Do you fancy owning a former tram depot? If you do – and have a spare £875,000! – now is your chance as the former Lowestoft Corporation Tramways depot in Rotterdam Road has gone up for sale.
The depot originally featured four tracks in the main building with an additional one track shed built later. The trams had sole use of the building until 1929 when the first buses moved in. Two years later, in 1931, the tramway closed and so it became a bus garage. The building remained as a bus depot until 1977 when Waveney District Council sold their bus operations to Eastern Counties Omnibus Co. Following this the structure was used for industrial use but in recent years it has fallen into disuse.
Of interest is that despite the fact that is has been 92 years since trams last called the building their own, there is still track in situ. Some of the track (at the entrance to the depot) was removed by volunteers from the East Anglia Transport Museum in the early 1970s but there does still remain some under the tarmac.
The agents in charge of the sale describe the chance to acquire the building and surrounding land as an amazing opportunity. The site is approximately 0.7 acres and as well as a large industrial unit also has modern offices on two floors, parking for over 20 cars and a “main unit that boasts impressive eaves height and very large roller shutter entrance” (this will be the former tram depot building).
- Details of the sale can be found at https://steelandco.co.uk/commercial-properties/property/12118341?fbclid=IwAR0ZSz9GgH9HicOsMH7gnEbcStdkTuD9wnRfZJgokDIxucMvn5gibHOkOtA
A picture from May 1971, Showing AEC Regent II no25 on the forecourt of the depot showing part of the track layout. The point work just out of shot in the foreground remains in situ under the tarmac. (Photograph by Tim Major)