A choice of original plans and drawings detailing the 150-year history of Birmingham New Street were published for the primary time, as passengers await the hole of the 1st 1/2 the station’s new concourse in under a week’s time – the primary major change to New Street station in over 40 years.
The station has remained largely unchanged because it was last redeveloped in 1967 and in additional recent years have been the focal point of much criticism as numbers of folk using the railway has increased, with greater than double the passengers using New Street today than it was designed for. The experience for passengers is poor, with the station being too dark, busy and overcrowded with inadequate access to platforms. This month, everything changes because the halfway point of the station transformation is reached.
To mark the closure of the old concourse later this month, the Network Rail archive team has for the primary time published the unique plans and drawings of the station on its virtual archive. The various plans date back to the 19th century, showing the layout of the unique station which opened in 1854 in addition to the 1960’s rebuild. The web exhibition are located at www.networkrail.co.uk/virtualarchive/new-street
Vicky Stretch, Network Rail archivist said: “Since publishing the primary railway architectural plans on our virtual archive over a year ago, it’s been fascinating to gradually work through our number of over five million records to look what other elements of the railway’s history we will uncover. With the upcoming unveiling of the recent concourse at Birmingham New Street, we’ve been looking for the unique plans and drawings of the station and feature found a number of great interest and importance at this exciting time of change for passengers. Little or no survives for the unique nineteenth century New Street, but what we do have, in addition to a set of the more familiar 1960s station, is now published online.”
New Street wasn’t always the eyesore that has proved so unpopular within the city lately. When the unique station first opened in 1851, it was the biggest inside the country, encompassed by the most important single span arched roof on earth at 212ft wide and 840ft long. Constructed by a similar team who built Paddington station, New Street in its original guise was a grand structure and typical of 19th century architecture and only rivalled by the arriving of St Pancras in 1868.
When the brand new concourse opens on the end of this month, it is going to be one-and-a-half times bigger than the present one, featuring all the facilities expected in a significant station, with a brand new, larger and improved ticket office and new lifts and escalators improving access to platforms.
Ahead of the 28 April, the general public exhibition giving comprehensive information regarding the station switchover will occur at the main concourse at New Street between 7am-7pm Tuesday (April 23) and Friday (April 26) and 9am-7pm on Saturday (April 27).