People walking past a bus stop.
Craig Bascombe’s ‘In the shadow of Shakespeare’ on one of Clear Channels bus stop digital screens in Newcastle. Credit Clear Channel
Craig Bascombe’s ‘In the shadow of Shakespeare’ on one of Clear Channels bus stop digital screens in Newcastle. Credit Clear Channel

Bus Stop Stories

10 winning photographs capturing the stories behind England’s bus stops, selected from a national competition Bus Stop Stories, were showcased on Clear Channel’s digital Out of Home screens across England as part of an outdoor exhibition in the summer of 2023. 

With more than 140 entries from all around the UK, 10 winners were selected by a panel of experts, including:  

  • Danit Ariel, Assistant Curator, Photoworks 
  • Harriet Clarke, Creative Programmes and Campaigns Assistant, Historic England  
  • Jonathan May, Director, Photoworks 
  • Josie Saunders, Audience Engagement Manager, Photoworks  
  • Kelly Grist, Head of Design, Clear Channel UK   
  • Shoair Mavlian, Director, The Photographers’ Gallery   
  • Tamsin Silvey, Cultural Programme Curator at Historic England

These images celebrate the humble bus shelter, expressing what makes bus stops part of the lives of communities across England.

Bus Stop Stories collection

The winning photographs have entered Historic England’s Archive, the nation’s archive for England’s historic buildings, archaeology and social history as part of the new Picturing High Streets national photography collection.

View the collection

Winning entries

This image turns any preconceived ideas about this everyday structure on its head by offering an alternative interpretation of a bus stop story. It was chosen for its expressive and abstract qualities including the detailed yellow stripe that looks more like a pattern from nature than decoration for an urban bus stop. The blue hue of the bus shelter’s structure tinges the colour of the high street beyond, creatively distorting and abstracting your view as you await an incoming bus.
Josie Saunders, Audience Engagement Manager Photoworks 
Although you can only see a glimpse of the bus shelter, the two distinct stances tell you the audience is waiting for a bus. I love the photographers use of black and white, leading the eye to the laundrette sign, which everything else is framed around. You get a real sense of the diverse, multi-generational community that lives here. It’s ordinary people doing everyday things.
Kelly Grist, Head of Marketing Clear Channel
This photograph brilliantly shows how bus stops can be a canvas for imagination. The mural by street artist Banksy has transformed the familiar sight of people waiting for a bus into something intriguing and imaginative.
Tamsin Silvey, Cultural Programme Curator Historic England

Other winning photographs

Please click on the gallery images to enlarge.

People leaning up against a wall behind a bus stop in the shadow of a tree which is next to it. Above them on the wall is the word 'Shakespeare'. The back view of a person sitting at a bus stop wearing a bright orange jacket which can be seen through the wet frosted glass. A woman sitting at a bus stop holding a balloon on a stick. A circular stone bus stop with a white stone archway entrance, a tiled pointed roof, and a weather vane. View of the back of a man sitting at a bus stop wearing a cowboy hat. A woman wearing a headscarf, pulling a shopping trolley behind her, heading for the bus stop. A queue of people waiting to get on a bus.

More about Picturing High Streets

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