Doncaster Part 2
We learned that the Gaumont, having lost much of its Art Deco opulence in favour of a "modern" auditorium (seen below with seats removed) ...
d two additional 'screens'. But its end came all to soon; and after demolition, the site became a car park!
d two additional 'screens'. But its end came all to soon; and after demolition, the site became a car park!
So here is a map of the present junctions c/o the South Yorkshire PTE.
The PTE does not mention the church which is the white bit in the bigger area of green. The cinema was immediately above the words Hall Gate.
Open Street Map shows both church and car park ex cinema.
Continue across the junction where the cinema isn't and you enter a road called Waterdale. Here were to be found TWO bus departure points.
Waterdale "bus station" was the older and it all happened within the narrow triangle seen in this fuzzy over enlarged aerial view.
Most of the property is still extant ...
... but looks in better condition.
It consisted of two long lanes of corrugated iron shelters parallel to the Waterdale road.
From here the joint Sheffield service 77 ran with buses from STD, Doncaster and Rotherham Corporations.
The consortium of independents serving Rossington also used the tin sheds as shown here with samples from Blue Ensign ...
... and Rossie Motors.
Another joint service was to the mining village of Edlington. Doncaster Corporation is pictured here.
The other operator was East Midland.
Neither Waterdale nor Glasgow Paddocks was anything other than shelters and bus stop flags off the road.
So it was with great excitement that everything moved to the new and shiny South bus station, just along the road, originally a scene of huge variety.
Slowly but surely this richness of independent operation disappeared. Independents were quickly gobbled by the PTE ...
... the National Bus operators were first privatised ...
... then bought by the big groups. Stagecoach was the big winner in Doncaster having swallowed East Midland ...
... Yorkshire Traction and Lincolnshire.
Both the South and its twin, the North bus station, were closed and replaced by the Interchange, attached by subway to the railway station.
It is all covered by an inevitable shopping centre building ...
... so there is no one place from which to observe. If you know where to stand, you can spot some comings and goings ...
... but it lacks "character".
And the toilets are upstairs, or up escalators, in the shopping centre. fbb had to ask for directions as his needs became urgent when passing through a couple of years ago!
But there is yet one more teensy weensy link between the Gaumont cinema and public transport!
Remember that decorative fascia above the windows of the Gaumont?
It has been saved and is now on display at Nigel Gresley Square.
Here it is.
And where is Nigel Gresley Square?
Lo and behold, it is on the site of Glasgow Paddocks bus station.
How's that for a link?
More on the BP Freightliner wagon tomorrow when fbb also takes you to the seaside!
Next More blog : Weds 2nd Sept
