# Westfield bus depot Edinburgh



## Twisted Nerve (Oct 8, 2008)

Bus Garage, Edinburgh (August 2003)

This site has long since gone and met its fate will the bulldozers less than a year after I took these shots. I think it originally started out as a Bedford truck dealership for SMT part of the Scottish Motor Traction bus company. In the mid 80’s, around 1986 (de-regulation time of the bus industry) this site became Westfield Bus Depot (Eastern Scottish Omnibuses Ltd) and operated a fleet of mini buses. The depot remained operational until early 2003 when First Group finally closed it down as it was loosing money. In its final days this site held about 60 single/ double deck buses as the mini/ midi bus had ran its course.

The local yobs had a field day in the building and destroyed as much of it as they could and also partially set fire to the workshops. I carried out this explore on my own but unfortunately I didn’t have a torch so the admin block was not visited and I didn’t fancy venturing too deep into the building on my own.

The site







The water flowing out of the pit door was a fire hydrant that the local yobs turned on






A view of the workshops looking from the admin offices/ control room






Looking down to the control room, depot engineers office and the drivers cashing in office from the workshop area






Drivers rest room/ canteen. Again the yobs have totalled this room






Drivers cashing in room. The 2 holes in the wall once housed an automatic money counting machine that you tipped your takings into. These machines were famous for not being accurate! They were removed by the company prior to closure as the company installed hopper vaults in all of its buses eliminating the need for drivers to total up their daily takings






Control room. This was once a busy place with the phones constantly ringing and the drivers calling in for assistance on the radio system. Now its just silent and very derelict.






Another view of the control room with the drivers signing on window boarded up






Public entrance with the name brass plates still attached to the wall






Moving up stairs and this is the view from the top of the stairwell. Again the yobs seem to have been using these windows for target practice






Director’s office with the board room in the background






Fire damage to the rear of the workshops






Fire damage from a different angle with the stores in the background






View right down the depot from the back of the workshops. Note the flooded pit!






Flooded pit which was very dangerous as they are about 5’ deep. I managed to turn the hydrant off!






Boiler room trashed






Engineering office






The shunters bothy with the vault box trolleys in the corner






One of the old shuttle vans that was left behind


----------



## sqwasher (Oct 8, 2008)

Nice report & well done for photographing it before it was flattened. Probably best if you don't mention anything at all about access though Twisted Nerve!?  Maybe you could edit that part out? Otherwise a good report-well done for getting the hydrant turned off too!


----------



## urbtography (Oct 8, 2008)

Theres some really nice photos there, shame about all the chav damage, it still boggles me as to why they do it, arnt those places much more amazing when intact? surely if they wanted somewhere to go n hang out they wouldnt trash it :S. But of course you cant expect chavs to actually think.

Really nice report anyway


----------



## Twisted Nerve (Oct 8, 2008)

I had thought about access prior to posting it but in all honesty anyone could have just walked in as it was left open and it was Five years ago. I will go back to the site next week and take an updated photo of how the site looks now. The last time I was there was when the demolition team were in and I never had my camera to hand nor my screwdrivers to remove the name plate. The crew said that they would keep it for me but they never did.


----------



## Twisted Nerve (Oct 8, 2008)

urbtography said:


> Theres some really nice photos there, shame about all the chav damage, it still boggles me as to why they do it, arnt those places much more amazing when intact? surely if they wanted somewhere to go n hang out they wouldnt trash it :S. But of course you cant expect chavs to actually think.
> 
> Really nice report anyway



I have no idea why the youth of today insist on trashing things. The building would probably still be standing if they had left alone.


----------



## Pincheck (Oct 12, 2008)

its a age old question mate ? but nice to see edinburgh getting explored


----------



## Twisted Nerve (Oct 12, 2008)

I was going to visit New Street depot too just before they pulled it down as I believe the offices were still in reasonable order however work commitments prevented me from doing this. I used to visit the old Citylink offices on a working capacity many years ago and in the basement (drivers mess area) was untouched and abandand for years and it was a scene straight out of the 1970's and untouched! sadly the building has since been demolished and replaced with concrete and steel which looks crap!


----------



## driver_1559 (Dec 11, 2020)

used work at both New Street, started on the minbuses, before they closed New Street and moved to Westfield in the early 90s (eastern scottish didn't own new street).
Getting Coaches out of westfield avenue used to be a nightmare sometimes due to parked cards.

Great wee depot to work out, wasn't that great in the winter, trying to get the ice of the windscreens


----------

