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Demolition of New Street Station

Thanks for that, ragga. There's a lot of other interesting material on that site as well.

Chris
 
Thanks for the link Ragga its a lovely photo of New Street Station. I think I may have written this before, Fox Henderson who built the roof in the picture of New Street Station also built the framework of the Crystal Palace. John Henderson has a large toomb in Key Hill Cemetery.
 
How one wishes that when was young one had taken better notice of these wonderful structures. Just a question of lifting up one's eyes, looking past the soot and grime and decrepitude and trying to visualise them when they were new or at least in their prime. I remember someone ancient once muttering in my presence, with an expression of awe, that New Street Station was a wonderful building and my thinking "What, how can anyone say that? The sooner it's gone the better and replaced with something concrete and MODERN!"

Today London still has St. Pancras and thanks to those older than I, who should have had more wisdom, Birmingham has.....

Chris
 
Twice last year I stood waiting on a platform at New Street for my train to come back home, it is so unwelcoming and dark. On some platforms there are no seats, and people were sitting on foot rests along the walls. I could cry when I look at the lovely old New Street, gosh what a lovely roof it was.
 
Looking to the future for New Street Station I hope the ---powers that be----come up with something a lot better than the last redo.
I know what you mean about the dank and dark platforms, Di. I think the planners just concentrated on the Shopping Centre, etc. and totally ignored the platforms....strange that because at a railway station in the nation s
second largest city, the platforms are the most important things imho.
 
Just found the forum after checking out my web stats.

ragga said:
https://www.explorationcentral.co.uk/newst.htm

Some may have viewed it .... some may not .
ragga :)
Click to expand...
Thanks for the link, I have about 60 photos taken during the demolition, I put the most interesting ones on my site. The photographer was a bit of a trainspotter, it just happened he was around New St at the time it was demolished.

jennyann said:
Looking to the future for New Street Station I hope the ---powers that be----come up with something a lot better than the last redo.
Click to expand...
The last redo was nothing to do with refurbishment, it was to bring the station up to minimum HMRI standards. The fact the station was tarted up a bit was just a by product. I seem to recall the project was called the Backlog Maintenance Project, prior to the marketing spin calling it the Station Regeneration Project.


I also have access to a few hundred photos and slides taken of various trains and trollybuses in and around the West Midlands, I'll scan a few and post them up in the relevant section.
 
Pleased to meet you Mr explorationcentral,
am I in trouble for putting your web page up on here ???
If I am im very sorry :cry:..............ragga :cry:
 
Definately not, I've had the photos for years, it loosely fits in with my interest in Urban Exploration, I knew others would have an interest in the photos like me, I just was never sure where to put them.

It makes the time spent scanning, photoshopping etc worthwhile when you see some recognition. I'm actually really pleased when I see new referrers in my web logs.

ragga said:
am I in trouble for putting your web page up on here ???
If I am im very sorry :cry:..............ragga :cry:
Click to expand...
 
Hello Mr ExplorationCentral, and welcome to this site.
First of all, congratulations on your excellent site, which is super. I suspect we have like minds, as my interests are similar. On the subject of New St Station, I am sure that parts of the overall roof were replaced by rather crude steel and corrugated asbestos awnings over individual platforms in the 1940s and 50s. if you look at http://forum.birminghamhistory.co.uk/showthread.php?t=3879&page=4&highlight=new+street+station
you will see a picture of a steam train on one of the platforms after that time, and some recent discussion of the subject.
The beauty of this kind of site is that several people can put together their different memories, and between us, we can get to something like the facts.
It's good to put these things on record, I think.
Peter
 
Cheers Explorationcentral ...... feel better now :)
I came across your webpage only last week when
I was surfing the Skyscrapercity forums .
anyway ..... welcome to our forum and enjoy.
ragga :)
 
img129.jpg
The Central Station New Street as it was called, 1900. The entrance to the Queen's Hotel can be seen on the middle right. If anyone is interested there is a few lines of information about the roof structure as well.
img130.jpg
In this picture the indicator points to the Walsall Express in the days when one could hire a pillow or a rug for 6d. 1905.
 
An engraving fom the London Illustrated News in 1834 announcing the opening of Birmingham Central. The platforms seem very low, were they? Viv.

ImageUploadedByTapatalk1330874665.906941.jpg
 
Have to say that these pictures are fantastic. Well done; it takes time I know. We have all been on that bridge and going down the steps to those very platforms. I never thought much about the proximity of the Queens Hotel to the platforms...we'll you went in the front and onto the bridge and that was it...so the back of it was right there of course. Just never thought about it. Too bad we are learning all of this wonderful stuff about everything now that it is all gone.
 
Anyone remember the cafe on platform 1? I popped down there a few years back, and although all of the old buildings were still there, I couldn't be sure which one it was. Used to be my Sunday treat, my dad would take me on the bus into town and then we catch the train home, stopping for a bottle of pop and a chocolate roll in the cafe.
 
If anyone hasn't seen this site I'd highly recommend it. It's bulging with photos of the old place. Here's the site link https://warwickshirerailways.com/lms/bhamnewstreet.htm

and here's a taster of some of the photos. Each photo has a lot of info too. Had a lovely afternoon browsing these photos. Well done Warwickshire Railways site! Viv.

ImageUploadedByTapatalk1331998848.385630.jpg Signal box 1968

ImageUploadedByTapatalk1331998864.358376.jpg Platform 1 1965

ImageUploadedByTapatalk1331998890.661631.jpg Enquiry Office 1930
 
nnmb.jpeg
It was a busy place on Whit Monday 1962, with all these people waiting for the early morning train to Rhyl.
 
Busier than it would be now, early train on a Bank Holiday?????You are lucky to get A train now, more often replacement buses lol
Sue
 
I am sure that I used to catch a diesel from New Street to Sutton Park, but cannot remember about 1960ish. Paul
 
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