Wythenshawe Bus Depot
WYTHENSHAWE BUS DEPOT, BRADNOR ROAD
Listed on the National Heritage List for England. Search over 400,000 listed places
Overview
- Heritage Category:
- Listed Building
- Grade:
- II*
- List Entry Number:
- 1389256
- Date first listed:
- 13-Jul-2001
- List Entry Name:
- Wythenshawe Bus Depot
- Statutory Address:
- WYTHENSHAWE BUS DEPOT, BRADNOR ROAD
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Location
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Discover moreOfficial list entry
- Heritage Category:
- Listed Building
- Grade:
- II*
- List Entry Number:
- 1389256
- Date first listed:
- 13-Jul-2001
- List Entry Name:
- Wythenshawe Bus Depot
- Statutory Address 1:
- WYTHENSHAWE BUS DEPOT, BRADNOR ROAD
The scope of legal protection for listed buildings
This List entry helps identify the building designated at this address for its special architectural or historic interest.
Unless the List entry states otherwise, it includes both the structure itself and any object or structure fixed to it (whether inside or outside) as well as any object or structure within the curtilage of the building.
For these purposes, to be included within the curtilage of the building, the object or structure must have formed part of the land since before 1st July 1948.
The scope of legal protection for listed buildings
This List entry helps identify the building designated at this address for its special architectural or historic interest.
Unless the List entry states otherwise, it includes both the structure itself and any object or structure fixed to it (whether inside or outside) as well as any object or structure within the curtilage of the building.
For these purposes, to be included within the curtilage of the building, the object or structure must have formed part of the land since before 1st July 1948.
Location
- Statutory Address:
- WYTHENSHAWE BUS DEPOT, BRADNOR ROAD
The building or site itself may lie within the boundary of more than one authority.
- District:
- Manchester (Metropolitan Authority)
- Parish:
- Non Civil Parish
- National Grid Reference:
- SJ8303889374
Details
SJ88NW
698-1/11/11150
13-JUL-01
BRADNOR ROAD
Wythenshawe
(Northeast side)
Wythenshawe Bus Depot
II*
Former bus garage, now warehousing. 1939-42 by Manchester City Architect's Department, Chief Architect G Noel Hill; concrete structure devised by Messrs Chisarc and Shell D Ltd, consulting engineer H G Cousins. Reinforced concrete arched construction, with shell concrete barrel vaults incorporating central top lights of individual square prisms. The concrete arches in the garage have a span of 165 feet, a rise of approximately 42 feet, and are 42 feet apart; the thickness of the roof shell is 23/4 inches thick. Repair hall and washing bays to rear, now in separate occupation, are of rendered brick, with repair hall roof formed of seven longitudinal shell cylinders of 22'6" radius incorporating roof lights, with rigid end frames and deep edge beams, the central bay with expansion joints. Long strip glazing in side walls of main garage, with folding doors to front.
The garage with accommodation for one hundred double-decker buses was planned to serve as a depot for the Manchester Corporation bus services to the Wythenshawe Housing Estate, but it was taken over by the Ministry of Aircraft Production immediately on completion in 1942 for the production of A V Roe's Lancaster aircraft. It is one of the first reinforced concrete shell roof structures to be built in England. Chisarc and Shell D Ltd were the British patentees, but as the system was both innovatory and German they found few clients in the late 1930s. It is a smaller, but earlier and more daring shell roof than that at Bournemouth, and anticipates the better-known bus garage at Stockwell, LB Lambeth (II*). The late 1930s and early 1950s saw the building of very many bus garages as tram services gave way to buses, and shell construction was a very cheap way of achieving broad, uninterrupted spans. The general equations for shell domes and cylindrical shell roofs were first published in England in 1930, and again in August 1935. However, this was the pioneering example of the means of construction, and was widely influential in the years after the war when steel, timber and bricks were in short supply.
Sources
The Builder, 15 September 1939, p.437
Official Architecture, August 1939, pp.774-5
The Builder, 19 July 1946, pp.62-3
Architect and Building News, 26 July 1946, pp.54-5
Architects' Journal, 5 September 1946, pp.176-8
Concrete and Constructional Engineering, September 194
Listing NGR: SJ8303889374
Legacy
The contents of this record have been generated from a legacy data system.
- Legacy System number:
- 487891
- Legacy System:
- LBS
Sources
Books and journals
The Builder in 15 September, (1939), 437
The Builder in 19 July, (1946), 62-3
Architect and Building News in 26 July, (1946), 54-5
Architects Journal in 5 September, (1946), 176-8
Official Architecture in August, (1939), 774-5
Concrete and Constructional Engineering in September, (1946)
Legal
This building is listed under the Planning (Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas) Act 1990 as amended for its special architectural or historic interest.
Map
This map is for quick reference purposes only and may not be to scale. This copy shows the entry on 19-Jun-2026 at 05:32:50.
Download a full scale map (PDF)End of official list entry
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