Goodbye Galway Avenue (Shelter)

Devonshire Road hosts Service 7 running between Cleveleys Bus Station and Blackpool Town Centre. It has been thus for many years whilst Bispham Road is served by the 9 which also has a long history traversing Bispham Village, Layton and sundry other long familiar stops en route.

With long residential stretches and quality homes built in the days when houses actually provided comfortable living space, gardens front and rear, high ceilings, thick walls and much to commend them to family living - the stops heading north from Talbot Road tend to feature unblemished shelters, mostly of the original BCT green and cream styling from the 1970s. These are now classic reminders of former times and the transport department's green and cream colours.

One such shelter resides (or resided) at the top of Galway Avenue at the inbound stop for the 7 and is personally familiar from my own days living on Moorpark Avenue -,which in earlier years linked up with Galway Avenue. Nowadays an abrupt dead end truncates Galway Avenue barring through traffic (perhaps thankfully for residents). Moorpark Avenue itself has morphed into a busy through road with incessant traffic in both directions - fortunately it was not so in my school years.

However getting back to the point of Galway Avenue's bus shelter. It succumbed to an errant driver over the past week and is probably destined for removal given the prediliction of the Council's Operations staff to forgo repairs of glazing and structural elements in favour of demolition and replacement with the latest design devoid of redeeming styling or municipal identity.

Before this happens it is worth recording the demise of Galway Avenue bus shelter with images taken today ahead of summary removal. Sic Transit Gloria