Back in May 1997, I first became aware of plans to demolish the Charles Herbert Aslin-designed Bus Station on the Morledge, Derby in order to replace it with a new, smaller station that was to be a part of a development called 'Riverlights', a complex of a hotel, shops, bars and restaurants (the description has changed on numerous occasions over the years since) to be built by the Riverside Gardens, by the River Derwent.

Coincidentally, I had just completed my final-year project at the University of Derby, which was an investigation into the possibilities of comparing the public transport system of Derby with those of three cities in Germany of a similar population (Aachen, Hagen and Krefeld). One of the key findings of the project was that, despite the disgraceful state of neglect into which the Station's owners, none other than Derby City Council themselves, had allowed it to get and furthermore, the comparatively great age of the Station, as a public transport-related facility it was actually superior to anything that could be found in any of the aforementioned cities.

As a result of this coincidence I felt I had to get involved in trying to get the general public of Derby and its environs to see just what a gem they could be losing should 'Riverlights' get the go-ahead and also I wanted to get the Twentieth Century Society, an organisation that campaigns to have the best architecture of the past century saved should it fall under any threat, on board in my campaign, that at that time was very much a 'lonely furrow'.

So, I began a positive bombardment of the TCS and the Derby Evening Telegraph with letters during that summer. It bore fruit eventually, since I succeeded in getting the TCS to put the Bus Station forward to the then Department of National Heritage (now the Department for Culture, Media and Sport) as a candidate for spot-listing. In the event the DNH did not consider the Bus Station a worthy candidate, even though it was the first purpose-built bus and coach interchange to be built in this country and there was the distinct possibility that, when it had been built, a party of city planners from Buenos Aires heard about it through the architectural press and actually came on a trip to Derby (not as straight-forward a process as it is nowadays!) to see it for themselves, since they wished to build something along similar lines themselves. In addition to this, there is no other extant example in the country.

Circa two years down the line I was approached by Anne Jesper and Ann Crosby and by Dorothy Skrytek of Derby Friends of the Earth with a view to setting up an organisation to campaign for the retention and bringing up to modern transport standards (the Station had got somewhat down-at-heel!) of the current station and against going ahead with 'Riverlights'. This organisation became known as the Bus Station Action Group. Since I had some experience of computers and working with the WWW I was in charge of setting up a Web site and of promoting the cause on the WWW. I therefore styled myself as the 'Internet Affairs Representative' of the organisation.

One of my first coups was to get in touch with Lara Goeke, of Ellicott City, Maryland, who was then in charge of a site called simply 'Art Deco Architecture', amazingly enough to find out that she knew the Station personally through her travels in this country in 1996 while she was taking a year out of her Art studies in Baltimore to study at De Montfort University, Leicester. She was absolutely horrified to learn that a building of Derby Bus Station's stature was in such danger and linked our site straight away. About eighteen months later I had the very great privilege of meeting Lara in person when she was on holiday in Britain, of course arranging to meet her at the Bus Station itself.

As a result of the currently proceeding demolition of the Station I have come to the conclusion that a new organisation should be set up dedicated to the memory of the Bus Station in particular and to the life and work of Charles Herbert Aslin in general, hence the formation of the Charles Herbert Aslin Society. In the following few paragraphs you will discover why this ground-breaking architect deserves the accolade of such an organisation.

Although Charles Herbert Aslin was not actually born in Derby he did, in the year of the beginning of the BSAG campaign, manage a 'Hall Of Fame' nomination for an exhibition of achievement of local luminaries of the last Millennium, as reported on 30^th November 1999 by Malcolm Bradbrook in the Derby Evening Telegraph. This was for his role as the Derby Borough Architect, who was in charge of the team that designed not only the Bus Station itself, but also the Police Station/Magistrates' Courts, Council House, Riverside Gardens, Exeter Bridge, Exeter Place Apartments and the former Covered Market. This was all part of a ground-breaking, co-ordinated development called the 'Central Improvement Scheme', probably the most intact example of an inter-war regeneration scheme in existence in this country.

Aslin was actually born in Sheffield on 15^th December 1893, the younger of two sons of Arthur William and Louisa Aslin, his father being a foreman in a Sheffield steelworks. C. H. Aslin received education first at Sheffield Central School then subsequently at Sheffield University. During World War I he was posted to the Army Pay Corps and the Oxford and Bucks. Light Infantry. From 1916 he held the rank of captain in the Royal Artillery and served on the Western Front until 1919.

Prior to enlisting Aslin had passed the final examination of the Royal Institute of British Architects and in 1920 he was admitted as an associate, becoming a fellow in 1932. He began his employment in the architectural field on the staff of the city architect in Sheffield, then was appointed to the borough engineer in Rotherham, near Sheffield, in 1922, designing the new municipal offices. In the years immediately afterwards he was a lecturer at Sheffield University and became an associate of the Institution of Civil Engineers, also being appointed deputy county architect of Hampshire.

Aslin finally came to Derby in 1929, where, as described above, he designed his masterpiece. It is perhaps easy to be blasé about these city centre re-development schemes nowadays. However, one must not lose sight of the fact that, in its day, the C.I.S. was very much a pioneer piece of work.

Not satisfied with his work at Derby Borough Council alone, Aslin sought out pastures new after the conclusion of World War II, becoming county architect of Hertfordshire County Council. The previous year a new Education Act had come into force, which Aslin believed would create a demand for new school building that would clearly exceed the capacity of traditional school building techniques. Hertfordshire was, in this respect, an ideal proving ground for Aslin's new concept of pre-fabricated construction techniques. The County Council were encouraging in their attitude towards this new venture, but there were some in the architectural trade who were decidedly suspicious of its efficacy.

In the event Aslin was entirely vindicated and his Hertfordshire schools became as much a place of pilgrimage as Derby Bus Station had been a decade-and-a-half or so previously. Some ten or so years later one hundred of these schools had been built and the hundredth example thereof was opened by the minister for education. Furthermore, the system he had evolved had been emulated by all local authorities in the land. Aslin had been an outstanding team leader, in charge of a team made up of some of the best and brightest in the business and it was not a hard job attracting those of that sort of calibre, since jobs in his office were some of the most sought after in the country.

Taking a step outside Aslin's bare architectural achievements, from 1941-3 he was president of the Notts., Derby and Lincoln Society of Architects and was their representative on the council of the R.I.B.A.. A key achievement at the R.I.B.A. was the harmonisation of pay and conditions between architects in private practice and those in salaried positions, the latter of which were dissatisfied with those conditions. In 1945, Aslin was elected in his own right to the council of the R.I.B.A. and in 1954-6 was president. In his presidential address he stressed the importance of making the architectural profession more efficient and of giving better service to the client and public. He was awarded the C.B.E. in 1951. In addition to this, Aslin was an associate of the Institution of Structural Engineers, a member of the Royal Society of Arts, honorary fellow of the American Institute of Architects and R.I.B.A. bronze medallist (1951).

Aslin's circle of friends was wide and varied, in terms of age, background and race. Together with his shrewd, north-country nature, this enabled him to take a firm stand when a serious matter arose and also to take a very dim view of pomposity and pretension. Throughout his life he had the support of his wife, (Ethel Fawcett Armitage, also of Sheffield, married in 1920, with whom he had one daughter), without whom, he admitted, he would never have attained his full potential. Outside of his professional life he was a good tennis player and had a keen interest in both cricket and the theatre. He was an accomplished photographer, was widely read and was a supporter of numerous societies. During World War II he contributed a great deal to Anglo-Polish relations. Although he was brought up as a strict Non-Conformist he later joined the Church of England and was a man of strong religious principles.

Aslin narrowly escaped death in 1955 when his room filled with gas as a result of a fractured main and it is thought that this ultimately may have led indirectly to his eventual death in Hertford on 18^th April 1959, the year following his retirement.

His portrait, by Allan Gwynne Jones, can be seen at the headquarters of the R.I.B.A.

The aforementioned information on Aslin's life and work is courtesy of S. Morrison by way of the Dictionary of National Biography: 1951-1960.

If you've come to this page directly, why not also visit the Charles Herbert Aslin Society's 'Site Map'?

If you've come to this page directly, why not also visit the "Mad Modernist's 'Site Map'"?

Copyright (2006) of Christopher Bentley: Founder of The Charles Herbert Aslin Society.