Slough, being a suburb to the City of London is well known as an industrial town. Though it has some good reputation for crime scenes and the same can be felt while walking on streets. Still it is a popular choice to stay over for people who love to call themselves 'Londoner' and can not afford to stay in the Capital town. 13 minutes flat on an express train and you are there, not at all a big deal... The reason, you literally save big digits on renting or buying a flat/house. I personally liked the place to some extent, as I spent some really quality time during my stay in Nottingham. The obvious reasons are my sister, brother-in-law and cute lil niece and their cozy flat just beside the city center. The mention of city center does not mean that I like city center a lot or anything like that, but I stayed inside as long as 7-10 days during last Christmas. Secondly, this place is neither over crowded like London or Birmingham nor sleepy like most of the small towns in the country and also is multicultural with the presence of different ethnic groups. Anyways.
Recently, the 40+ year old and outdated bus station of the city has been replaced by a fantastic state of art parametric structure. Designed by London based architectural firm Bblur Architecture, this iconic structure has a cantilevered canopy of 130 meters. With providing shelter to the bus bays and passenger shelter areas this aluminum cladded canopy also houses ticket office, administrative office, driver facilities, waiting rooms, a cafe, new agent and toilets.
Being just beside the City Center, the particular area is the major transport and business hub with the presence of Slough Train Station and a 24hr Tesco Express. There previous was a office complex on the site and the bus station was accommodated under the same, now the whole building has been demolished except a multilevel car park and according to the new master plan, 5 new office towers will be constructed surrounding the place.
The creative design ideas inserted in the project already has shortlisted it for some awards and recognitions. For me it definitely is a contemporary urban sculpture adding an identity to the 'City of Slough'.
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