Nottingham Victoria railway station was a
Great Central Railway
The Great Central Railway in England was formed when the Manchester, Sheffield and Lincolnshire Railway changed its name in 1897, anticipating the opening in 1899 of its London Extension. On 1 January 1923, the company was grouped into the ...
and
Great Northern Railway railway station in
Nottingham
Nottingham ( , East Midlands English, locally ) is a city status in the United Kingdom, city and Unitary authorities of England, unitary authority area in Nottinghamshire, East Midlands, England. It is located north-west of London, south-east ...
, England. It was designed by the architect
Albert Edward Lambert
Albert Edward Lambert FRIBA (27 May 1869 – 5 November 1929) was an architect based in Nottingham, England.
Family
He was born in Manton in Rutland on 27 May 1869. He was the son of John Lambert and Louisa. By 1871 the family had moved to Dra ...
, who also designed the rebuild of the Nottingham Midland station (now known simply as
Nottingham station
Nottingham station, briefly known as Nottingham City and for rather longer as Nottingham Midland, is a railway station and tram stop in the city of Nottingham. It is the principal railway station of Nottingham. It is also a nodal point on the ...
).
It was opened by the
Nottingham Joint Station Committee
The Nottingham Joint Station Committee was incorporated by the Great Central and Great Northern Railway Act 1897 to manage the railway station which was to become Nottingham Victoria railway station, Nottingham Victoria. The committee comprised ...
on 24 May 1900 and closed on 4 September 1967 by the
London Midland Region of British Railways
The London Midland Region (LMR) was one of the six regions created on the formation of the nationalised British Railways (BR), and initially consisted of ex-London, Midland and Scottish Railway (LMS) lines in England, Wales and Northern Irela ...
. The station building was entirely demolished (except the clock tower), and the
Victoria Centre
Victoria Centre is a shopping centre in Nottingham, England, constructed between 1967 and 1972. It contains fashion and high street chain stores as well as cafes, restaurants, a health and fitness centre, and the Nottingham Victoria bus station.
...
shopping centre was built on the site, incorporating the old station clock tower into the main entrance on Milton Street (the continuation of Mansfield Road).
Background
In 1893 the
Manchester, Sheffield and Lincolnshire Railway
The Manchester, Sheffield and Lincolnshire Railway (MS&LR) was formed in 1847 when the Sheffield, Ashton-under-Lyne and Manchester Railway joined with authorised but unbuilt railway companies, forming a proposed network from Manchester to Grimsb ...
obtained authorisation to extend its North Midlands railway network into London. This new line was opened on 15 March 1899 (by which time the railway company was known as the Great Central Railway) and became known as the
London Extension, stretching from Annesley to a new station at
Marylebone
Marylebone (usually , also , ) is a district in the West End of London, in the City of Westminster. Oxford Street, Europe's busiest shopping street, forms its southern boundary.
An Civil parish#Ancient parishes, ancient parish and latterly a ...
in London. The line passed through Nottingham, where a new station was to be built.
Construction and opening
The station's construction was on a grand scale: a site was acquired at a cost of £473,000 (£) in the heart of Nottingham's city centre; negotiations for the land acquisition had taken three years. The construction called for the demolition of whole streets of some 1,300 houses, 24
public houses
A pub (short for public house) is a kind of drinking establishment which is licensed to serve alcoholic drinks for consumption on the premises. The term ''public house'' first appeared in the United Kingdom in late 17th century, and was ...
, and
St. Stephen's Church, Bunker's Hill
ST, St, or St. may refer to:
Arts and entertainment
* Stanza, in poetry
* Suicidal Tendencies, an American heavy metal/hardcore punk band
* Star Trek, a science-fiction media franchise
* Summa Theologica, a compendium of Catholic philosophy an ...
, following which about of
sandstone
Sandstone is a clastic sedimentary rock composed mainly of sand-sized (0.0625 to 2 mm) silicate grains. Sandstones comprise about 20–25% of all sedimentary rocks.
Most sandstone is composed of quartz or feldspar (both silicates) ...
was excavated from the site. The site measured about in length from north to south and had an average width of , with a tunnel at each end for access.
The
Great Central Railway
The Great Central Railway in England was formed when the Manchester, Sheffield and Lincolnshire Railway changed its name in 1897, anticipating the opening in 1899 of its London Extension. On 1 January 1923, the company was grouped into the ...
and
Great Northern Railway shared the station (they split into two lines at
Weekday Cross
Weekday Cross, in the Lace Market area of Nottingham, was the main market area in Nottingham. As the location of the town hall, Nottingham Guild Hall and main market, it was the centre of the town, before the market moved to the Old Market Squar ...
junction). The two owners failed to reach agreement on the station's name; the Great Central naturally wanted it called "Central", a proposition the Great Northern, still smarting from the incursion into its territory made by the London Extension, would not accept. The two railway companies operated separate booking offices, the Great Central issuing tickets reading "Nottingham Central", whilst the Great Northern's window bore the name "Nottingham Joint St'n". In the 1898 Royal Atlas of England, the station was recorded as the "Grt Central & Grt Northern Joint Central Station". The
town clerk
A clerk is a senior official of many municipal governments in the English-speaking world. In some communities, including most in the United States, the position is elected, but in many others, the clerk is appointed to their post. In the UK, a To ...
resolved the situation by suggesting the name "Nottingham Victoria" to reflect the fact that the planned opening date coincided with
Queen Victoria
Victoria (Alexandrina Victoria; 24 May 1819 – 22 January 1901) was Queen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland from 20 June 1837 until Death and state funeral of Queen Victoria, her death in 1901. Her reign of 63 years and 21 ...
's birthday; this was readily accepted at a meeting of the Nottingham Joint Station Committee on 12 June.
Nottingham Victoria station was officially opened without ceremony in the early hours of 24 May 1900, over a year after the commencement of services on the new railway line. The first service to call at the station was a Great Central express from
Manchester
Manchester () is a city in Greater Manchester, England. It had a population of 552,000 in 2021. It is bordered by the Cheshire Plain to the south, the Pennines to the north and east, and the neighbouring city of Salford to the west. The t ...
to
Marylebone
Marylebone (usually , also , ) is a district in the West End of London, in the City of Westminster. Oxford Street, Europe's busiest shopping street, forms its southern boundary.
An Civil parish#Ancient parishes, ancient parish and latterly a ...
, which pulled in at 1:12 a.m.; it was followed fifteen minutes later by a Great Central express travelling in the opposite direction.
Station building
The main station building was in true
Victorian splendour. It was constructed in a
Renaissance style
Renaissance architecture is the European architecture of the period between the early 15th and early 16th centuries in different regions, demonstrating a conscious revival and development of certain elements of Ancient Greece, ancient Greek and ...
using the best-quality red-faced bricks and
Darley Dale
Darley Dale, also known simply as Darley, is a town and civil parish in the Derbyshire Dales district of Derbyshire, England, with a population of 5,413. It lies north of Matlock, on the River Derwent and the A6 road. The town forms part o ...
stone, with space at the front for
Hackney carriages
A hackney or hackney carriage (also called a cab, black cab, hack or London taxi) is a carriage or car for hire. A hackney of a more expensive or high class was called a remise. A symbol of London and Britain, the black taxi is a common si ...
, which was covered by a canopy. It faced onto the confluence of Mansfield Road and Milton Street for some .
The three-storey building was dominated by a
clock tower
Clock towers are a specific type of structure which house a turret clock and have one or more clock faces on the upper exterior walls. Many clock towers are freestanding structures but they can also adjoin or be located on top of another buildi ...
topped with a
cupola
In architecture, a cupola () is a relatively small, most often dome-like, tall structure on top of a building. Often used to provide a lookout or to admit light and air, it usually crowns a larger roof or dome.
The word derives, via Italian, from ...
and
weather vane
A wind vane, weather vane, or weathercock is an instrument used for showing the direction of the wind. It is typically used as an architectural ornament to the highest point of a building. The word ''vane'' comes from the Old English word , m ...
. At the north end of the building, access could be gained to the parcels office via two large metal gates. Once inside the building on the ground floor level, one reached the large and lofty booking hall. It was over long and wide, and contained the best-quality pine and a hard-wearing oak floor, along with a gallery on each side to gain access to spacious offices on the first floor. The booking hall contained seven ticket-issuing windows, three each for the Great Central and Great Northern and one for excursion traffic; a clock-type train indicator served all platforms. An iron overbridge led from the booking hall and spanned the platforms, to which it was connected by four broad staircases. A small footbridge at the end provided access to the
island platform
An island platform (also center platform, centre platform) is a station layout arrangement where a single platform is positioned between two tracks within a railway station, tram stop or transitway interchange. Island platforms are popular on ...
s at the south end, themselves connected to a side exit leading onto Parliament Street.
![Nottingham Victoria railway station 2058984 d4d6fe34](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/3b/Nottingham_Victoria_railway_station_2058984_d4d6fe34.jpg)
The station itself comprised two large island platforms, each between and long, with two bays at each end for local traffic, giving a total of 12 platform faces. On each island platform were dining and tea rooms together with kitchens, sleeping facilities for staff, waiting rooms, and lavatories. All these buildings were, like the rest of the station, lined with glazed tiles, which were generally buff in colour and embellished with a chocolate
dado. Large steel pillars held up an enormous three-part glazed canopy measuring in length, with a centre span of and a pair of flanking spans each of . There were additional glass roofs over the double-bay platforms, each carried on central pillars. An electrically lit subway system, below track level and covering the breadth of the station, could be used for transporting luggage, thereby avoiding the need to carry it over the footbridges. The subway was linked to the main station by four lifts serving respectively the booking hall, cloakroom, and two island platforms. The refreshment rooms had their own underground subway and lifts.
![Nottingham Victoria railway station 2098289 c7d9889d](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/ed/Nottingham_Victoria_railway_station_2098289_c7d9889d.jpg)
The station had
passing loop
A passing loop (UK usage) or passing siding (North America) (also called a crossing loop, crossing place, refuge loop or, colloquially, a hole) is a place on a single line railway or tramway, often located at or near a station, where trains or ...
s round all platforms (for freight), two
signal box
In signal processing, a signal is a function that conveys information about a phenomenon. Any quantity that can vary over space or time can be used as a signal to share messages between observers. The ''IEEE Transactions on Signal Processing'' ...
es, and two
turntable
A phonograph, in its later forms also called a gramophone (as a trademark since 1887, as a generic name in the UK since 1910) or since the 1940s called a record player, or more recently a turntable, is a device for the mechanical and analogu ...
s. The two signal boxes were positioned at the north and south ends of the station and controlled entry and exit to the tunnels that allowed entry to the complex.
Station masters
*William Thompson 1900 - 1903 (formerly
station master
The station master (or stationmaster) is the person in charge of a railway station, particularly in the United Kingdom and many other countries outside North America. In the United Kingdom, where the term originated, it is now largely historical ...
at Malton)
*Arthur Blanden 1903 - 1911 (afterwards station superintendent at Marylebone)
*Charles James Fox 1911 - 1926
*Herbert Montagu Budds 1926 - 1936
*Walter Wainwright Capon 1936 - 1941 (formerly station master at Basford and Bulwell, afterwards station master at Sheffield Victoria)
*Robert Barlow Stoakley 1941 - 1952 (formerly station master at Cleethorpes)
*C.E. Jolly until 1956
*Eric H. Handley from 1959 (formerly station master at Peterborough East)
Services
![Great Central Railway timetable July 1919](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/74/Great_Central_Railway_timetable_July_1919.jpg)
The traffic that passed through was varied. It included London–
Manchester
Manchester () is a city in Greater Manchester, England. It had a population of 552,000 in 2021. It is bordered by the Cheshire Plain to the south, the Pennines to the north and east, and the neighbouring city of Salford to the west. The t ...
expresses, local services, cross-country services (e.g. from
York
York is a cathedral city with Roman origins, sited at the confluence of the rivers Ouse and Foss in North Yorkshire, England. It is the historic county town of Yorkshire. The city has many historic buildings and other structures, such as a ...
to
Bristol
Bristol () is a city, ceremonial county and unitary authority in England. Situated on the River Avon, it is bordered by the ceremonial counties of Gloucestershire to the north and Somerset to the south. Bristol is the most populous city in ...
via
Oxford
Oxford () is a city in England. It is the county town and only city of Oxfordshire. In 2020, its population was estimated at 151,584. It is north-west of London, south-east of Birmingham and north-east of Bristol. The city is home to the ...
) as well as freight workings. As the station was shared with the Great Northern Railway (already well established when Victoria opened), a large network of lines serving many destinations was available from the one station. The new services offered unbeatable competition to the
Midland Railway
The Midland Railway (MR) was a railway company in the United Kingdom from 1844. The Midland was one of the largest railway companies in Britain in the early 20th century, and the largest employer in Derby, where it had its headquarters. It am ...
services from
Nottingham railway station
Nottingham station, briefly known as Nottingham City and for rather longer as Nottingham Midland, is a railway station and tram stop in the city of Nottingham. It is the principal railway station of Nottingham. It is also a nodal point on the ...
. The Midland offered more trains per day to Leicester, but the journey time of 40 minutes was outclassed by the Great Central's journey time of 27 minutes non-stop.
The journey time to Sheffield was similarly impressive at 50 minutes.
In 1905, there were nine goods trains to London each day, the fastest taking only 2 hours 15 minutes.
Decline
![Nottingham Victoria Station, with Down freight and Up express - geograph](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/ee/Nottingham_Victoria_Station%2C_with_Down_freight_and_Up_express_-_geograph.org.uk_-_2126956.jpg)
During the 1960s, the whole Great Central route was run down by diverting services away from it, cutting others, and slowing down expresses to very slack timetables. Locomotives and rolling stock were old and unreliable, and the line did not benefit from British Rail's new diesel locomotives. As passenger numbers fell, going either by car or by other lines, closure seemed inevitable. The last through service from Nottingham to London ran on 3 September 1966. All that was left was a
DMU service between Nottingham and
Rugby
Rugby may refer to:
Sport
* Rugby football in many forms:
** Rugby league: 13 players per side
*** Masters Rugby League
*** Mod league
*** Rugby league nines
*** Rugby league sevens
*** Touch (sport)
*** Wheelchair rugby league
** Rugby union: 1 ...
, the Nottingham Victoria to Grantham services having been re-routed to Nottingham Midland on 3 July 1967.
Victoria station was finally closed on 4 September 1967 and demolished (amidst much opposition), leaving only the clocktower to survive amongst the new Victoria Shopping Centre and flats. The station site was bought by Capital and Counties Property Company Limited from British Rail with a plan to spend £7.5m on the first stage of development. This was reportedly the largest commercial development in Britain ever carried out by a private developer outside of the London area. Goods trains continued to pass through the site of Victoria until May 1968, with two running lines left in place amidst the demolition of the main station.
Present day
![Nottingham - NG1 (Victoria Centre) - geograph](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/12/Nottingham_-_NG1_%28Victoria_Centre%29_-_geograph.org.uk_-_2997781.jpg)
The site is now occupied by the
Victoria Shopping Centre
Victoria Centre is a shopping centre in Nottingham, England, constructed between 1967 and 1972. It contains fashion and high street chain stores as well as cafes, restaurants, a health and fitness centre, and the Nottingham Victoria bus station.
...
and housing in the form of Victoria Flats, Nottingham's tallest building (256 feet / 72m tall).
The new structure incorporates the original station's clock tower. From the bottom level of the shopping centre's car park, in the former station's deep cutting, the entrance of
Mansfield Road railway tunnel remains visible.
Upon the closure of the
Great Central railway
The Great Central Railway in England was formed when the Manchester, Sheffield and Lincolnshire Railway changed its name in 1897, anticipating the opening in 1899 of its London Extension. On 1 January 1923, the company was grouped into the ...
and the
Great Northern Great Northern may refer to:
Transport
* One of a number of railways; see Great Northern Railway (disambiguation).
* Great Northern Railway (U.S.), a defunct American transcontinental railroad and major predecessor of the BNSF Railway.
* Great ...
/
London and North Western Joint line to
Melton Mowbray
Melton Mowbray () is a town in Leicestershire, England, north-east of Leicester, and south-east of Nottingham. It lies on the River Eye, known below Melton as the Wreake. The town had a population 27,670 in 2019. The town is sometimes promo ...
(via ), Nottingham also lost other important stations:
Nottingham London Road High Level and
Nottingham London Road Low Level.
Nottingham's other mainline station,
Nottingham Midland, remains in service.
Redevelopment plans for the Victoria Shopping Centre will see an extension built northwards, filling in the last section of the former station's deep cutting and concealing the entrance to the Mansfield Road Tunnel.
Former services
See also
*
Nottingham railway station
Nottingham station, briefly known as Nottingham City and for rather longer as Nottingham Midland, is a railway station and tram stop in the city of Nottingham. It is the principal railway station of Nottingham. It is also a nodal point on the ...
(1848–Present)
*
Nottingham Carrington Street railway station
Nottingham Carrington Street railway station was the first railway station in Nottingham, opened in 1839 by the Midland Counties Railway. Initially there were two lines with a central platform as well as side ones according to Billson. Victori ...
(1840 to 1948)
*
Carrington railway station
Carrington railway station was a railway station in Nottingham on the Great Central Railway main line, the last main line to be built from the north of England to London. The station opened with the line on 15 March 1899, and served the Notting ...
(1899 to 1928)
References
Further reading
*
*
External links
*
*
{{coord, 52.9572, -1.1477, type:railwaystation_region:GB, display=title
Disused railway stations in Nottinghamshire
Former Great Central Railway stations
Former Great Northern Railway stations
Railway stations in Great Britain closed in 1967
Buildings and structures in Nottingham
Railway stations in Great Britain opened in 1900
Beeching closures in England
Albert Edward Lambert railway stations