Former bus station, Station Square, Milton Keynes

Former Bus Station, Station Square, Milton Keynes

A bus station designed as a precisely calculated pavilion by Milton Keynes Development Corporation architects Derek Yeadon and Robert de Grey, with structural engineers Felix J Samuely, John Condon, Alan Marshall and Tom Scholar, and built by Costains Construction. The project had an estimated budget of £1.5 million.

The building was designed to provide an interchange for bus passengers beneath a deep canopy that sheltered both inside and outside waiting areas. The two-storey structure beneath the canopy contained, on the ground floor, a snack bar, information kiosk, booking office, newsagents and public lavatories, all accessible to disabled people. The upper floor housed United Counties Bus Company offices and staff facilities. Bus bays were diagonally aligned on the northern side with additional access from the Elder Gate frontage to the south.

Symmetrically placed ramped walks and steps at either end of the building connect the bus station to the town's pedestrian walkway infrastructure, which is defined by low parapet walls and dividers between planters and beds.

The bus station comprises a double-height space beneath a roof suspended from steel girders supported on steel columns, chosen to achieve a lightweight structure with wide spans. A canopy measuring 4,250 square metres (117 metres by 36 metres) is suspended from exposed steel frame girders supported on 20 specially manufactured steel columns bolted to pile caps. These support ten steel beams, each 36.2 metres long and weighing 12.5 tonnes, welded on site at ground level from two sections. The beams are spaced at 12-metre centres with a span between columns of 21.6 metres and cantilevers of 7.3 metres. The suspended roof is covered in plasticised PVC sheeting. Beneath the canopy stands an enclosed two-storey structurally independent core clad in stacked laid rectangular grey granite panels.

The canopy extends over a concrete paved podium which defines the extent of the bus station. The 'I' beams are exposed at each end of the roof, which is supported on each elevation on slender square-section steel piers set back from the perimeter. Rectangular light wells in the canopy bring natural light to the external seating area. The steel girders above the roof are visible from above but not at ground level or close proximity.

Of the two-storey building beneath the canopy, the end bays of the main elevations and eastern wall are blank and clad in granite blocks. The central six bays on both main elevations are defined by rectangular granite clad piers set forward from a fully glazed ground floor screen wall and door units to the concourse and waiting room, providing views out to the buses. Above, on both elevations, the upper floor has continuous top-hung casement windows beneath shallow clerestory glazing, set flush with the façade and high beneath the roof. On the northern elevation the fenestration steps down to light the foyer at the head of an external steel stair, added when United Counties left the first floor, which gives access to the upper floor. Entrances on both elevations have sliding door units, altered from the original side-hung automatic doors, opening onto the foyer and ticket office. The western end is also glazed, lighting an internal stairwell added when United Counties left the first floor. The name 'Milton Keynes Central Bus Station' was applied to both main elevations in lettering consistently used throughout Milton Keynes, but was removed from the south elevation when the first floor windows were altered.

The external seating area at the eastern end has granite clad concrete benches with tile seats, set either side of low spine walls or seat backs.

The podium which defines the bus station distinguishes pedestrian from vehicular areas and is slightly raised above street level, indented on the northern side to define the bus bays. Steel frames set at an angle adjacent to the bus bays formerly supported travel information panels. To the east and west the podium merges with the paving to provide uninterrupted access to walkways.

The waiting room is fitted with solid timber tables, benches and seating lining the walls, supported on steel frames with channelled bench and table ends. The western and eastern original staircases are concrete with a grey terrazzo finish. The additional internal staircase at the western end is timber. Previous fixings suggest that the balustrade has been altered.