Wythenshawe Bus Garage is a Grade II*

listed building In the United Kingdom, a listed building or listed structure is one that has been placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Historic Environment Scotland in Scotland, in Wales, and the Northern Irel ...

Wythenshawe Wythenshawe () is a district of the city of Manchester, England. Historically in Cheshire, Wythenshawe was transferred in 1931 to the City of Manchester, which had begun building a massive housing estate there in the 1920s. With an area of approx ...

Greater Manchester Greater Manchester is a metropolitan county and combined authority area in North West England, with a population of 2.8 million; comprising ten metropolitan boroughs: Manchester, Salford, Bolton, Bury, Oldham, Rochdale, Stockport, Tam ...

, England. Designed by Manchester City Architects Department under G. Noel Hill, and completed in 1942, the garage was a pioneering example of its type of construction. It is located in Harling Road, off Sharston Road in the

Sharston Sharston is an area of Wythenshawe, south Manchester, England. The population at the 2011 census was 16,754. History Built on former farming land (as was most of Wythenshawe when the estate was first being built in the 1920s), the area was i ...

district of Wythenshawe. It was the second-largest reinforced concrete shell roof structure to be constructed in England. The building’s structure was particularly innovative for its time. Its concrete arches have a span of 165 ft (50.3m) from side to side, are 42 ft (12.8m) high and spaced 42 ft (12.8m) apart. The tensile concrete shell roof between these concrete arches is just 2.5 inches (63.5mm) thick and is daringly punctured by large rooflights. Wythenshawe Garage proved to be the model for much larger buildings using the concrete shell roof structure technique, which was an economic method of achieving large uninterrupted roof spans. Originally designed to garage 100 double-decker buses, the building on its completion was immediately commandeered by the Ministry of Aircraft Production for work associated with the building and repair of Avro Lancaster bombers in support of Britain’s Second World War efforts. On its return to Manchester Corporation use in 1946, the building was known as

Northenden Northenden is a suburb of Manchester, Greater Manchester, England, with a population of 14,771 at the 2011 census. It lies on the south side of the River Mersey, west of Stockport and south of Manchester city centre, bounded by Didsbury to ...

garage. It housed buses used mainly on routes linking the city centre and the large Wythenshawe housing estate, also on three serving

Gatley Gatley is a suburb in the Metropolitan Borough of Stockport, Greater Manchester, England, 3 miles north-east of Manchester Airport. History Toponymy Within the boundaries of the historic county of Cheshire, in 1290, Gatley was known as ''Ga ...

and Styal, the Sale Moor and Brooklands districts of Sale, and

Baguley Baguley ( ) is an electoral ward of the city of Manchester in Wythenshawe, England. The population at the 2011 census was 14,794. Baguley is derived from the Old English words Bagca, badger, and Leah, clearing or meadow. Historically in Cheshi ...

and the Timperley district of

Altrincham Altrincham ( , locally ) is a market town in Trafford, Greater Manchester, England, south of the River Mersey. It is southwest of Manchester city centre, southwest of Sale and east of Warrington. At the 2011 Census, it had a population ...

. The building is now in private ownership and is used for car parking.

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