Nottingham Victoria railway station

In 1893 the Manchester, Sheffield and Lincolnshire Railway obtained authorisation to extend its North Midlands railway network into London. This new line was opened on 15 March 1899 and became known as the "London Extension", stretching from Annesley to a new station at Marylebone in London. The line passed through Nottingham where a new station was to be built.

[edit] Construction and opening

The station's construction was on a grand scale: around 700,000 cubic yards (540,000 m³) of sandstone rock was excavated from its cavernous site. Some 1300 houses and 24 public houses previously on the site had to be demolished. The site was approximately 13 acres in area and 650 yards (590 m) long from north to south. It had an average width of 110 yards (100 m) with a tunnel at each end of it for access. Both the Great Central Railway and Great Northern Railway shared the station (they split into two lines at Weekday Cross junction). For this reason, added to the fact that the opening day was on Queen Victoria's birthday, the station was named (after much argument^{[citation needed]}) Nottingham Victoria rather than Nottingham Central.

Nottingham Victoria station was officially opened on 24 May 1900 - over a year after the commencement of services on the new railway line.

[edit] Station building

Nottingham Victoria Station in the early 1900s. On the right of the picture is the Victoria Hotel, now a Hilton hotel.

The main station building was in true Victorian splendour. It was constructed in a Renaissance style using the best quality faced bricks and Darley Dale stone with space at the front for Hackney carriages which was covered by a canopy. The three-storey building had a large 100-foot (30 m) clock tower at its centre topped with a cupola and weather vane. 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 spacious booking office. It was over 100 feet (30 m) long and 66 feet (20 m) wide, and contained the best quality pine and a hard wearing oak floor along with a balcony to gain access to offices.

The station itself had two large island platforms, each 1,270 feet (390 m) long, with four bays for local traffic giving a total of 12 platforms. Large steel pillars held up an enormous 3-part glazed canopy — the two outer sections being 63 feet (19 m) across the central one being 84 feet (26 m) across.

The main station building was located on Milton Street along with the station hotel. The platforms both had very similar buildings with a variety of facilities including a telegraph office, refreshment rooms, toilets, many waiting rooms and a ladies-only tea room. The station boasted many facilities for the comfort of passengers — considerably more than many other stations in the area. A subway system, below track level, could be used for the movement of luggage in order to avoid carrying it over the footbridges. The station had passing loops round all platforms (for freight), two signal boxes and two turntables. 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. The traffic that passed through was very varied. It included London–Manchester expresses, local services, cross-country services (e.g. from York to Bristol via Oxford) as well as freight workings. As the station was shared with The Great Northern Railway (already well established when Victoria opened), a superb network of lines going to many destinations was available from the one station.

[edit] Decline

During the 1960s the whole Great Central route was being run down by diverting services away from it, cutting others and slowing down expresses to very slack timetables. Locomotives and rolling stock were unreliable and old; the line did not benefit from British Rail's new diesel locomotives. As passenger numbers fell, either going by car or other lines, closure seemed inevitable. The last through service from Nottingham to London ran on 3rd September 1966. All that was left was a DMU service between Nottingham and Rugby. Victoria station was finally closed on 4 September 1967 and demolished (amidst much opposition^{[citation needed]}) leaving only the clocktower to survive amongst the Victoria Shopping Centre and flats.

[edit] Present day

The site is now occupied by the Victoria Shopping Centre and housing in the form of Victoria Flats — Nottingham's tallest building (256 feet / 72m tall).^[1]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 site of the entrance of Mansfield Road railway tunnel remains visible.

Upon the closure of the Great Central railway and the Great Northern line to Melton Mowbray, Nottingham also lost smaller stations: Nottingham, London Road High Level and Nottingham, London Road Low Level.

Nottingham's other mainline station, Nottingham Midland, remains in service.