Neil and Ruth Thomson: the Lewes Bus Station Story

About

Lewes bus station, in the heart of the town, was commissioned by Southdown Motor Services, a thriving local bus and coach company. At the time of its opening in 1954, the purpose-built island bus station was considered to be state-of-the-art - providing not just a dedicated bus interchange but also essential facilities for the travelling public as well as for Southdown staff. Its sudden closure in 2022 left passengers and staff with no safe bus interchange, no access to toilets, travel information or the upstairs cafe - all of which characterised this well-conceived building.

Coinciding with the publication of Lewes History Group's latest title, All Change! Lewes Bus Station, in their illustrated talk, authors Neil and Ruth Thomson, will explore the origins, rise and fall of this familiar, well-loved Lewes landmark.

Ruth will describe the web of connections that helped uncover the bus station's unexpected history and detail her intriguing research journey - delving into local archives and discovering previously untold proud, first-hand histories of some of the people who worked at Lewes bus station.

Neil will explain how the management's concerns about changing pressures on the bus company were expressed in the rich seams of The Southdown Chronicle, its in-house magazine. These show how the bigger picture of economic development and shifting political ideologies across the country changed the bus station's fortunes over the decades.

Today, the bus station faces an uncertain future but, as All Change! Lewes Bus Station reveals, it has a complex past that has deserved celebrating.