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233:. The building was designed to accommodate 40,000 passengers and 1,700 buses a day and included a complex brief of a bus station, with car park over, topped by a three-storey office block (Greyfriars House). The office block was supported over the clear spans below by a complex structural design based around reinforced concrete trusses. The new station was built in response to the then needs of Northampton: supplying well-organised local travel for the rapidly increasing population of the urban area, bringing visitors into the commercial centre of the town, and providing ready access to the new Grosvenor Centre.
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Initial reviews were mixed, and some deficiencies in the design started to manifest themselves early on. On the first weekend of operation one of the lifts broke down, and just a month after opening the building was labelled "useless" by disabled bus users. Eighteen months after opening, in
September 1977, mineral stalactites (
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In 2007, the 300-space first-floor car park was closed, albeit temporarily, over concerns that chemicals were leaking through the upper stories of the building and causing damage to vehicles parked in the car park below. The car park later reopened, although it closed for good a year later after the
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vacated some 16 years earlier. The bus station was demolished on Sunday 15 March 2015 in a controlled implosion by DSM Demolition. using over 2,000 separate charges. 414 properties were evacuated, and the
Grosvenor Centre was closed the night prior to the demolition – which, scheduled to take place
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In
September 2011 it was announced that the site of the former Fish Market was the preferred site for the new bus station and that work to build the new bus station could start as soon as September 2012. The building was expected to be finished by May 2013, although the date of completion was later
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agreed to take the lease of the top floor of the building the same year, later taking on the whole three floors in 1987. A decade later, however, Barclaycard also left the building in a move which cost the
Council an estimated £1,800,000 (1998 figures) in rental income. The office space remained
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Having been first proposed in 1972 with a budget of £2,578,000, construction work started in August 1973 with a revised budget of £3,308,000 and an original opening date of 1 October 1974; the building eventually opened (although the office block was still under construction) on 25 April 1976.
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Demolition work within
Greyfriars House began in March 2013 with works to strip the interiors of the office spaces and clearing of the overgrown landscaped courtyards within the office complex, which had lain untended since
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As the bus station was below both
Greyfriars House and the car park, only a small amount of natural light reached the concourse, which did not help the building's reputation. It was listed in a survey carried out by
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With plans to build a new bus station in
Northampton expected to be approved within months and the demolition of Greyfriars to follow close behind, The Chron explores the history of the notorious bus station . .
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delayed. At the time of this announcement it was claimed by the council that the cost of refurbishing the
Greyfriars building would be over £30 million, with currently £500,000 spent on superficial maintenance.
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Built at a cost of £7,250,000 (£50,000,000 at 2013 prices), Greyfriars bus station was opened in 1976, replacing the previous facility at
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The station was situated in
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Council was unwilling to make the investment (reported at the time to be on the order of £250,000) to rectify the situation.
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In 2009, Northampton
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Greyfriars closed after the final bus services on 1 March 2014, with North Gate opening the following day.
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series, as the third-most hated building in Britain and dubbed "the mouth of Hell".
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from 2 March 2014, and the structure demolished using explosives on 15 March 2015.
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at an unannounced time between 8 am and 10 am, occurred at approximately 9.40 am.
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also operated to Northampton on routes serving many other parts of the country.
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Buses ran from the bus station all around the town and went as far afield as
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and Meridian Buses. Some smaller operators also used the facility.
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Greyfriars House was envisaged as a way for the building's owners,
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Buildings and structures demolished by controlled implosion
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Eyesore or gem - Greyfriars bus station BBC News Magazine
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Demolished buildings and structures in Northamptonshire
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empty until the building was closed on 2 March 2014.
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610:. Northampton Borough Council. Archived from
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538:. Northamptonshire Telegraph. 12 June 2008
516:. Northamptonshire Telegraph. 15 June 2007
501:, 8 March 2012. Retrieved 26 February 2013
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395:A subway entrance to the bus station
429:"'Mouth of hell' reduced to rubble"
407:Another entrance to the bus station
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187:which formerly served the town of
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1352:Bus stations in the East Midlands
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558:"Britain's Most Hated Buildings"
514:"Safety concerns close car park"
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536:"Bus station car park may shut"
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383:Inside Greyfriars bus station
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662:. BBC News. 4 December 2012
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588:. BBC News. 19 April 2014
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915:South Northamptonshire
225:, and was designed by
211:North Gate bus station
181:Greyfriars bus station
27:Greyfriars bus station
1321:United Kingdom Portal
1203:County Cricket Ground
990:Northampton Guildhall
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1288:West Midlands Trains
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499:Chronicle & Echo
480:15 July 2015 at the
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1342:Former bus stations
1283:Stagecoach Midlands
1182:Northampton Town FC
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970:National Lift Tower
124:Stagecoach Midlands
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44:General information
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1167:Northampton Saints
980:Northampton Castle
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955:All Saints' Church
943:Places of interest
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86:52.2398°N 0.8963°W
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1273:M1 motorway
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950:78 Derngate
820:Kingsthorpe
770:Collingtree
746:Northampton
688:26 February
666:20 February
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542:26 February
520:26 February
363:Barclaycard
250:Barclaycard
239:calthemites
189:Northampton
185:bus station
141:(1 km)
139:Northampton
135:Connections
102:Operated by
89: /
65:Coordinates
55:Northampton
52:Lady's Lane
1336:Categories
893:Governance
835:New Duston
825:Lumbertubs
800:Far Cotton
785:Dallington
780:Cotton End
413:References
335:Demolition
315:Stagecoach
267:Stagecoach
112:Bus stands
74:52°14′23″N
1226:Transport
1127:Education
1031:Sixfields
850:Sixfields
294:Leicester
271:Centrebus
77:0°53′47″W
1238:A45 road
1233:A43 road
1040:Shopping
760:Abington
592:17 March
570:15 March
478:Archived
433:BBC News
302:Bicester
261:Services
223:Derngate
49:Location
936:Culture
875:Wootton
830:Moulton
765:Billing
370:Gallery
321:Closure
286:Bedford
217:History
193:England
146:History
59:England
1196:Venues
1097:Events
790:Duston
439:31 May
183:was a
159:Closed
151:Opened
1155:Teams
1148:Sport
1061:Parks
860:Upton
298:Rugby
690:2013
668:2013
646:2013
620:2013
594:2015
572:2015
544:2013
522:2013
441:2023
300:and
154:1976
275:Uno
128:Uno
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