Forster Square Station in 1961 (From Bradford Telegraph and Argus)

Forster Square Station in 1961

8:28am Thursday 30th October 2008 in From the Air

Forster Square Station was a long way from being redeveloped a few hundred yards up the line when this CH Wood aerial photograph was taken in September, 1961.

The goods depot (to the left of the passenger platforms) was still a busy place.

Beneath its vast roof bales of raw wool were unloaded from wagons to be despatched to Bradford’s many mills. Machinery manufactured in the city’s engineering works filled the vacated space, destined for factories elsewhere.

In the Cathedral grounds on the top left of the picture, graves still occupied the ground that was soon to be filled by the houses of the Bishop and Provost. Bolton Road ran down into Forster Square past the Transport Offices, alongside which at the end of the working day, long queues used to form for the trolley buses to Thackley, Green-gates and Eccleshill.

Forster Square itself had yet to be reshaped and have its subways created. The triangular collection of buildings at the junction of Canal Road and the square, just above the goods depot and to the right of a zebra crossing, were the railway offices which were demolished during that reshaping to make way for the new GPO.

Largely unchanged to this day are many of the buildings on the right of Cheapside, which runs up the right-hand side of the photograph. School Street, heading diagonally off Cheapside to the bottom of the picture, used to pass above the railway buildings on its way to meet Valley Road but is now merely a truncated access point to the lift and steps which lead down to the relocated station.

Picture courtesy of Bradford Museums, Galleries and Heritage.