How depot came to be city’s home of creative businesses
THE Leicester City Transport Operating Centre, in Rutland Street, opened in 1969. Its concrete construccubes and bright white tion, LCT tiles were a startling contrast with the surrounding Victorian architecture.
The depot became the central hub for Leicester City Transport, replacing older offices in Humberstone Gate.
Buses drove through a narrow entrance at the front into a yard at the back and drivers then had to reverse into a very tight space.
Customer enquiries, lost property and the duty office were on the ground floor as well as a state-ofthe-art control room that used radio and the new technology of CCTV to monitor road conditions across the city.
The first floor housed administrative offices and the second a staff canteen. The top floor housed the Transport Club with bars, a dance hall and concert stage.
The bus company was rebranded Leicester City Bus (LCB) in 1984 and the letters in the cubes changed. Municipal bus operations in Leicester ended in 1986 when bus services were deregulated. By 1987 the depot was no longer being used.
For the next 15 years the site lay empty, but in 2002 it became the council’s first major regeneration project for the proposed Cultural Quarter.
Retaining the LCB Depot abbreviation, though now standing for Leicester Creative Business, it opened in 2004, providing 50 studios for artists and creative businesses, as well as exhibition spaces and a cafe.
As part of the project many of the original bus depot features retained and restored.
The aim of the LCB Depot is to support, develop and stimulate the city’s creative businesses. Since opening it has gone from strength to strength and has now become home to a thriving community of creatives that support the local economy.
The depot provides work-spaces and studios for creatives to rent, as well as hosting exhibitions and related arts events in the on-site gallery. were