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Padmore Street garage January 1961.

Posted: 09:07 Thursday 7th January 2021
by TimBrown
Here is an official photograph of Worcester Padmore Street garage taken by BMMO almost sixty years ago on 23 January 1961. The D7 over the pits looks to be 4110 (which was exported to Universal Studios, California, USA in March 1965) with C1, S14, D5B and early post-war single decker visible in the picture.
Padmore Street January 1961 001.jpg

Re: Padmore Street garage January 1961.

Posted: 09:41 Thursday 7th January 2021
by AdamH
That is a great photo!

I had no idea the pits at the "traffic office" end of the building dated back so far. I had always though they were put in during the NBC era when the internal walls were built.

Thanks for posting, Tim.

Re: Padmore Street garage January 1961.

Posted: 11:22 Thursday 7th January 2021
by DD12
Yes, - brilliant photo, thanks !!

Re: Padmore Street garage January 1961.

Posted: 14:27 Thursday 7th January 2021
by TimBrown
AdamH wrote:
09:41 Thursday 7th January 2021
That is a great photo!

I had no idea the pits at the "traffic office" end of the building dated back so far. I had always though they were put in during the NBC era when the internal walls were built.

Thanks for posting, Tim.
The main structure hasn't changed that much over the years, except those internal walls constructed to make a bodyshop which I assume was some time around the closure of the bodyshop at the East Street property in 1971. Seem to remember some construction work being done at the far end of the garage adjacent to the then Vinegar Works railway line to improve the maintenance engineers' offices and rest room. Otherwise the property survived a fire at this end circa 2004. I believe the pit area was completely redeveloped at the maintenance end at one point with a long sunken workbench area adjacent to the canal side wall, plus the installation of rolling road brake test equipment - anyone remember when?

Re: Padmore Street garage January 1961.

Posted: 17:45 Thursday 7th January 2021
by AdamH
From what I have been told, the two-floor Engineering office block was demolished and rebuilt in the early 1980s. The new single-floor building is the one that still stands today and had purpose built facilities for emptying the toilets from coaches, which were required to reverse alongside the building into the area now used for staff parking. This was also the last time the main building got a new coat of paint.

The old two-floor building had a thick concrete floor/roof between the two floors as the lower floor had been built as an air-raid shelter in the late 1930s. By the mid-1970s this was being used as a tyre store.