History

There is much speculation about the origins of the Bus Shelter and how it came to be in the state it is in today. A story like is may be difficult to understand for many city dwellers as it relies on tremendous community spirit and trust, the kind you would only find on an island such as Unst.

The Bus Shelter sits on the corner of the main road through Unst (A968), and the Little Hamar Road on the North-East edge of Baltasound. It was the young residents of the Little Hamar Road that used the Shelter most frequently, catching the bus to school there every morning. A dull, brown but wholly effective bus shelter served this purpose for many years, until it fell fowl to the infamous Shetland weather in 1996. The roof of the shelter was blowing off and it was declared unsafe. To combat this, the windows were removed, causing understandable distress to the occupants. After some time, the council realised that this couldn’t work and simply demolished the shelter. That fateful day the school bus pulled up to a sorry site, the binkled shell of the hardy bus shelter lay broken on the tarmac with the only addition, an old brown chair, left on its side, sodden by the rain.

At that time there were 3 regular users of the shelter, none of whom were too happy about a shelterless wait for the bus. Action was required. The youngest, 7 year old Bobby, took that action and wrote to the local paper The Shetland Times expressing his discontent at the situation. Sure enough, this alerted the council who brought a brand new, bright red bus shelter and planted it on the foundations of the last one. There was rebirth and with it came improvement.

A few days after the completion of the replacement shelter, a wicker sofa and table appeared in it. Nobody said anything, nobody claimed responsibility. Soon afterwards, a small TV was added, closely followed by a ‘hot snacks’ counter. In the winter, a 2-bar heater was installed, allowing an even more comfortable wait and it wasn’t long before a carpet was fitted. By this time, The Bus Shelter (now capitals) had gained considerable publicity in many interested sectors. The visitors book was filling up and the comments indicated the demand for a website dedicated to the Unst Bus Shelter.

In 1998, young Bobby, still just 9 years old, wrote and helped construct the original website which, allowing for a few updates, remained unchanged until last year. It wasn’t until a few years after completion that the website helped to further publicise the Bus Shelter name. Throughout 1998 the Bus Shelter remained pretty similar. The only additions were an old Amstrad computer and a phone. Publicity was starting to come the way of the Bus Shelter through the website and word of mouth.

This attention was vastly increased in 1999 with the addition of many little things. These little things were 2 new users of the Bus Shelter (more residents of the Little Hamar Road starting school) and 2 new residents of the Bus Shelter its self, the now world famous hamsters. These hardy rodents stuck it out in the Bus Shelter the whole summer and won the hearts of many a passing tourist. They were fed the odd curry and instead of a bland water bottle, they were spoilt with a bottle of genuine Unst beer, Auld Rock. This may have partially explained their almost total lack of movement throughout the summer.

This seems a good time to point out that the Bus Shelter isn’t totally self-sufficient. The closest neighbour, retired science teacher Leslie Smith, regularly watered the flowers and the contents of the Shelter were stripped to the bare essentials (sofa, table, TV and hot snacks counter) during the winter months to prevent damage and loss due to them blowing away. Everything finds its way back into the Shelter around Easter-time (weather permitting) to return the Bus Shelter to full splendor, something it had to be for the Unst Millennium Festival.

Being the most Northerly Island in Britain, Unst is the logical place to host a massive millennium celebration. Much money was secured for this purpose and various mini-festivals were held, including the Bus Shelter’s very own celebration. The Millennium Bus Shelter Festival was a big hit, a bus was even brought in for the occasion.

For the following 2 years, up until the summer of 2002, the main difference to the Bus Shelter was in the winter. Shetland only gets about 2-3 hours light in the depths of the winter and frequent powercuts caused by wind or snow mean that there are times when the whole island is in darkness. This can all get a bit depressing so the Bus Shelter installed fairy lights. These hardy lights were installed during the winter months to do their bit to illuminate the island. During the festive season it served as a visiting stop, boasting a bottle of whisky and a couple of glasses to be enjoyed by any passers by. There was the problem of having to prise the bottle away from its frozen base but the dedicated reveler could always find a way.

The year 2002 was of course all about the Queens Golden Jamboree, the highlight of the year. We were determined not to be forgotten in the most remote parts of her kingdom so we made big plans to celebrate at the Bus Shelter. Literally weeks in advance we wrote a letter to Her Majesty, requesting the pleasure of her company at this massive occasion but unfortunately she had prior engagements. However, to make up for her lack of presence, she leant us some of the crown jewels to be placed in the Bus Shelter to ensure that she was still represented at the event. Read more about the whole celebration here.

After the dust had settled from the royal excitement and all the jewels had been returned, everyone was tired. So tired in fact that there didn’t seem to be a theme in 2003. I mean to be honest the Jubilee was the first time we’d thought about having a theme so I suppose we were due a rest to think about something for 2004. So the Bus Shelter remained for a year with all the regular things: hot snacks counter, Amstrad computer, CD player, phone, hamsters, net curtains, various reading material, large paintings and the visitors book. To add a little something we planted some flowers and creeping vines in the corner and a very tired black cat seemed to find his way into the Bus Shelter and did nothing but sleep, at least it kept away from the hamsters. Though none of us at Bus Shelter HQ were ready for what happened next.

In George Dubya’s famous speech about the axis of evil, the Bus Shelter was unnexpectadly named alongside Iraq, Iranistan and North Kentucky as a rogue terrorist state which supported the creation and deployment of Weapons of Mass Destruction. So sure enough, Hans Blix and his team got the boat up, escorted by several US Commandos. Due to the current length of this page I’m not going to say any more but its all on the Weapons Inspectors page anyway.

After we got the “all clear” from Hans (and gave him a bowl of soup to set him on his way), we were back to the normality and peace of the old days. And we had thought of a new theme too, Underwater. The Shelter gained some fishing nets, a very dramatic painting of a rolling sea and other such nautical paraffinalia. Sadly, due to the abuse handed out to the Bus Shelter in the US raid, the Hot Snacks counter was written off. It was getting old though, and out of date, and very shortly afterwards it was replaced by a microwave in much the same way as all other items were added. Such is the lifecycle of the Unst Bus Shelter. This also happened to be a year of uncertainty regarding the future management of the Bus Shelter so important decisions had to be made.

This was also the year we heard of the tragic death of John Ravenscroft (aka John Peel). Two generations of BSHQ were great fans of Mr Peel and felt that we should do something at the Bus Shelter to remember this great man. Therein came the creation of the John Peel Memorial Traffic Island.

Traffic Island in place and Bobby away to Africa, the Bus Shelter was taken over by a local consortium headed by Bobby’s mother, Jane. Bobby retained his place as a Non-executive Director and continued to take an active interest in the Shelter. It was agreed that an appropriate next theme would be simply, Africa. Many metres of giraffe-skin material later, the result was astonishing.

During the 2nd year of Bobby’s stay in Africa, the interim-management at BSHQ were worried about him moving further and further away, the founder of the Bus Shelter seemed to be on another planet and it seemed many moons before he would be back. All these bad galactic puns are leading on to the introduction of the Outer Space theme.

Which brings to 2007. Bobby returned from overseas and commenced a role at the House of Commons before starting University. In a year with the Scottish elections concerning the future political atmosphere the Bus Shelter would exist in, the decision was made to do everything in its power to create a better Scotland. 2007 was the year that the Bus Shelter was Yellow and voted Lib-Dem.

As I complete this website in the summer of 2008 we are experiencing our second year of a coloured theme, this time a cheery turquoise. This had no particular political motivation but is another visually striking theme which was possibly inspired by a Glasgow kebab shop...

So there you have it, the complete, unabridged history of the Unst Bus Shelter. Once we remember anything else that may have happened in the last 10 or so years we shall update it and make it even more complete and unabridged! Please do click on the links and find out more about each particular theme and happening, I promise there’s less writing on the other pages.