The former Yelloway office building in Smith Street/Weir Street, Rochdale – Nov 1989 (Photo by T.A. Slater) (TAS381)

November 1989 – A photograph taken for me by my late Father. The former Yelloway office building in Rochdale which stood on Smith Street. Weir Street, which gave the company its formal address, is directly in front of the camera where the blue and other cars are parked. The River Roch runs behind the wall on the left and where the river goes underground is where the ornate masonry is.

During the 1970s Yelloway bought the former Kelsall and Kemp warehouse building which had for many years impeded its expansion plans.

After purchase the top floor was removed and the building modernised and stone cleaned, it always having appeared black over the past years.

All the office functions were then moved from the various corners of the garage site into the new building and the Travel Bureau occupied prominent position at street level facing the town centre.

The stone wall bottom right is the start of the River Roch covering, a 2015 photograph taken from the opposite side may be seen here: www.ipernity.com/doc/davidslater-spoddendale/38815228/in/album/801926

The warehouse as it was in the mid-1960s stands in the background of this photograph:
www.ipernity.com/doc/davidslater-spoddendale/34056839

When the building was used as a warehouse the Manager there (George Durham) would handle the receiving of large cotton bales from flat bed lorries parked across the front door of the old Travel Bureau. He would stand at an open door on the top floor (above where the fire escape protection box is) and operate a hoist to lift the bales to the required floor level for storage.