Former bus garage, 270-276 Huntingdon Street

This is a bus garage, completed in 1939 in a Moderne style for the Barton Transport bus company, designed by HH Dawson. The building is roughly square on plan, with the main entrance facing Huntingdon Street.

The garage is constructed of brick, with decorative faience cladding on the north-east elevation. The roof is formed of three shallow, parallel double pitches, supported by a complex mild steel trussed roof structure with a corrugated sheet covering.

The symmetrical entrance elevation is divided into three sections, with two-storey advanced sections with curved ends flanking a recessed entrance section. This entrance section originally housed a wide opening served by doors, now replaced by a roller shutter. The brick walls of the flanking sections curve inwards to meet the recessed entrance and curve around onto the side elevations. Above the central entrance, the walling rises above the roof line of the flanking sections to form a tall parapet wall, with curved ends that continue back into the main roof area. Historic photographs show that this parapet originally contained a window opening above a wide, horizontally-reeded band connecting it to the upper storeys of the flanking sections, though this detailing is now partially obscured.

The lower floors of the flanking sections were originally designed to accommodate retail units, with office space above. The lower levels are now covered with sheeting, but the upper levels are clad in white faience and incorporate two wide window openings with three-light transomed metal window frames. Vertically-reeded faience panels extend vertically from floor level to halfway up the ground floor, between the curved walling and the entrance section, with the upper section concealed by sheeting. Curved, faience-clad walling returns onto the side elevations at either end of the frontage, ending at wide, vertically-reeded, pilaster-like panels. The side elevations are brick and feature evenly-spaced window openings with plain brick heads, projecting faience cills, and metal window frames.

The interior comprises a single, open space, with the exception of the frontage units. A cantilevered walkway extends along most of the length of the south-east side wall. The roof structure is a complex, lightweight steel design intended to withstand both compression and tension stresses across the long, unsupported spans, thus providing the necessary open-plan interior. The curved ends of the front walling reflect the building’s exterior curvature.