Best of Hyde 2013

The time has come to vote for the Best of Hyde Daily 2013.

On 1st January 2014 members of the City Daily Photobloggers community will be revealing their Photo of the Year. I have selected twelve contenders for Best of Hyde 2013 and am asking readers to vote for their favourites. Please visit Best of Hyde Daily Photo 2013 and vote for your top three photographs.

Closing date for voting is 12 noon GMT on December 28th 2013.

Note: these thumbnails are just a taster - you must use the form on the page to cast your votes.

Bus Station repairs

After last weeks surreal view of Hyde Bus Station, an all too real view from last week.

The carriage-ways are being repaired forcing all services to use one side of the bus station only. With only one way through, many routes (the 330 in particular) have been diverted and no longer stop on Market Street to the inconvenience of many users.

See the notice on Hyde DP Xtra.

Hyde Bus Station: A Surreal View

Mark Delahoyde wrote to me a little while ago saying

I've been a fan of your Old Hyde blog for a while now being from Hyde myself... I love seeing how it's changed over the years! I recently stumbled across Sergey Larenkov's blog showing images of war-time Europe overlaid with modern shots, and thought I'd try the same with some of your shots.

As the CDPB theme today is Public Transport I thought today might be the ideal time to show his blending of a photograph from Old Hyde with mine taken some 50 years later.

For an intermediate version see Old Hyde for a 1999 view of the bus station.

Click here to view thumbnails for all participants to the theme day.

ABC WednesdayBus Station, Hyde 2010

Bus Station, Hyde 2010. In the background is the now closed Astoria Bingo Hall.

Hyde got a new bus station in 2005. The buses circulate around the outside while passengers wait within an all-weather designed area.

In the previous bus station, passengers waited on the outside under draughty "shelters" with inadequate seating.

An even earlier bus station can be seen on Old Hyde.

For more B posts visit ABC Wednesday

Ironwork Reflections

At the Market Street entrance to the bus station, the iron railings which surround the colonnade of shops that stretch up Market Street are reflected in the bathroom showroom window.

For more weekend reflections visit Newtown Area Photo.

342 in Hyde Bus Station

I was on the top deck of the 330 bus to Ashton and took this of the 342 Speedwell bus which does the Back Bower circular route.

I showed you the 342 two years ago in May 2008.

I also showed it you parked in the bus station in February 2007.

You saw it first though in April 2006 at the temporary stop it was using while the new bus station was still under construction.

Quality Save

Another photo from the 2nd January when the snows first hit town.

This is looking down Clarendon Street from outside Bosun's where I'd just shared breakfast with my son.

The Quality Save store was originally the Hippodrome Theatre. It closed in the 1960s and the building was converted into a Supermarket. It actually operated as an "inside market" with various independent stalls on two storeys and included a very popular cafe. That closed in the 1990s and the building was vacant for a few years before opening as Quality Save. Now only the ground floor is used for retailing.

At the bottom of the street is the Bus Station.

They come along in Twos

In my post, View from the bus, a couple of months ago, I queried the presence of a couple of buses in convoy on the 330 service.

A frequent service (it used to be run every eight minutes), it isn't unusual to find two buses following each other. I'd always thought it was a question of the first bus being delayed by traffic and the second catching it up.

Last Saturday I was in Hyde Bus Station and looked at the electronic timetable. I was surprised to see it indicate two buses departing within one minute of each other.

When I got off the bus at the stop four minutes up the road, I took a snap of the timetable displayed in the shelter. I've pasted it into the bottom of the photo and that shows just one bus every ten minutes.

Reputedly, drivers on the 330 route consider it to have the most miserable passengers , compared to other routes.

To be fair, I have to say that generally it is an excellent service, but the timetabling is rather curious.

343 bus to Oldham

A JPT bus on the 343 route at Hyde Bus Station. In front of it is a parked Speedwell's bus.

The 343 goes on a round the houses route from Hyde to Oldham via Flowery Field, Stalybridge, Carrbrook, Micklehurst, Mossley, Grotton and Lees.

As Martin of Ashton-under-Lyne DP reported earlier, the service was in danger as Speedwells who run the majority of journeys on the route are withdrawing it in October 2009.

A Facebook Group was launched to save it and recent news is that the route will probably be run by "First" buses from October 3rd 2009.

Information on the history of the route can be found on the Saddleworth buses website.

March Theme: Glass

Glass is the CDPB theme this month so I'm showing again one of the stained glass panels at Hyde Bus Station.

The panels were created by Jo Ann Eisenberg with help from pupils of Dale Grove Primary School.

I first showed you this panel on 30th July 2006 and the second one on 7th Aug 2006.

In this picture you also get a glimpse of the Astoria Bingo Hall which closed down last week.

Click here to view thumbnails for all participants to the theme.

342 boarding

Here we have a number 342 bus (Back Bower circular) being boarded at the Bus station. The bus just passing it is probably a number 204 (Piccadilly via Haughton Green).

Most people didn't seem to understand Thursday's number question.

Several came up with the answer 42; obviously like me they are fans of Douglas Adams.

Kuanyin from Maui got nearest but was hardly half way there and for the wrong reason, whilst Marley from Cheltenham's astute guess was way over the top.

The correct answer to what all the numbers in each photograph in the collage add up to is

20,569.85

Thanks to all who attempted an answer.

On Sunday May 18th I intend doing another "What is it?" post.

Bus Station from Market Street

A view of the Bus Station from the bottom end of Market Street.

Bus Station Roof

Two for the price of one today.

This picture, taken with my point-and-shoot Olympus, shows the projecting out roof of Hyde Bus Station. By shooting towards the sun, however, whilst it creates a satisfyingly austere image, all detail is lost.


This is the same image after "equalising the histogram". Although this creates a rather flat appearance it does bring out the details. In the background is the Donnybrook Medical Centre and the rear of the parade of shops at the bottom of Market Street.

Answer to February Quiz

Last week I asked What is this?.

As Ghost of Red Pump Street knew, it is the concrete retaining wall alongside the M67 Motorway.

On the other side of the wall is the Bus Station.

The photograph was taken from the footbridge on the Western side of the Bus Station.

From here you can see the Eastern footbridge and just beyond that Clark Way.


Dick from Eye on Texel has presented us with an award.

Inside the Bus Station

Inside the Bus Station.

View from the top deck

A few days ago Keropokman in Singapore posted a picture of a double-deck bus and asked if others still rode on the top deck of a bus.

This is the view from the top deck of a bus leaving Hyde Bus Station.

Astoria Bingo Hall

The Astoria Bingo Hall was glimpsed in my photograph looking up Clarendon Street.

It was originally a cinema called La Scala; rumour has it they used to turn the heating up towards the interval in the hope that people would buy more ice cream.

Looking up Clarendon Street

This is looking up Clarendon Street from one of the footbridges over the M67.

You can see a #330 bus about to enter the Bus Station.

Standing out further up the street is the Art Deco facade of the building that I think was originally a cinema but in more recent years has housed an indoor market or supermarket.

Clarendon Street should not be confused with Clarendon Road, Clarendon Place nor the Clarendon Shopping Centre, which are all separate places.

Waiting for the bus

Whilst waiting for my bus, I took a picture of the seats in the Bus Station.

Whilst certainly more comfortable than those "half-benches" on which one could barely perch, in the old bus station, they are very cold to sit on.

My bus is parked up while the driver takes a quick break.

When's the next bus?

They've recently installed these new electronic screens in the Bus Station so you have accurate information available.