Birmingham Hidden Spaces: New Street signal box & Curzon Street station

[rf_ioliver]

There's a very nice site called Birmingham's Hidden Spaces. Two of the spaces with photographs and history are New Street Signal Box and Curzon Street Station.

http://www.hidden-spaces.co.uk/new-street-signal-box

The Grade II listed New Street Signal Box on Navigation Street was designed by Bicknell & Hamilton and W. R. Healey and was completed in 1964. The bold, brutalist building housed technology that was revolutionary for its time and remains relatively unchanged 50 years on...

http://www.hidden-spaces.co.uk/curzon-street-station

Curzon Street Station is the oldest railway terminus in the world and was once a vibrant hub of trade and industry. It was the terminus of the first railway line to link London to Birmingham, which was engineered by Robert Stephenson...

Enjoy!

t.

Ian

 

[edwin_m]

Sorry to be picky, but isn't Liverpool Road in Manchester the oldest surviving railway terminus? And much more survives there than Curzon Street, where there is only the one building.

 

[Camden]

Says of Curzon Street "the building was completed in 1838". Manchester Liverpool Road opened in 1830 on the same day as Edge Hill in Liverpool, so I would say they have joint honours (and of course Edge Hill is still going).

The oldest mainline terminal still in operation today is Lime Street, which opened in 1836.

 

[CharlieSpotted]

Birmingham's Hidden Spaces is an awesome project. They did a tour recently of the tunnels under New Street, but it was competition winners only, and I didn't get in, gutted.

If anyone's in Brum there's an exhibition on at the moment in the vaults of Birmingham Municipal Bank (normally a closed space) at the bottom of Broad Street. The one they did last year at Curzon Street Station was brilliant, I'm hoping to go to this new one on Saturday.

 

[edwin_m]

Says of Curzon Street "the building was completed in 1838". Manchester Liverpool Road opened in 1830 on the same day as Edge Hill in Liverpool, so I would say they have joint honours (and of course Edge Hill is still going).

The oldest mainline terminal still in operation today is Lime Street, which opened in 1836.

The quote refers to the oldest terminus, so neither Edge Hill nor Lime Street qualifies. Crown Street would qualify, as the first train left there a few hours before reaching Liverpool Road, but I understand no trace remains.