Unst bus shelter
Unst Bus Shelter ( English for "Unst bus shelter", more rarely: Haroldswick Bus Shelter ) is a covered bus stop on the British island of Unst , the northernmost large island in the Shetland archipelago . Because Unst Bus Shelter isn't the only bus shelter on the island, the locals also call it Bobby's Bus Shelter .
The shelter is considered the northernmost bus shelter in the UK and is located between Baltasound and Haroldswick on the A968 , the island's main thoroughfare. Because of its unusually comfortable furnishings, it is one of the Shetland Islands' most famous attractions, which is also reported by regional and national British media. The British monthly magazine Buses , a trade magazine for buses and coaches , voted Unst Bus Shelter the best bus shelter in the United Kingdom (Best Bus Shelter in Britain) . The London newspaper Daily Mail even described the shelter as "the most luxurious bus stop in Great Britain", which "attracts thousands of tourists every year."
history
After the previous building was badly damaged after a period of storm in 1996 and then dismantled, the stop was initially without a shelter. To express his dissatisfaction with this, the youngest of the then three passengers who were regularly waiting , wrote a letter to the editor of The Shetland Times . The concern of seven-year-old Bobby Macauley prompted the Shetland City Council to set up a new red bus shelter at the old location. At first it was equipped with a sofa and table, then over the years residents began to decorate the stop more and more without any objections from the responsible party.
In the meantime, Unst Bus Shelter has developed into a visitor magnet on the sparsely populated island. A traffic island was created in 2004 so that the numerous coaches can turn around. The residents named the lane divider The John Peel Memorial Traffic Island - in memory of the recently deceased BBC radio presenter John Peel .
The stop in the northeast of Baltasound is in the season 2010/2011 from the bus service started up only a few times a day. The only public transport on Unst is bus line 28, which is operated by the company P&T Coaches .
decoration
In addition to the furniture, pictures , potted plants and various decorations accumulated in a confined space, which people got rid of in this way. At times, there are also a TV , a phone , a microwave oven and an Amstrad - computer in the bus shelter. However, the electrical devices are only used for decorative purposes, as the bus stop is not connected to the mains. Most of the furnishings are removed during the winter months to protect them from the harsh weather conditions. For this purpose, the house is festively illuminated in the dark season with the help of a generator with fairy lights.
Some of the islanders get together every year to decorate, which has a different motto every year. While Christmas has been the subject of decoration in winter, the following topics were the focus in the summer months:
| year | theme |
|---|---|
| 2002 | Golden Jubilee of Queen Elizabeth II. |
| 2004 | Under water (underwater) |
| 2005 | Africa |
| 2006 | Space (Space) |
| 2007 | Yellow (Yellow) |
| 2008 | Turquoise (Turquoise) |
| 2009 | pink |
| 2010 | Red / Orange, Soccer World Cup 2010 |
| 2011 | Seafaring (on the occasion of the Tall Ships' Races ) |
| 2012 | Diamond wedding of Elizabeth II and Prince Philip |
| 2013 | Sheep (Sheep) |
| 2014 | Tribute to Nelson Mandela (Mandela Tribute) |
| 2015 | Lunde |
| 2016 | Flowers |
| 2018 | 100 years of women's suffrage in the UK |
| 2019 | Fake wildebeest |
Unst Bus Shelter website
In addition to a Facebook fan page, Unst Bus Shelter also has its own website, which was even awarded an award in January 2004. In the British section of the Yahoo! web portal , the website was voted the best community website and the second best “Discovery of the Year 2003” (Yahoo! Find of the Year 2003) . In addition to word of mouth , the website, which is based on an idea from the guest book of the bus shelter, helped make Unst Bus Shelter better known.
Web links
- The Unst Bus Shelter Website Website of the bus stop
- Directory of Shetland's Transport 2010/2011 ( PDF ; 775 kB) Timetable for the 2010/2011 season (English)
- Sven Less: Home to Bobby on Süddeutsche.de from April 19, 2011 (German)
- Megan McEachern: Bobby's Bus Shelter: How a lonely bus stop on the far-north Isle of Unst became one of Scotland's most curious sites on sundaypost.com, May 3, 2019
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b VisitScotland (Scotland's national tourist board): What to See & Do - Attractions . Accessed December 29, 2010
- ↑ BBC Scotland : Bobby's Bus Shelter, April 13, 2007. Accessed December 29, 2010 (English)
- ↑ Mark Kermode : Shetland: the film festival with plenty of latitude . In The Observer of August 29, 2010. Retrieved December 29, 2010.
- ↑ a b c Unst Bus Shelter . In The Gazetter of Scotland . Accessed December 29, 2010
- ^ Geograph Britain and Ireland: HP6309 . Accessed December 29, 2010
- ↑ a b c Unst (The Shetland Islands) . In Mail Online dated September 27, 2002. Retrieved December 29, 2010 (English)
- ↑ a b c d e f g TV, sofa, phone and football-themed cushions ... Britain's most luxurious bus stop gets a World Cup makeover . In Mail Online from June 18, 2010. Retrieved December 29, 2010 (English)
- ↑ The Shetland Times: [1] . Accessed April 1, 2016
- ↑ Two hamsters once lived in a bus stop . In Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung of February 9, 2012, page R4
- ↑ a b c The Unst Bus Shelter Website: Early Days . Accessed December 29, 2010
- ↑ The Unst Bus Shelter Website: The John Peel Memorial Traffic Island . Accessed on December 29, 2010 (English) Status: April 1, 2016: Page no longer exists
- ↑ ZetTrans and Shetland Islands Council: Directory of Shetland's Transport 2010/2011 (PDF; 775 kB). Accessed December 29, 2010
- ^ The Unst Bus Shelter Website: Themes . Accessed April 1, 2016
- ^ Jolene Crawford: What makes one lonely busy shelter on Unst famous the world over? . BBC Scotland on July 25, 2011, accessed July 29, 2011
- ^ Islanders pull out all the stops for Jubilee bus shelter makeover. The Sun , April 27, 2012, accessed November 29, 2012 .
- ↑ Facebook : The Unst Bus Shelter . Accessed December 29, 2010
- ^ The Unst Bus Shelter website . Accessed May 12, 2012
- ^ Yahoo : Previous Winners . Retrieved on December 29, 2010 (English) Status: April 1, 2016 - Page no longer exists
- ^ Izzard beats bus shelter website to award . In The Telegraph, January 16, 2004. Retrieved December 29, 2010.
- ↑ The Unst Bus Shelter Website: Yahoo! Finds of the Year . (English) Status: April 1, 2016: Page no longer exists
Coordinates: 60 ° 45 ′ 55.9 ″ N , 0 ° 50 ′ 5.9 ″ W.