Virtually every town used to have a Town Centre lorry park, but they are all long gone now. ISTR stopping in Cardiff, Swansea, Reading, Plymouth, Exeter, Derby, Nottingham, Morecambe, Perth, Doncaster, Warrington & Hull to name few, but just where any of them were I haven’t a clue. I think the first two were right in the middle of the road at junctions. So where were these and any others we recall, and what is on the site now?
So to start off below is what now occupies the St Peter’s Street gasworks site alongside the river in Maidstone. Fremlins Brewery would be clockwise and further along and the old Courage (or Style and Winch) brewery would have been behind ASDA. Trebor Sharps creamy toffee works would have been further along the far bank and up by the railway bridge still is the former Tilling Stevens factory.
In the 1950s and 60s there was plenty of town centre parking for two main reasons- Some of the wartime bomb sites had still not been redeveloped and slum clearances had gone ahead without any plans for replacement. Add to this the fact that these days planners are keen to squeeze every last inch (sorry, centimetre) of paying space into our towns and road transport is left to find it’s own facilities- motorway services, lay byes, etc.
Dumfries lorry park was on the whitesands next to the river ,on the old A75,or at the brooms road carpark.,many many drivers used tae drink in the hole in the wa,the coach,the oak. Moffat used to be in the middle of the town or at the back o the wollen mill. Lockerbie was either at the slaughterhouse(back o the cop shop) or at the old National tyres depot(you could see it from the old A74.
When I was a humble O/D I used to park my D1000 regularly in the centre lorry park in Aldgate , well it was used as a car park during the day and lorries/motors at night. Its just one massive sky scraper now, I wonder if the Long Bar and the Red Lion are still there? Cheers Bewick.
Bewick:
When I was a humble O/D I used to park my D1000 regularly in the centre lorry park in Aldgate , well it was used as a car park during the day and lorries/motors at night. Its just one massive sky scraper now, I wonder if the Long Bar and the Red Lion are still there? Cheers Bewick.
Aah - the Red Lion, Aldgate - strippers, and beer in plastic glasses - and Tubby Isaac’s whelk stall just round the corner - the good old days!
(‘what time you going, drive, early starters park at the front - late starters at the back!’)
Bewick:
When I was a humble O/D I used to park my D1000 regularly in the centre lorry park in Aldgate , well it was used as a car park during the day and lorries/motors at night. Its just one massive sky scraper now, I wonder if the Long Bar and the Red Lion are still there? Cheers Bewick.
Parked so close you could hardly open the cab door. Les.
At one time the cattle market was used as a lorry parking area in Reading, back in the fifties dad parked in Victoria Square on the Kings Road where the Technical College now stands. Ashbourne had a lorry park on the Clifton Road (plenty of pics of it on this forum) and trucks still use the Airfield Industrial Estate. Here in Matlock the old quarry on the A6 near John Hadfield House (Tossmacs offices!) was used. I parked in the old station yard though, until insurance issues meant I had to park back at our quarry.
There used to be a lorry park in Paisley in the early seventies although I am not too sure if it was on Renfrew Road. It was on a piece of waste ground opposite a pub that we all used called The Bungalow. You didn’t have to pay for parking and there was nowhere to get a wash but there were digs nearby which was run by a women called Chrissy. There was a fish and chip shop and a café nearby in walking distance and I remember that just up the road was the Chivers factory where for years I thought that was where they made the Chivers jam.
Some fifteen years later I loaded part of a bottling plant in West Germany for Chivers in Paisley and discovered that it was where they bottled Chivas Regal whiskey.
Plymouth had one that was actually IN the bus station. It was ok, I had some good nights there AND staff canteen and ‘facilities’ early morning. Wash and a shave before a decent breakfast.
I remember as a young lad in the mid 70’s seeing Hungarocamion, Pekaes and (what I later knew as F Troop), Romtrans parking in the TIR Park at the railway yard on Ley Street by Havelock Bridge in Ilford where the Sainsburys carpark now stands. I distinctly remember the drivers and Party man sitting by their trailer boxes eating pickles and meat that was kept in glass jars. No such luxury as digs and pubs for those guys. They were waiting for loads and for paperwork from M&S Shipping.
GS
mushroomman:
There used to be a lorry park in Paisley in the early seventies although I am not too sure if it was on Renfrew Road. It was on a piece of waste ground opposite a pub that we all used called The Bungalow. You didn’t have to pay for parking and there was nowhere to get a wash but there were digs nearby which was run by a women called Chrissy. There was a fish and chip shop and a café nearby in walking distance and I remember that just up the road was the Chivers factory where for years I thought that was where they made the Chivers jam.
Some fifteen years later I loaded part of a bottling plant in West Germany for Chivers in Paisley and discovered that it was where they bottled Chivas Regal whiskey.
Lorry park still there, a proper job now I presume and its signposted, Bungalow gone Asian restaurant now I think. Les.
The truck park in Eastbourne used to be at the far end of the sea front, always full of trucks. Nice wash n’ brush up facilities, and I believe there was a club there as well. Pub and a chippie within walking distance too.
