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Snow Hill Station

Whenever I see a photo of Snow Hill station I immediately think Holidays:)

I can't remember what New Street station looked like before it was turned into an underground cavern, but the photo of the booking hall at Snow Hill is unforgetable. On Saturday afternoon in the 50's I would meet my beloved at the KD and we would go on to see a film, before leaving town we would collect Brian's 'holdall' which held his football kit, and which he had left at Snow Hill station in the left luggage.
 
Lovely memories Di...I too think of holidays first and then I am always looking for that Speaking Weighing Machine in the Entrance Hall. Used to go and use that until the end. Sometimes it was broken and the voice sounded like a ghost in slow motion if you know what I mean. It was so exciting going onto the Platform 7 mostly and finding a carriage for the never ending trip to the seaside. Mr. McLoughlin, from Stockland Garage came and fetched us in his taxi and us kids were so excited we were almost sick.

Had to find the toilets first so we could escape from the carriage with the sliding doors at every opportunity during the journey. The tiny sink with the awful smelling soap and when you looked down the lav. pan there were the rails! It was always such fun except that my father was not a good traveller and I remember him being unwell mostly when we were coming home. Mom always told us not to open the window in case we got ash in our eyes...we did, of course, and yes, we got ashes in our eyes.
 
Does anyone remember waiting under the clock at Snow Hill Station for a friend or date? It seemed to be a regular meeting place for me. I also remember going on holiday from this station, and waiting with great excitement for the steam train to come in.

The hot potato man was a treat always, with the small potatoes put in the little triangular paper bags with a sprinkling of salt - they always tasted so good:grinsmile:

I used to catch my bus home from the stops outside Snow Hill - Nos. 70, 71, and 72 were the ones that would take me to Soho Road, and I would get off at St Michaels Hill/Villa Road. The stop being opposite Dick Pearce's Newsagents shop.
 
judy39

The poor bloke in the photo looks like he has been waiting under the clock since about 1920.

Phil

CitySnowHillStationBookingHall-1.jpg
 
Down the Stairs to the Chocolate Machine after you paid for your Platform Ticket:)

Great photo pmc
 
Great photo PMC.
Sheri, Snow Hill has been redeveloped as a VERY poor substitute of the original, with only four platforms[three operational for trains and one for the METRO a tram that is more akin to a train and struggles to climb hills which restricts its development as a proper tram! But at least you can still get a train to London, albeit to Marylebone instead of the great Paddington station. The jealosies of the LMS/LNER and the GWR still sadly survive to this day!
I can remember delivering milk to the refreshment rooms on platform 7 when I was a lad helping a milkman on Sundays and school holidays, driving into the delivery area and having to go down in the goods lift and search the station for a barrow[peculier to the GWR or Western Region as it was then] to trundle the milk crates along the platform and trying to get through all the holiday crowds in the summer!:cool: Happy, happy days!!:)
 
Great photos PMC1947. I just loved the first one of the booking hall with the horse and carriage. I wonder what year that would have been? Around 1900 probably. And the second one with the crowded platform - wow! I wonder where they were all going? Smashing photographs.
 
I know this strictly speaking is off thread as it concerns New St Station and Snow Hill, but I wanted to show that it was not only Snow Hill Station that got crowded.

This photo of a platform on New St Station was taken on a Bank Holiday Monday in 1961. I have to tell you that this is a cropped photo, because the original one shows a photo with a crowd of people twice as long.

Phil

CityNewStStationBankHolidayMonday1961.jpg
 
BilboC, thanks for the info. Great photos - I wonder where all the people were going. Perhaps it was a cheap day out - I can remember going to Weston-Super-Mare on one of those.
Sheri
 
My husband (a steam railway buff that used to work in the offices of Hockley Goods) reckons the Snow Hill clock was bought by a school, maybe somewhere in Worcestershire....Malvern, Abberley, or somewhere? Anyone know?
 
Photos of Snow Hill booking hall always remind me of our Saturday afternoon's. Brian would play football and I would meet him in the KD and before we went to the pictures we would cross the road and leave his bag with footie gear in, at the left luggage on Snow Hill. Young love, oh it was so sweet.
 
Thanks pmc1947, those photos do bring back memories. I had almost forgotten what the main entrance where the coaches are, looked like.
Oh! the luxury of being able to get a cup of tea to take on the train, my dad always had to have one and a newspaper.Mo
 
Phil I went on Holiday to Weymouth from Snow Hill in a crowd like that Sept 1960, we sat on our Cases in the Corridor till Chippenham. happy days.
 
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Here are two photo’s that I consider to be iconic of Snow Hill Station. The first being another of the booking hall, but showing almost the complete hall with its marvellous arched roof (note how clean the hall is). The second is the wonderful artwork sign over the entrance to the hall. I wonder whatever happened to that. I would like to think it was saved and utilised elsewhere.

Phil

CitySnowHillBookingHall.jpg
CitySnowHillEntrance.jpg
 
Two wonderful Photos Phil whats the saying lost now, They had pride in their work.

Thanks
 
PMC1947.fantasic phill.great to see pics of the great hall again.As a child i loved looking in the glass cases around the hall.me and my dad got the steam train there every sat mornings for years,to go to wooten wawen
fishing,the driver etc got to know us,one sat morning we was a bit late,and was running down the stairs,expecting the train to have gone.but we were shocked to see it there,a voice shouted cant you get up in a morning,god bless that driver believe it or not.he had waited for us for 0ver 5mins.typing this post has give me goose bumps remembering that time.Some thing else that man did one sat, and it was every little boys dream. pete
 
You have a wonderful set of photos PMC1947. Thanks so much for posting them. The one of the passengers waiting on the platform at New Street is really unbelieveable isn't it, as was the one of those waiting at Snow Hill!
 
hi all, thinking back to snow hill,days standing there on the platform and looking through the window at the jewlers shop opp, It had a closing down sale for at least 6 years pete
 
I have been in that station ( Well who Has'nt ) but I cannot remember where those trains would take me, all I seem to remember is the cigarette vending machine in the side entrance.
 
ger22van.ernie.we went down to oxford and down to didcote etc.and up to stoubridge.there was hell of traffic in holliday time going south.i had my first ride in a cab of a king loco from there.down to bordsley station when i was 6 thanks to a very nice driver.and when i got off i was filthy but happy. pete
 
Pete. I remember going to Taunton in Somerset from New Street, but I ask myself why it was'nt from Snow Hill ? What a daft question!!!!
 
ger22van.ernie i dont know much about rail traffic.but i think one of the reasons the viaduct constution was put up in bordsley was to inter connect the two railway companies. but no go pete
 
I remember going on a holiday to Newquay from Snow Hill. In fact most of my childhood holidays seemed to start from this station!
 
sheri said:
BilboC, thanks for the info. Great photos - I wonder where all the people were going. Perhaps it was a cheap day out - I can remember going to Weston-Super-Mare on one of those.
Sheri
Click to expand...

Could your journey been as stylish as this I wonder:-

https://www.scienceandsociety.co.uk/results.asp?image=10449565&wwwflag=2&imagepos=81

or maybe a little more downmarket:

https://www.scienceandsociety.co.uk/results.asp?image=10449558&wwwflag=2&imagepos=62

on one of these even:

https://www.scienceandsociety.co.uk/results.asp?image=10316338&wwwflag=2&imagepos=10

Alf........at least on your trip you didn't have the minor inconvenience that Sean Connery had with his suitcase in THIS James Bond movie....

https://www.bondmovies.com/stills/frwl/40.jpg
 
What I know about trains I shall soon forget. Could there have been two different Railway Companies running from the two different stations in the 1950's ? I think not,
was the two stations serving the same county destinations ?
PS. Di .Poppitt, Thank you for your post.
 
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Sheri. Now you see I went in that direction but to Somerset from New Street. Thats why I was a little confused.
 
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