Stockwell Bus Garage

Stockwell Bus Garage was designed by Adie Button and Partners, in partnership with Thomas Bilbow, Architect of the London Transport Executive and with the consulting engineer A.E. Beer. The contractors were Wilson Lovatt and Sons Ltd and the building was commissioned in 1949 and opened in 1952. At the time of its construction, it was the largest single span roof in Europe. Nine structural bays support ten two-hinged arched ribs formed from reinforced concrete spanning 194ft (59m). In between each arch are segmental toplights, with louvred sections to allow natural ventilation. Designed to house 200 buses serving central and south-west London, the bold heroic structure is testament to the power and optimism of the state in post-war Britain. Its luminous, cavernous interior dwarfs the red double decker buses sheltered beneath the shallow arches that almost spring from their supporting wall. This truly iconic part of London's infrastructure is celebrated by artists and aficionados alike and was listed in 1988. Author Wilf Self penned a 'paean to London's most important building' about the bus garage in 2016, describing it as 'a series of monumental whales' backs, as if a pod of these leviathans had been frozen in mid-motion as they coursed through the choppy brick seas of inner-London suburbia.'

[1] Self, W. 'My paean to London's most important building', Evening Standard, 12 April 2012.