please empty your brain below
Photographing this article must have taken not one but two trips to Slough. That's dedication.

Graham | 01.06.11 - 8:46 a.m. | #

I have never seen "The Office", I think it was because it was so over hyped it turned me off of it. Also it didn't help that the trailers I saw of it Ricky Gervais looked like such a smug git and I work in an office with enough people like that I don't need to watch a programme about people like that.

Barry | 01.06.11 - 8:59 a.m. | #

I wondered why the 335/353 bus timetables had suddenly started referring to the "Heart of Slough". Now I need wonder no more. Thanks DG.

THC | 01.06.11 - 9:12 a.m. | #

The bus stop in the old Slough Bus Station was Transport for Loondon's westernmost bus stop.

Julian | 01.06.11 - 10:40 a.m. | #

"The Heart of Slough". Oh no, that's never a good sign.

Just as how (as I discovered at the weekend) Sheffield no longer has a city centre (insert rude comments about windswept and brutalist architecture here), it instead has "the Heart of the City" where the city centre should be (or maybe once was - but it's difficult to tell. It's kind of grim)

Although I didn't actually use it, only walk through it en route to where I was going, the bus station in Sheffield did seem notably well-designed, bright and light, but not eye-catching or attractive. And resolutely ungimmicky. I guess Slough's new one fails on several of these points, then...

Dominic | 01.06.11 - 10:47 a.m. | #

I'm normally quite sympathetic to some of the better-designed brutalist-style buildings out there. But Slough bus station wasn't one of them. It was a horrid abomination with no redeeming qualities.

Beyond protection from the elements. Which a basic aluminium roof can manage, but apparently not the new swoosh. (Was it funded by Nike?)

Chz | 01.06.11 - 11:04 a.m. | #

It looks as though the people you quote were following the standard British policy of being as negative as possible about everything, especially if it involves change from the familiar (even if the familiar was rubbish).

Easy for me to say, though. I've never been to either building and almost certainly never will (I live in Devon, and, having been to Slough plenty of times in my youth, have no wish to ever go there again).

Brian Carpenter | Homepage | 01.06.11 - 11:32 a.m. | #

While they are rebuilding the town centre near the Station and will lose the big roundabout for a smaller traffic light junction, so they can build glassy new office buildings and terracotta apartment buildings. The rest of the town has been spiraling downmarket. Sloughs shopping was never posh but did have a good selection at one time.

The town itself is more affluent than it looks. The main roads are chock full of office buildings for tech companies, insurance/finance/legal services, UK headquarters for various multinationals. The problem is there several much nicer town centres nearby .

Windsor is 2 miles south of Slough it's always had boutiques but the expansion of it's shopping centres has seen quite high profile chains fighting for space in a small town. I mean there is a branch of Zara in a town of 30,000.

The consequence is that chain after chain has fled Slough and it is in a downward spiral. The main mall is old fashioned and now full of units on cheap temporary leases to independent traders. Marks has converted its top floor to an outlet centre and River Island and Top shop and Next are the only fashion chains left. We no longer have a book shop, music shop or in fact any reason for me to visit the town other than for the dentist or cinema. Hopefully the end of the recession will prompt the owner to propose a demolition and rebuild for the shopping centres.

Rational Plan | 01.06.11 - 12:33 p.m. | #

I lived in digs in Hounslow for many years and went to Slough on the 81...once! A long way to go for nothing, was what I thought at the time!

CornishCockney | 01.06.11 - 5:01 p.m. | #

As a sometime Slough resident, I have had the 'pleasure' of spending many an hour in that bus station so am glad to see the back of it - wish they would do the same to the one in Northampton mind...

Agree with the comments on Slough town centre, if you want decent selection go to Uxbridge or Reading. That said, it's still far better than Maidenhead.

Ian | 01.06.11 - 7:49 p.m. | #

The lower picture looks like it's crossing its legs in the queue for the Ladies.

Sue | Homepage | 01.06.11 - 8:22 p.m. | #

How did the olympics ticket application go DG? So many people seemed to have missed out...

MarcB | 01.06.11 - 9:45 p.m. | #

As the late great John Betjemen wrote:

"Come fair bombs and fall on Slough -
it isn't fit for humans now..."

Pedantic of Purley | 01.06.11 - 11:39 p.m. | #

BetjemAn wrote "friendly bombs": P of P indeed!!

Gordon | 02.06.11 - 7:53 a.m. | #

The old bus station kept you dry, it did need a coat of light coloured paint to brighten it up a bit.

John | 02.06.11 - 9:26 a.m. | #

Having just recently moved to Slough, I agree with many of the comments here. It is a very dull place to live and even worse for shopping / recreation. I find that the majority of the town centre shuts down at around 9pm even at weekends, with only a few bars and pubs open. Have to agree that with better options available nearby, Slough is never going to get this heart the council are trying very hard to fund/build!

Teg | Homepage | 08.06.11 - 10:12 a.m. | #

I don't care about the architecture, it's going to take more than a SWOOSH to make the Bus / Train station area into a "heart". The public deserve far better for example a bus service would be nice, to run more frequently and be manned by helpful polite drivers; not the case. Too many drivers who like to totally ignore the waiting PAYING public. It costs a local person £4 to travel 3 lousy and very time consuming miles (even outside of rush hour). I don't beleive the planners care about how unpleasant it is for local people to commute by bus for jobs, schools etc. That is why bus services and waiting areas have declined making travel by bus around Slough the WORST option. That is why the car is king with many households having up to 6 cars. Local roads are rammed to the gills with cars parking so thickly on the actual pavements and footpaths that cyclists and pedestrians are forced out.

As a non-driver I am forced to stay in or use a taxi as I cannot afford to have my day ruined by ignorant bus drivers and be left standing around in the cold or wet with my young child. It makes living in or just passing through Slough a depressing experience.


Donna Marks | 07.09.11 - 3:44 a.m. | #











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