The Way We Were
Doncaster’s North Bus Station Car Park was considered to be the epitome of modern glamour when it first opened in 1967 – even more so with these evocative classics parked outside
1967, Doncaster, S. Yorks
The 1967 ‘Summer of Love’ didn’t just hit San Francisco and swingin’ London – it also hit Doncaster, where much adoration was directed towards a bold new architectural masterpiece that sent people flocking to the town from as far away as, er, Rotherham.
Satanic mills, black lead factories and a tripe works were all swept aside for the magnificent example of Brutalist form that was the North Bus Station Car Park.
Actually, maybe there’s a bit of poetic licence there because earlier pictures suggest that it was actually some rather nice Victorian buildings that met their fate. But who wanted that horrible red brick rubbish when such a magnificent structure was there to replace it?
This was a fine time for Doncaster, with local girl, Diana Rigg – who, amazingly, did not perform the opening ceremony for the new car park – doing very well in The Avengers on TV. It was the perfect environment for a car park extraordinaire, a wonderland in reinforced concrete so glamorous that it appears that the cars here had been forced to stay outside because they weren’t sufficiently prestigious.
So what do we have here? Well, starting from the right we have a partly visible Austin A40 – note the AA badge on the grille. Moving along, we have a Morris Mini, whose bumper overriders and wheeltrims suggest that it is a Super De Luxe. It doesn’t have a Cooper grille, but look carefully – isn’t that an Esso petrol ‘Tiger in Your Tank’ toy on the rear parcel shelf? That would be worth an eye-wateringly large sum today…
Sadly, rust seems to be taking a bit of a hold on BMC’s finest here, which would have been around five years old at the time.
Next is a 1965 Vauxhall Viva Deluxe HA, an easy car to drive in busy streets thanks to its light steering and predictable handling.
The locally-registered Morris Minor alongside is a later Series II, judging by its radiator grille.
A pre-Aeroflow Ford Cortina MkI is next, followed by a Ford Zodiac MkIII, which would be a fine addition to any car park line-up. Surely of even greater prestige is the early Rover P5 parked next to it, identified as an early (1958-61) model by the lack of quarter lights.
The next car – a Ford Zephyr MkIV – would have been brandnew when this photo was taken, looking at its F-suffix registration.
These, the last large cars designed by Ford of Britain, met with limited success. Note the V6 bonnet badge.
A Wolseley 1500 occupies the next space, followed by an extremely rare Ford Escort estate, based on the 300E van and produced alongside the Squire estate car from 1955-61.
Next to that is an Austin 1100 with the front number plate on the radiator grille – was it used in motor sport, we wonder?
Also, note the glimpse of the BMC Farina seen in the car park above the Rover P5 – how is it that its owner was afforded passage into North Bus Station Car Park, when so many other cars here weren’t?
This evocative scene would’ve been accompanied by the delicious sounds of the mighty co-occupants of the building. Doncaster was bus heaven in 1967, with the beautifully kept maroon and cream corporation fleet, other municipal buses and large ‘company’ operators, such as Yorkshire Traction, and a true myriad of small independent companies, not least Harold Wilson, which shared its name with the Prime Minister of the day.
Sadly every single one has gone, and the car park closed its doors for redevelopment in 2003, and the plaque declaring the building open was presented to the transport museum at Sandtoft.
‘Look carefully – isn’t that an Esso petrol ‘Tiger in Your Tank’ toy on the rear parcel shelf? This would be worth an eye-wateringly large sum today…’ PRICE OF CHILDHOOD NOSTALGIA