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Snow Hill Station

And the next lot - superb carving details on the walls of what was, in fact, only a parcels yard:-
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Not sure which emblem had been removed from here- possibly the original manufacturers of the steelwork?
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Moving on a few days - demolition is now in full swing - note the parcels undercroft is now open to the elements:-
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Keeping going (sadly....):-
The shops and industrial units are now being attacked by the big concrete ball:-
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But are putting up a damn good fight!
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By now the undercroft is in a very sorry state - the steelwork is being cut up:-
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The remains of the sign for "The Birmingham Transmissions Ltd" can be seen in the rubble:-
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The next ones:-
Note the arc welding company sign buried behind the facade:-
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Close up of the Birmingham Transmissions sign:-
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This guy has a good view - possibly the first person to look out over this much from this point since around 1910:-
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Its now a few days later - by now you can see around a third of the width of the station is open to the elements:-
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And most of the stone balustrade is gone:-
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The roof of the undercroft is now being cut up:-
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And the final shots - a plant grows on top of the pillar oblivious to the destruction surrounding it:-
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A close-up view of the arc welders sign from a few photos ago - c'mon someone - who is this company?
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Could it possibly be Philips? Its the unit to the right of Rutherford and Kay if that helps?
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Close up of the remains of the undercroft roof:-
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The glazed brickwork still survives here:-
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And to finish - a single colour shot of the units just as demolition was starting:-
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Astoness said:
thanks mark a great set of sad historical photos..i have always thought it a pity that this this so called forward thinking city did not think a bit harder and turn the old station into a tourist attraction...to late now

lyn
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Yes Lyn, I felt sadness when looking through Marks photos. Snow Hill such an important part of growing up spotting trains etc. I am also a big fan of Brunel, and his father. Birmingham has provided SO much to the world, its only now that I can truly appreciate it. Sorry to get of track! No pun intended.
 
Well said! It's very sad to see the way a priceless national asset was squandered in the name of progress. If only the same wise voices which saved St. Pancras from the same fate had been able to save Snow Hill, then we would all have been better off, if only because there would have been no need to build a "new" Snow Hill station on the same site.

I don't often agree with the French, but SNCF has a much more enlightened approach to railways which are of "no" use. They simply "mothball" them, so that if/when they are required again, they are easy to put back into use. When we consider the number of lines (which were closed under Beeching) and which are now being considered for re-opening, how much money would their re-instatement have saved if we had only adopted the French approach?
 
Thank you for your kind comments. To cheer you all up a bit, here is a piece of Snow Hill history that HAS survived - the tunnels from the north of the station, under Livery St, through the Jewellery Quarter emerging from under Vyse St into what is now the Jewellery Quarter station and what was then Hockley station. Apologies if I have posted a couple of these before - they were taken in the early-to-mid 1980's before the track bed was cleared to make way for the new rail and metro lines - I have tried to put them into order as best as I can:-
We start approximately level with Taylor & Challen:-
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Moving north we are passing under Livery St - the carriage sidings are ending on the right:-
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Now entering the cutting behind Cannings:-
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Snow Hill site is just visible if we turn around:-
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Now we start to move into the Jewellery Quarter:-
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The station is now disappearing into the distance. Note the repaired walls on the right:-
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Rubbish everywhere - but do not worry - soon it will all be gone!
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Now we are about half way through:-
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Cannot see Snow Hill station any more:-
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Amazing what was dumped in these tunnels.... Note the painted wall on the left - probably the backdrop to a signal:-
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Three quarters of the way there - Hockley goods yard (well the site of....) is now visible in the distance:-
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Looking back towards Snow Hill:-
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"Can someone put a shilling in the meter please?"
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Nearly there - Hockley is in the distance:-
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Finally we arrive in Hockley - the middle of the wall was painted a lighter colour apparently so that the signals that used to be there showed up better against it:-
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tomkil said:
Mark you deserve some kind of recognition for services to Brummies.
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totally agree with you tom...i would like to bet that when mark over many years of taking his photos did not realise at the time just how important these photos would become...scattered all over the forum and never seen before we as members can only say thank you for choosing this forum to share them along with our mikejee who also has a wonderful collection of private photos also shared with us...i only wish they could all be printed in books and have exhibitions of them...a big task i know but who knows maybe one day:)

lyn
 
Mark- these are incredibly evocative photos. I was fortunate to have moved away before the final act of destruction so only knew the building in my early teens - my formative years - pre-1976, when it was almost intact but decaying. I never saw, thank God, the bitter end. The place haunts me- I don't say that lightly. I'd give anything to sit on the platform again under the GWR overall roof amidst the 1970's products of Longbridge (a paradox! These were the tools that Beeching and Marples used to kill our beloved railways) and wander along the cuttings to Hockley with the distant hum of the city in the background. Still - we have Moor Street with us yet, and I do love it. There is so much that was wantonly frittered away. The best Museum of Science and Industry in the country. The finest public art - the Budd mosaics in St Chads- all gone (but possibly buried for the future maybe? I hope so.
 
On the plus side - at least the vast majority of the contents of the old science museum still exist at the Dollman St collection centre - just a huge pity that whoever designed Thinktank came up with "science museum bit - ram in as much as I can into as small as space as possible, but leave that huge entrance hall totally empty so people can come in and appreciate what a vast space looks like...., then waste the rest of the building on things of little or no importance...." - sorry I'm on me soap box now.......... - oh I forgot - "Charge a small fortune to go in"...........
 

A signalman at work at Snow Hill railway station in Birmingham, June 1932.​

A signalman at work at Snow Hill railway station in Birmingham, June 1932.
 
Mark Tooze said:
And the next lot - superb carving details on the walls of what was, in fact, only a parcels yard:-
View attachment 169503
Not sure which emblem had been removed from here- possibly the original manufacturers of the steelwork?
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Moving on a few days - demolition is now in full swing - note the parcels undercroft is now open to the elements:-
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This is what was on the second photo in this post by the way:-
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mikejee said:
Two photos of the approaches to Snow Hill in 1961, taken 4 months apart, in which time the name Taylor & Challen has been repainted.

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Did the train go to Blackpool in those days from Snow Hill. I was in a push chair I think at the time about 4 years old when taken to Blackpool and the station I remember was nothing like New Street I came to know. One for the music set on here was Le Metro In Livery Street set in the arches of the railway. I went to watch a friend Colin ( Bloggsie) Bates in Jugs O Henry at Le Metro I am sure it was.
 
Terence David Lines said:
Did the train go to Blackpool in those days from Snow Hill. I was in a push chair I think at the time about 4 years old when taken to Blackpool and the station I remember was nothing like New Street I came to know. One for the music set on here was Le Metro In Livery Street set in the arches of the railway. I went to watch a friend Colin ( Bloggsie) Bates in Jugs O Henry at Le Metro I am sure it was.
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I notice that the earlier photo showed that the Taylor & Challen name was lower down while the Derwent Foundry name was up top. In the 1961 photo these names appear to have been switched round, with a freshly painted Taylor & Challen up top.

As far as your query about trains going to Blackpool, I can't see how a departure from Snow Hill would go there. Shrewsbury,Chester & Birkenhead were the northern destinations from there whereas from New Street, the route would be direct t via Crewe & Preston to Blackpool.
 
TerryD147 said:
I notice that the earlier photo showed that the Taylor & Challen name was lower down while the Derwent Foundry name was up top. In the 1961 photo these names appear to have been switched round, with a freshly painted Taylor & Challen up top.

As far as your query about trains going to Blackpool, I can't see how a departure from Snow Hill would go there. Shrewsbury,Chester & Birkenhead were the northern destinations from there whereas from New Street, the route would be direct t via Crewe & Preston to Blackpool.
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I had probably had too much candy floss and fish and chips.
 
My recollection. in 1949 or 1950, was New Street for Blackpool trains.
At the age of 12 I was not impressed with the place, it stank of beer and fish an chips and vomit. Needless to say that I have visited it again.
 
Radiorails said:
My recollection. in 1949 or 1950, was New Street for Blackpool trains.
At the age of 12 I was not impressed with the place, it stank of beer and fish an chips and vomit. Needless to say that I have visited it again.
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Alan, my recollection In about 51 or 52 aged 8 or 9 was the same. Hot summer. I did go one other time to see Stanley Matthew’s play, we went to game and came back home.
 
Richard Dye said:
Alan, my recollection In about 51 or 52 aged 8 or 9 was the same. Hot summer. I did go one other time to see Stanley Matthew’s play, we went to game and came back home.
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Now there's name well known in the past. Wonderful, fine player. Long before footballers were into hugging each other. :laughing:
 
Didn’t the railway companies paint their signal boxes a distinct company colour ? Mike’s photo #952 seems to show, I think, a brown and cream box. I remember seeing brown and cream boxes in Cornwall in the 1950s. Viv.
 
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