Our bus station's tatty, but we love it

IT IS DINGY and draughty and it feels dangerous at night, but people still love Derby bus station. Thousands of them have joined a campaign to save the run-down building from demolition - even though everyone agrees it is a terrible place to wait for a bus.

The local council wants to provide a bright new station with state- of- the-art facilities as part of a pounds 30m redevelopment of Derby city centre. It dreams of replacing the dark, noisy and polluted streets with a Continental- style piazza, from where happy shoppers can walk in peace down to a prettified riverside.

But it seems the people of Derby do not share this golden vision. For all its faults, they would rather keep the tatty building that the Twentieth Century Society says may be the finest of the few art deco bus stations still in existence.

On Friday campaigners marched on the Council House in Corporation Street to deliver a petition with 11,500 signatures calling for the redevelopment to be stopped. "It would seem that Derby city centre's most distinctive public building of the century, after decades of disgraceful neglect, is soon to pass into history," said Christopher Bentley of the Bus Station Action Group, which was formed in April.

Local Friends of the Earth are backing the campaign, in the fear that any new station will not be able to cope with the increased public transport services that Derby needs, provoking environmental problems as bus companies reduce their services and citizens turn to the car. The action group would prefer the existing building to be refurbished. It accuses the council of not repainting or cleaning some of the rusting shelters for 20 years.

The Upper Deck Cafe, with its nautical design and porthole windows, which the Beatles once looked through as they ate a fry-up while on tour, is now disused. Shops are boarded up, and few bus inspectors brave the chilly draughts that sweep around the shadowy shelters in winter.

Derby bus station was built in 1933 on the site of an old lead works. Its unique teardrop layout, with sweeping bus lanes, made the best of a limited, curving site close to the town hall and courts. The buildings, with their flat roofs and steel windows, were designed by Charles Herbert Aslin, who went on to win international acclaim for the schools he built in Hertfordshire after the war.

According to a local tale, the planners of Buenos Aires, Argentina, read about the new station and were so taken with it, they built a near- copy.

"Although the station is clearly in need of refurbishment and some alterations have taken place, it is generally in good condition and remarkably complete," says the Twentieth Century Society's register of buildings at risk. "The demolition of this building would represent a great loss to Derby's town centre. The bus station, which should be credited for its architectural merit, its group value and important contribution to Derby's townscape, deserves a far brighter future, and, with its flexible interior spaces, could accommodate a number of alternative uses. However, it is the view of the society that the bus station would best serve the purpose for which it was originally intended."

In July 1997, Derby City Council received an application to demolish the bus station and build a shopping centre with car parks. Outline planning permission was granted, but the station has so far remained untouched.

"As no formal planning application has been made, there is very little to debate at the moment," said the Mayor of Derby, Sara Bolton, who received the petition on Friday.

Pat Ethelstone, Derby's chief engineer, said that the council is in negotiations with developers, but there are no firm plans for the immediate future. "There are people who fear our intention is to replace it with a smaller modern version. That is not true."

Refurbishment was not a practical option, he said. "We want a modern, secure, warm, well-lit station - a place where people feel comfortable and safe. As it stands, Derby bus station does not perform that function. Because of the curving lanes, it is difficult for modern buses to get in and out, the information system is terrible, and people have to cross areas where the traffic flows in order to get to their stop. I was there with some blind people the other day, and they found it a very challenging place.

"In its day it was probably exceptional. It catered very well for public transport. But I certainly wouldn't call it beautiful."

DECO TREASURES

THE FOX PUB, BIX, OXFORDSHIRE

Rare example of a 1930s roadhouse pub that has survived intact inside and out. Grade II listed. Brewery plans to redevelop it into modern chain-pub.

TINSIDE LIDO, PLYMOUTH, DEVON

Grade II listed circular pool with open-air theatre, built in 1935, may be demolished, with changing rooms converted into a super- pub. Unlisted open walkway with sun shelter above pool is also under threat.

BROOM HILL LIDO, IPSWICH, SUFFOLK

Built in woodland in 1938, Broom Hill is the only lido in the country with metric dimensions. Unlisted; threatened with closure.