Details of temporary bus
stops following the Bournemouth bus station
fire on Sunday the 25th of July 1976.
Reverse
TEMPORARY BUS STATION
for Hants & Dorset
buses
from Bournemouth
Because of the
disastrous fire at the Bournemouth Square
Bus Station on 25th July the terminal point
for all Hants & Dorset buses is now at
the Triangle which was the nearest alternative
site.
The terminal point for National Express
coaches (Royal Blue) is at the Shamrock
& Rambler Coach Station in Holdenhurst
Road.
A temporary Enquiry,
Parcels, Left Luggage and Lost Property Office
is to be opened soon at 31 The Triangle, Bournemouth.
Bournemouth bus and coach
station was built between 1929 and 1931. It
was a joint project by Hants & Dorset
Motor Services and Elliott Brothers Royal
Blue Coaches. Later, it was taken over completely
by Hants & Dorset who carried out a major
rebuild in 1959.
Buses used the open-air
top level while express coaches operated from
the lower level.
In the early hours of
Sunday the 25th of July 1976 a fire broke
out in the coach station. A police officer
was able to lead a couple who had been sleeping
there to safety. On the upper level, people
(including a Bournemouth Corporation driver
on his way home from a night out) moved the
parked buses out of the bus station.
The fire was made worse
by the tyres stored in the coach station.
Sixteen coaches, a former King Alfred Ford
Transit minibus and two cars were destroyed.
The building was severely damaged but the
upper level was partially used until 1980.
It was demolished two years later.
