The old Gallowgate coach station

[robertclark125]

Few questions about the long gone Gallowgate coach station in Newcastle upon tyne.

When did it close? It was certainly operating in 1993, but when after that did it close?

I've seen photos of it with vehicles parked up in front of what looked like doors with glass at the top. In this photo, between the yellow double decker and the UAS Bristol VRT, you can see them painted brown. What was behind those doors? Was Gallowgate at one time a depot as well, and if so, who owned the depot?

https://victoryguy.smugmug.com/United-Automobile-Services/i-q6X79Mw/A

When Gallowgate did close, were any local or medium distance services, such as the 685 from Carlisle, using the station?

At one point, United owned the Gallowgate. Who owned it at closure?

And lastly, what are peoples memories of it, and what were the facilities like at Gallowgate?

 

[Darklord8899]

I believe the replacement was built in 2003, not sure if it was still in use up till then...
...as far as I am aware it was never used as a depot

 

[TheGrandWazoo]

The depot was originally built by United in the mid 1930s as a parcel depot but was not used as such and instead was their second Newcastle depot, operating services in the West of the city to Throckley, Newbiggin Hall and out to Prudhoe etc. It received coach seated VRs APT816-20W for local expresses on the West Road and also had new Olympians.

It also had a coach allocation (as it was also the coach station) so in the mid 80s, had an allocation of about 50-60 vehicles. It passed on 7th Sep 1986 to Northumbria. The depot closed c1993 but the coach station was still there in 1999 though part of the structure furthest west had already been demolished. It was, by that point, an Arriva property.

It had a large travel office and toilets but can’t recall any cafe. In olden days, it was United’s Northumberland area management offices. In later years, part of the depot was sectioned off (closest to the offices) for Rapide services so all loading/embarking was under cover.

That help?

 

[Darklord8899]

....can always rely on you @TheGrandWazoo

 

[Tetchytyke]

When Gallowgate did close, were any local or medium distance services, such as the 685 from Carlisle, using the station?

It was still there in 2001/2 when I went to uni at Durham, my gf was in Carlisle and the 723/685 on a day ticket was much cheaper than the train. The 685 stopped outside but it started in Eldon Square bus station, back when it was the subterranean pit of hades.

It was gone as soon as the new coach station opened in early 2003 and the office block didn't take long to get thrown up.

 

[TheGrandWazoo]

....can always rely on you @TheGrandWazoo

I am a child of the North East - United was “my firm”

 

[TheGrandWazoo]

A bit more information dredged from the memory banks....

The allocation in the mid 1980s was mainly deckers and after the Metro was introduced, there was a rejigging of services so that Gallowgate lost the Newbiggin Hall services to the PTE, but gained the 306 to Tynemouth from Northern (which rather ironically goes via Jesmond). They retained the routes along the Scotswood Road to places like Prudhoe and even had some rural work to Ovington (for which they retained Bristol LHs) and even operated a route to Lobley Hill - very much Northern territory. However, there was a real bit of odd interworking from the early 1980s in that the X25/X26 Blyth to Newcastle interworked with the 601/602 Newcastle to Hexham so Gallowgate visited both towns (and indeed, Blyth operated into Hexham and vice versa).

Here are some photos from flickr that show the site. The first photo shows it in later Arriva Northumbria days with the right hand side now demolished and fenced off. The first bay of doors was the "Rapide" bay where coaches would reverse in and load. The offices on the left were the area offices (upstairs) and travel office (downstairs). I can't remember where the maintenance bays were as I only went round it once when my dad got me in there when I was 10!

The second photo shows the shed that was demolished, even showing an LH (that might be blinded for the 647 Lobley Hill - hard to tell). That second photo shows the main part of the depot. The third gives an aerial view on the far right.

https://www.flickr.com/photos/77751183@N07/41281071051/in/photolist-25TShdk-25jXuCC
https://www.flickr.com/photos/jp471...7V-qD71hw-26RiGxw-Psf45Z-EtbRs4-VPpzMu-Pv5cXn
https://www.flickr.com/photos/twm_n...ga5-Ubmzxi-VqJnri-5mJFJg-eSCvgx-7dCjX6-7dXs1r

Last flickr photo shows a pair of Gallowgate allocated vehicles https://www.flickr.com/photos/131962719@N04/37082089415/in/photolist-YuPpge Most of Gallowgate's routes were traditionally operated from the Marlborough Crescent bus station though in later years, many actually began in the subterranean hellhole that was Eldon Square's old bus station (now a service yard) and called into Marlborough Crescent en route to Scotswood Road.

 

[robertclark125]

Many thanks to everyone for their help. I only remember being at it once, in 1987, on a coach trip to Skegness. I assume when the depot closed, the duties would've moved to Hexham, Jesmond, and Whitley Bay?

 

[TheGrandWazoo]

Many thanks to everyone for their help. I only remember being at it once, in 1987, on a coach trip to Skegness. I assume when the depot closed, the duties would've moved to Hexham, Jesmond, and Whitley Bay?

Hexham got all the 602s at deregulation but the other routes went over to Jesmond in the main. It was helped by Northumbria having less NatEx work (other than the 525 London) so less to move and Jesmond had more space too.

 

[route101]

Vid of bus station 85

 

[TheGrandWazoo]

Vid of bus station 85

Mullet-&-tachetastic

Nice United Metroliner!

 

[route101]

Mullet-&-tachetastic

Nice United Metroliner!

The videos on that channel are great

 

[jp4712]

Oo, one of my photos there! The LH was indeed blinded for the 647 to Lobley Hill, it’s clear on the original slide.

Gallowgate was indeed an important UAS garage, and below here’s a photo of the depot ‘hack’ of the early 1980s.

United 1071, Gallowgate coach station, December 1982 by Paul Williams, on Flickr

 

[TheGrandWazoo]

Oo, one of my photos there! The LH was indeed blinded for the 647 to Lobley Hill, it’s clear on the original slide.

Gallowgate was indeed an important UAS garage, and below here’s a photo of the depot ‘hack’ of the early 1980s.

United 1071, Gallowgate coach station, December 1982 by Paul Williams, on Flickr

Some quality photos there Paul - takes me back to my childhood

 

[Geordie driver]

Re Gallowgate, I started at United in Newcastle early 1985, back when bus driving was a good job. Although I was a Jesmond driver I would visit Gallowgate twice a day as that's where our gear was kept and that's where we paid in. It was also where I went for an occasional bollocking upstairs.

Gallowgate and Jesmond runs were entirely seperate no Jesmond driver would do one of their runs or vice versa, even runs like the 602 which both depots operated. Seems daft looking back. Both depots had internal and external ( referring to Tyne and Wear) rotas, internal were on a fair bit more money.

The inspector in the video was called Bobby, his last name escapes me but he was better known by his nick name. He had a limp from being run over by a bus reversing over his leg, real canny bloke. There was no canteen facilities but there were toilets, I once had a hostess tell me there was a tramp having a **** under the hot air dryer in the ladies, I told her not to knock it until she had tried it! Then I hoyed him out.

Some of the best times of my working life based around that place, I would still be driving were the wages and conditions as good as they were then.
Northumbria inherited a lot of prime real estate from United, I wonder how much they got for Gallowgate? Jesmond is up for sale now.

 

[TheGrandWazoo]

Re Gallowgate, I started at United in Newcastle early 1985, back when bus driving was a good job. Although I was a Jesmond driver I would visit Gallowgate twice a day as that's where our gear was kept and that's where we paid in. It was also where I went for an occasional bollocking upstairs.

Gallowgate and Jesmond runs were entirely seperate no Jesmond driver would do one of their runs or vice versa, even runs like the 602 which both depots operated. Seems daft looking back. Both depots had internal and external ( referring to Tyne and Wear) rotas, internal were on a fair bit more money.

Northumbria inherited a lot of prime real estate from United, I wonder how much they got for Gallowgate? Jesmond is up for sale now.

Jesmond has been up for sale for a long time....officially since 2016 but actually earlier. Part of the issue is that the frontage is grade II listed.

I remember visiting Newcastle when I was younger with my late father, working Tynelink dupes on the run up to Christmas. I was about 10/11 - this was early 1980s. My dad parked up his decker at Gallowgate and he accompanied me as I looked around the depot. Then think we headed round to the PTE canteen which I think was close to the Haymarket bus station.

 

[Geordie driver]

Jesmond has been up for sale for a long time....officially since 2016 but actually earlier. Part of the issue is that the frontage is grade II listed.

I remember visiting Newcastle when I was younger with my late father, working Tynelink dupes on the run up to Christmas. I was about 10/11 - this was early 1980s. My dad parked up his decker at Gallowgate and he accompanied me as I looked around the depot. Then think we headed round to the PTE canteen which I think was close to the Haymarket bus station.

The PTE canteen was behind the Farmers rest pub in the Haymarket up some stairs and was always busy. United had a small canteen on Morden St. ,this tended to be a bit quieter, often there would be a card game going on usually crash.

Now there is a tiny box room, no food served, I have seen me go in for my bait and be unable to get a seat, NMS treated their staff poorly.

 

[TheGrandWazoo]

The PTE canteen was behind the Farmers rest pub in the Haymarket up some stairs and was always busy. United had a small canteen on Morden St. ,this tended to be a bit quieter, often there would be a card game going on usually crash.

Now there is a tiny box room, no food served, I have seen me go in for my bait and be unable to get a seat, NMS treated their staff poorly.

Yep - that location behind the pub rings a bell. As does United drivers playing CRASH - definitely seemed to be the card game of choice for my dad and his colleagues, usually with plenty of 2p pieces to hand. High stakes

 

[Geordie driver]

Yep - that location behind the pub rings a bell. As does United drivers playing CRASH - definitely seemed to be the card game of choice for my dad and his colleagues, usually with plenty of 2p pieces to hand. High stakes

Crash was indeed the game of choice, couldn't stand it myself, just a card sorting game in my eyes, probably saved me a fortune, there was a lot of card marking going on.
It was not the unknown for drivers to lose their entire takings for the day, I recall one driver losing 70 quid and having to pay in by cheque. Not uncommon, very different times.