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New Street Station From1854

thats a cracking photo ray..cant say as ive seen it before...thanks for posting it

lyn
 
Ray Griffiths said:
Hi Folks.

Found this interesting picture of the old New St. Station Street entrance.

Ray
Click to expand...
Ray,
A very interesting photo indeed. I cannot remember the entrance loking like that so I
am wondering which entrance it was. It was certainly post war as the British Railways notice shows that it was when the railways were nationalised..
Old Boy
 
Ray Griffiths said:
Hi Folks.

Found this interesting picture of the old New St. Station Street entrance.

Ray
Click to expand...
Noting the tram/trolley bus overhead wires suggests to me that this is Station Street. The dirty state and rusted parts of the request bus stop suggests that it is not long after railway nationalization - the backlog of repairs and renewals were still very much in evidence for a couple of years or so after the end of WW2 (1946) and the very clean British Railways signage suggest it was not too long past when it was done. It would soon have gotten grimy in that busy part of the town.

I have amended post to read Station Street. Yet another senior moment. :eek:
 
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Just as I remembered the entrance in Queensway, when I left 'Brum' in the fifties. The entrance, where the man with the cap is standing, was to the over bridge that ran through New Street station, the other end coming out into New Street. A dark and very smoky bridge to walk along, with the station platforms beneath the bridge, and the platform entrances leading off the bridge. which was all covered in. The photograph would be 50/60's, because that was when Billy Cotton was in his prime, with his radio show, and Alan Breeze was his singer. If I had to be more accurate, I would suggest late 50's.

Definitely not 1920's.

Eddie
 
norfolk brummie said:
Just as I remembered the entrance in Queensway, when I left 'Brum' in the fifties. The entrance, where the man with the cap is standing, was to the over bridge that ran through New Street station, the other end coming out into New Street. A dark and very smoky bridge to walk along, with the station platforms beneath the bridge, and the platform entrances leading off the bridge. which was all covered in. The photograph would be 50/60's, because that was when Billy Cotton was in his prime, with his radio show, and Alan Breeze was his singer. If I had to be more accurate, I would suggest late 50's.

Definitely not 1920's.

Eddie
Click to expand...
Hello Eddie,
The Queensway was not constructed until well after WW2.I think you may have meant Queens Drive. I do not think it was Queens Drive because, if my memory serves me correct ,no buses or trams went down Queens Drive. I am inclined to go with the Station Street suggestion,
Old Boy
 
Old Boy said:
I do not think it was Queens Drive because, if my memory serves me correct ,no buses or trams went down Queens Drive. I am inclined to go with the Station Street suggestion,
Old Boy
Click to expand...

My apologies......NOW! I remember. It has been sixty years since I last saw it all. The footbridge went OVER Queens Drive (not Queens Way, as I previously suggested), and there were no buses, or trams, that ran down Queens Drive. Yes, it is Station Street. Still, I was not far out in my date, I did suggest the fifties. In fact Billy Cotton made more than one appearance at the old Hippodrome. His singer, Alan Breeze, came to live here in Norfolk, but that's another story.

I have never known the modern New Street Station, but the 1940's era I knew very well. Many a happy Saturday, and holidays, running along the old bridge dashing from platform to platform to catch the old LMS/British Rail steam engine numbers.

Also in the wartime years, I would arrive there for home, and the holiday period, from my school.

Then again, in January 1952 to Darlington, then on to Catterick, to commence National Service.

Eddie
 
Trams - Cotteridge 36,Rednal 70 and Rubery 71 and trolley buses went in 1952 and 1951 respectively. I guess the overhead was not too long in being removed, That should put the date prior to mid 1950's at the very latest.
 
Definitely Station Street. The entrance to the left was the former Midland Railway parcels yard. I can't make out what the sign to the right says. I can read Platform...
 
And two much earlier interior images. Phenomenal roof span. Were the platforms much lower when it was first built? V.

image.jpeg
image.jpeg
 
Looking at the photo in post #17 I notice there are two subways. Were these for transporting freight/goods/parcels? Or were they for passenger use? In the earlier images (post #18) there are no subways so they must have been added at a later stage.

Over the left-hand subway a man is changing/fixing/cleaning the light suspended over the subway ( and there are many lamps) so perhaps the subways were in use overnight and bright lighting was needed. And there are several carts standing to the left. This all suggests to me the movement of goods/parcels etc. using the subways. Viv.
 
viv
From Richard Foster's book(s) on New St Station, the subway was constructed in 1885, and was mainly for barrows carrying luggage etc, though passengers could use them
 
Just found this thread. There were subways to move parcels, not sure if they were on all platforms, as mentioned #14 parcels were distributed from Station Street, it was CityLink in recent years. You can see parcel trucks lined up on the platforms 7&8 in pictures in #11.
 
The subway was at the western end of the platforms and its removal has allowed the widening of the platform area. I am a little puzzled about the photo in post 17 as the sunlight would imply that we are looking from the east end. The subway also went thought to the post office in Victoria Square and the parcels office in Paradise Street. In the afternoons we used to see mailbags piled up on the platforms as well as parcels traffic on the railways.
 
Hope that this is the right thread.

Heading through the new concourse of Birmingham New Street Station today, found this restored bronze war memorial of the First World War.

L & N.W. Rly Birmingham Goods District (London & North Western Railway)

 
The subways were very handy a few years ago when I had a knee problem - the escalator on our platform was o-o-o and I couldn't manage the stairs, panic set in until a nice young man took us along the subway and found us another escalator. Can't remember where we came out though, perhaps someone could tell me?
 
I did not use the lifts until I had an accident in 2009 and discovered the subway. The lifts came out in a sort of luggage area just outside the concourse. Very handy for those who did not have tickets as they did not have to go through the barriers!!!! I did once see a ticket collector by the lifts.
 
The second photo looks like it was at the bridge over Queens Drive. I am trying to remember, Was there a second lot of steps on the footbridge as you crossed to the other half of the station?
 
Reference: Post #18. The L.N.W.R. side of New Street station, is shown in the very nice coloured photograph, taken at the turn of the twentieth century, and shows, on the right, two Webb 2-4-2T's adjacent to platform number one.

In the centre is island platform number 2, used mainly for suburban traffic.

Eddie
 
Another somewhat 'moody' photo of New Street Station, looking out at Station Street. You almost expect a character from 'The Third Man' to step from the shadows - or is that too fanciful for New Street?

002.jpg
 
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