Century-old tram shelter demolished

An often forgotten part of Blackpool’s rich tramway history disappeared forever on March
13th 2012, when work on demolishing the large brick waiting shelter at Norbreck was completed. The job had only begun one day earlier, marking the end of the life of one of the oldest remaining buildings on the system. The shelter dated back to 1898 when the Blackpool & Fleetwood Tramroad first opened, and it’s amazing to think that when new, it would have seen brand new open toastrack trams including preserved Fleetwood ‘Rack’ 2 at Crich serving it on a daily basis.

The style of the northbound waiting shelter at Norbreck reflected the railway-like nature
of the tramroad. In fact, the building originally boasted a small office area and some toilet facilities. Although rather neglected in later years, it is still sad to see a 113 year-old building disappear into the history books. Although perhaps not really in fitting with the modernised tramway, it would have been fantastic if the building could perhaps have been taken apart and moved to a museum or heritage tramway where it could have been restored and used again for its intended purpose. It is to be hoped that Blackpool Council did take the historic value of the shelter into consideration and that it had been offered to potentially interested parties before it was knocked down.

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