Under Construction @ Keele 2018 Vol. IV (II) | Page 25

17
Stations
It is the clouds reflected on the windows of the office block that reminds me of them. The
offices tower above the old Hanley bus station, as monolithic and as empty. In January 2018,
the bus station is boarded up and abandoned, the only signs of human use are the cars parked
in rows in what used to be bus lanes. In 2010, on a day as cloudy as today, it was operational,
bustling even, and a large band of English Defence League (EDL) members were marching
towards it.
I have come here because I suspect the station will soon be demolished. This is a
walk-come-recording-come-photoshoot of desperation. Across the road to the left the new
Hanley Bus Station sits smug, its Armadillo, sloping roof gleams silver. It is a hyper-modern
non-place, all glass walls and levitating roofs, transplanted into Stoke-on-Trent. Cold light on
the grey flooring.
Supposedly, since the erection of that metal marvel, the old station has outlived its
usefulness, grown beyond its purpose, functionally, aesthetically, any-which-way. The Argos,
nestled at the other side of the nestled for so long, has gone. The Old Hall Street Shopping
Centre, above the place, is quiet and empty. Even Warner Brothers, using it as a post-
apocalyptic film 14 set, have discarded it. The café, dry cleaners, key cutters and ticket office
are sleeved in wooden boards and rusted, metal shutters. They bear the marks of late-night
aerosol attention, black permanent marker and chalk made invulnerable in its shelter from the
rain. Most of the messages are indecipherable, faded or written over. Many of them are the
fluorescent hieroglyphs designed to elude definition, designed to intimidate and designed to
connote the words tag and gang. Many take the shape of bizarre humanoids, alien creatures,
penises in various stages of erection and ejaculation, warped emojis and seemingly random
swirls that appear to mean little but movement, presence or defiance.
Two stand out. The first reads: MONEY IS A SOCIOPATH. The second reads:
14
The Girl With All the Gifts, DVD, dir. Colm McCarthy, 2016 (Warner Brothers Pictures, Inc. 2017).