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Then and Now: Hyde Road bus station

As it looked in 1930

Fittingly, on the wall at the entrance of the depot in Ardwick is a war memorial - a large brass plaque erected as a permanent remembrance of the men from Hyde Road who gave their lives during the First World War. Later, the names of those who perished in the Second World War were added.

Later this year the depot, currently providing bus services to more than 408,000 passengers a week (a staggering 21 million passenger journeys a year), will celebrate its 100th birthday.

Originally built in 1903 for trams for Manchester Corporation, with the last tram leaving in 1949, the transformation of the building from imposing red brick with stone dressing, to one of unsubtle blandness, is evident.

The junction today

The Shuttle buses for the much-applauded 2002 Commonwealth Games also operated from the Hyde Road depot. Today, the depot operates with more than 200 buses and employs more than 400 people.

The archive picture is part of a collection chronicling Manchester's changing face during the last 250 years. The collection comprises more than 77,000 images stored on an easy-to-use computer at Manchester's Central Library.

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