Not visited
The Traveller's Rest was actually part of the bus station / municipal office complex. Whether it replaced a former pub of that name that had to be demolished or it was a new venture I can't now say. The bus station had opened in May 1978 round about the time that Star Wars came to Rochdale and seemed equally futuristic . I remember the thrill of using the intercom buttons ( God I feel so old typing this ) to ask for a bus time I already knew.
The Traveller's Rest initially looked both intimidating and alluring with its opaque black windows but soon acquired a bad reputation and started looking shabby. I think the problem was that the National Express coaches didn't call at the bus station so there were no long distance travellers who might call in, just uninterested locals catching frequent buses. Instead it became a dumping ground for people who'd been shown the door by the yuppifying pubs in the town centre .
It closed down some time in the 90s and the council cannibalised the space. The whole building will come down in the near future ( as a result of Metrolink coming to Rochdale ) which makes me feel older still.
I have fond memories of the ‘travellers’ as a venue for local bands back in the eighties… strange to see the ‘black box’ in retrospect as a former Rochdaleian, it does indeed look very space age and quite snazzy! On a recent visit, I discovered the whole area has been replaced with a cloned version of Bury town centre (and/or quite possibly multiple other town centres across the nation) including a leisure complex with a cinema and indoor crazy golf. Found myself strangely missing the more anarchic/sleazy predecessor…
ReplyDeleteThanks for dropping by. I never realised it used to be a music venue.
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