORRISON K., 1998, Road Transport Buildings: A Report by RCHME for The English Heritage Post-1939 Listing Programme, (unchecked) (Report). SNN39472.

<4> ENGISH HERITAGE, English Heritage Listing File, Heritage Protection Advisor, 24th November 2009 (Report). SNN111579.

Record last edited

Sep 6 2023 11:22AM