Stockwell Garage
Encyclopedia
Stockwell Garage is a large bus garage, coded "SW" by London Transport
, in Stockwell
, London
. It was designed by Adie, Button and Partners, with the engineer A E Beer, and was opened in 1952.
On a cursory view of the exterior, it is typical of much of the architecture built in the post war reconstruction period in London around the Festival of Britain
. There was a steel shortage at the time, so concrete was used for the roof structure instead of the steel girder
structure which had previously been the norm.
At Stockwell the opportunity was taken to create a bravura
piece of reinforced concrete design. The 393 ft (119.8 m) long roof structure is supported by ten very shallow "two-hinged" arched ribs. Each is 7 ft (2.1 m) deep at the centre of the arch, 10 in 6 in (3.2 m) at the end, and spans 194 ft (59.1 m) Cantilevered barrel vaults between, topped by large skylights, span the 42 ft (12.8 m) between each pair of ribs. The vaults are crossed by smaller ribs to prevent torsion. Seen from the outside, the main arches are visible as outward-leaning buttresses, with a segmental curve to each bay forming a flowing roof line.
The garage provides 73350 sq ft (6,814.4 m²) of unobstructed parking space and could originally house 200 buses. At the time of construction it was the largest unsupported area under one roof in Europe.
Since 1988 the garage has been a Grade II* listed building reflecting its importance in post-war architectural and engineering history.
number
routes in the Stockwell Bus Garage. These are some of them:
345 from Peckham
to South Kensington
333 from Elephant & Castle to Tooting Broadway
London Transport Executive
The London Transport Executive was the organisation responsible for public transport in the Greater London area, UK, between 1948-1962. In common with all London transport authorities from 1933 to 2000, the public name and operational brand of the organisation was London Transport.-Creation:On 1...
, in Stockwell
Stockwell
Stockwell is a district in inner south west London, England, located in the London Borough of Lambeth.It is situated south south-east of Charing Cross. Brixton, Clapham, Vauxhall and Kennington all border Stockwell...
, London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
. It was designed by Adie, Button and Partners, with the engineer A E Beer, and was opened in 1952.
On a cursory view of the exterior, it is typical of much of the architecture built in the post war reconstruction period in London around the Festival of Britain
Festival of Britain
The Festival of Britain was a national exhibition in Britain in the summer of 1951. It was organised by the government to give Britons a feeling of recovery in the aftermath of war and to promote good quality design in the rebuilding of British towns and cities. The Festival's centrepiece was in...
. There was a steel shortage at the time, so concrete was used for the roof structure instead of the steel girder
Girder
A girder is a support beam used in construction. Girders often have an I-beam cross section for strength, but may also have a box shape, Z shape or other forms. Girder is the term used to denote the main horizontal support of a structure which supports smaller beams...
structure which had previously been the norm.
At Stockwell the opportunity was taken to create a bravura
Bravura
In classical music, a bravura is a virtuosic passage intended to show off the skill of a performer, generally as a solo, and often in a cadenza. It can also be used as an adjective , or to refer to a performance of extraordinary virtuosity. The term comes from the Italian language for great skill....
piece of reinforced concrete design. The 393 ft (119.8 m) long roof structure is supported by ten very shallow "two-hinged" arched ribs. Each is 7 ft (2.1 m) deep at the centre of the arch, 10 in 6 in (3.2 m) at the end, and spans 194 ft (59.1 m) Cantilevered barrel vaults between, topped by large skylights, span the 42 ft (12.8 m) between each pair of ribs. The vaults are crossed by smaller ribs to prevent torsion. Seen from the outside, the main arches are visible as outward-leaning buttresses, with a segmental curve to each bay forming a flowing roof line.
The garage provides 73350 sq ft (6,814.4 m²) of unobstructed parking space and could originally house 200 buses. At the time of construction it was the largest unsupported area under one roof in Europe.
Since 1988 the garage has been a Grade II* listed building reflecting its importance in post-war architectural and engineering history.
Bus Number Routes
There are a few busBus
A bus is a road vehicle designed to carry passengers. Buses can have a capacity as high as 300 passengers. The most common type of bus is the single-decker bus, with larger loads carried by double-decker buses and articulated buses, and smaller loads carried by midibuses and minibuses; coaches are...
number
Number
A number is a mathematical object used to count and measure. In mathematics, the definition of number has been extended over the years to include such numbers as zero, negative numbers, rational numbers, irrational numbers, and complex numbers....
routes in the Stockwell Bus Garage. These are some of them:
345 from Peckham
Peckham
Peckham is a district in south London, England, located in the London Borough of Southwark. It is situated south-east of Charing Cross. The area is identified in the London Plan as one of 35 major centres in Greater London...
to South Kensington
South Kensington
South Kensington is a district in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea in London. It is a built-up area located 2.4 miles west south-west of Charing Cross....
333 from Elephant & Castle to Tooting Broadway