New Street Station
New Street Station is one of the least loved railway stations in the
country. The platforms are buried under the concourse, the
concourse buried under the Pallasades Shopping Centre and the shopping
centre buried under a multi-storey car park. No wonder it's so
dark and depressing!
Unsurprisingly, it wasn't always like that. It was only during
Birmingham's redevelopment frenzy of the 1960's that the old station
was given an unceremonial funeral and buried under layers and layers of
concrete.
The northern half was covered by
an amazing, single span roof as seen in
this
engraving. This was sadly damaged beyond
repair during the blitz on Birmingham in the Second World War.
The southern half was added in 1884 and was little changed until the
redevelopment shown below - compare with
this picture
from 1885.
From what I've been able to work out from my father's photographs, from
talking to my mother and by looking at the
1950
map, New Street Station's buildings used to be at street
level. Oddly, it was split in two to accomodate
different train companies. The
Railways
Around Birmingham website says that the companies were Midland
Railways and LNWR and these joined to become LMS in later years.
Down the middle of the station ran Queens Drive. One entrance was
in Hill Street and the other in Worcester Street. Queens
Drive serves the modern New Street Station but the
Hill
Street entrance
is in a different place. The entrance near the Bullring is close
to where the old one was, however. The splendid Queen's Hotel, an
LMS station hotel, was on Stephenson Street and survived until at least
1966 before being replaced by what is now known as The Pallasades.
There was a pedestrian entrance in Station Street and another in
Stephenson Street. Of course, Queens Drive could also be used to
access the station. I've been told that New Street was an 'open
station'. Due to a public right of way passing through the
middle, no tickets were checked. They were either checked on the
train or at an approaching station.
If you remember the old station then please get in touch to let me know
if I'm right or wrong in my interpretation of how things were.
Disclaimer! Some of the
references to 'modern' New Street Station, above, have been invalidated
by the work going on as part of the
Gateway Plus
project. I'll update the text in 2015 when it's all finished...
Queens Drive from East - 14/3/62
|
|
The two
halves of the station can clearly be seen, linked by a
footbridge. The building in the distance is the College of
Technology that can be seen on one of the Suffolk Street
pictures.
|
Queens Drive from West - 14/3/62
|
|
Here we are
looking the other way from near the Hill Street entrance. The
fantastic old roof of the southern half of the station can clearly be
seen. The spire near the centre of the picture belongs to St
Martin's.
|
Station St Entrance - 14/3/62
|
|
The long
gone Station Street entrance. Scaffolding near the junction with Dudley Street
indicates more development work ongoing.
Click here
to see Station Street today.
|
New St Station No. 2 Box - 2/4/64
|
|
The famous
Rotunda looms large in this picture! The big bridge running from
left to right carries Queens Drive to its entrance from the
east that can be seen on the Inner Ring Road South
page.
|
Platform 1 looking West - 2/4/64
|
|
Work is well
underway here!
|
Platform 1 looking East - 2/4/64
|
|
The bus that
can be seen is travelling along Navigation Street, heading
towards Stephenson Street. One corner of Stephenson Buildings
can be seen on the left of the picture. To its right, a
tantalising glimpse at the frontage of The Queen's Hotel.
|
West end of Platform 8 - 1/8/64
|
|
The west end
of Queens Drive has gone. My theory is that it used to emerge on
Hill Street where the left most bus can be seen.
|
Platform 7 & 8 from West - 1/8/64
|
|
What a
fantastic picture! Sunlight streaming onto the platform is
something modern day users of New St Station can only dream of...
Notice the bridge linking the platforms.
Check out the colour pictures
taken on the same day from the other end of the platform.
|
New St Station from Navigation Street - 31/10/64
|
|
With the
west end of Queens Drive gone, the cars you can see are parked in
what's left of it. The Rotunda and St Martin's spire help us
relate this to the modern city.
The simple canopies covering the platforms to the left of the picture
were a poor subsitute for the original roof that was removed after
being damaged in the blitz. The brick built building, also on the
left, was The Queen's Hotel.
|
45369 New St Station - 31/10/64
|
|
One of
hundreds of railway photographs from my father's collection, this one
shows something very sad to see. The splendid roof has been
callously chopped down leaving the station open to the elements prior
to its later burial. Compare with the photo
above.
|
West end of New St Station from Platform 5 - 22/5/65
|
|
The huge
conrete wall to the left of the photo is where I believe Queens Drive
used to emerge onto Hill Street.
|
New St Station from West end of Platform 10 - 22/5/65
|
|
The station
is being rebuilt - that much is very clear from this picture.
Notice the old footbridge that used to link the two halves of the
station when Queens Drive was in place.
|
West end of Platform 10 - 22/5/65
|
|
The extent
of work can clearly be seen here. The brand new platform 10 looks
clean and bright but the huge slab of concrete reflects what was being
done to the city elsewhere.
|
Platforms 12 & 11 from East - 22/5/65
|
|
Welcome to
the future! The modern New St Station we have come to know and
hate starts to take shape. Goodbye 110 years of history....
|
