In message , Piccadilly.Pilot
writes

5) Where was Riverside Garage? I thought it was somewhere
on the one-way system surrounding the current bus station,
but a photograph I saw said it was on Talgarth Road.

It was, There was an entrance in Talgarth Road

Not exactly. The entrance was in Great Church Street, below the
Hammersmith Flyover. I'm not sure whether the latter can still be called
Talgarth Road once it merges into the flyover, but the bus garage was
undoubtedly situated at ground level, just to the east of the exit from
the current Hammersmith Bus Station.

and the exit round the corner. Here are some photos:-

http://www.piccadillypilot.co.uk/hmbus/HMbsgrg01.jpg

That photo shows the exit in Queen Caroline Street. The building is
still there (just), now converted to Smollensky's restaurant. When
coming off the A4 from the west it is the one brick building in a sea of
glass and concrete that is almost directly in front of you as you enter
the Hammersmith one-way system - although what you see is the back of
the original building (read on).

It has an extraordinary history - worth recounting for those that don't
know it. The garage was originally constructed in 1736 as Bradmore
House, a Georgian manor house built in the grounds of the huge
16th-century Butterwick House. The latter was demolished in 1836 and the
District Railway eventually built its Hammersmith terminus in the
grounds. Bradmore House itself survived and still looked pristine in
photos of the early 20th century.

Then, in an act of breathtaking vandalism, the London General Omnibus
Company purchased the Georgian building in 1913, removed its innards in
order to create a garage and knocked holes large enough to take
double-deckers in the back (the west side) of each of its wings. These
can be seen in photo 2 (below) that you found.

Later most of the front (east side) was removed in order to provide
access through the former front garden of the house to the new, larger
garage just round the corner (photo 3). It was all renamed Riverside
Garage in 1950.

The "restoration" of Bradmore House as part of the Broadway Centre in
the 1990s was a nice gesture - but as much because it relieves the vast
and undistinguished bulk of the rest, rather than as a real restoration
as such. A little of the rear (west) facade was saved - click the link
at http://www.lambsbricks.com/nav/info_projects_03.htm - but most of it
is totally new construction in the style of the original.

http://www.piccadillypilot.co.uk/hmbus/HMbsgrg02.jpg

That's a clearer picture of the same.

http://www.piccadillypilot.co.uk/hmbus/HMbsgrg03.jpg

That's the entrance in Great Church Street - the Hammersmith Flyover
extension of Talgarth Road is seen passing overhead, so its very close.

--
Paul Terry