Pub owner fed up with ‘ugly’ bus depot gives broken-down spot eye-catching makeover

A rundown bus shelter has been radically transformed — complete with hanging baskets, art, books and chandelier — after a local pub owner couldn’t stand the “ugly and shabby” situation any longer.

Molly Thompson, 27, has owned the 600-year-old Woolpack pub in Chilham, Kent, for several years.

For some time, a rundown and disused bus shelter blighted the street right outside her pub — until she couldn’t take it any longer.

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Thompson secured council permission before raising the funds to turn the shelter from shabby to chic.

“I live here, I’ve got my dog Wallace, and every day I’d walk past that bus stop,” Thompson of the United Kingdom told news agency SWNS.

Molly Thompson is pictured with her mom Sharon and dog Wallace. For years, a rundown bus shelter blighted the street outside her pub — until she decided to take action. (Molly Thompson/SWNS)

“It took me a year since moving here, and I thought it was a derelict building, an ugly and shabby sort of thing. We had some crazy ideas at first, but we also want[ed] to keep an aesthetic for the village.

“We thought of a few ideas,” she went on. “We started fundraising at the Woolpack and asking people for donations, which we did a raffle for. We had to put in ourselves, of course, from the Woolpack — but a lot has been donated from the village,” she said.

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For example, “we had an anonymous envelope delivered with £100,” or about $134 U.S. dollars. 

After getting the green light from the local parish council, Thompson, plus her mother and others, got to work renovating the shelter, SWNS reported. 

The converted bus shelter in Chilham, Kent, in the United Kingdom, is shown above. A previously “ugly” depot is now completely transformed. (Molly Thompson/SWNS)

Today, the outside of the shelter has been repainted and decorated with hanging baskets. Decorations such as a flower vase have been nailed down in an effort to deter vandalism.

The total cost of the work was around £1,000, or about $1,340 dollars — and took roughly four days of labor, Thompson said. 

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The bus stop is now completely transformed and has been called a “best” in the U.K., as well as the “cutest.” 

“There was graffiti — I’m not going to explain what it was, because it was inappropriate — [plus] plants coming in through the roof and chipped paint. It was dirty, suspicious looking, smelly — not very nice,” said Thompson.

The owner of a pub in a local village has transformed a “derelict and shabby” bus shelter into a community library and pleasant waiting place. (Molly Thompson/SWNS)

“We like to be involved with anything, really, that comes up. … Whatever comes up, we like to sponsor things. We like to get involved as much as we can.”

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She noted that there’s “another bus shelter in the village, but that’s in working use, so if we’d be allowed to do anything with that one — I’m not sure.”

“In general, the village is pretty beautiful.”

She said her village “is not the busiest and most bustling village — that’s why a lot of people love it.”

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She added, “In general, the village is pretty beautiful — [and] that was one of the only poorer parts of it, not looking its best.”

The new and improved bus shelter is finally a credit to its local village. (Molly Thompson/SWNS)

She added, “Anything that comes up, we’d absolutely love to do it.”