Birmingham New Street Station: lnwrbns_str1295

An aerial view of New Street station showing how the station dominated this part of the city centre with the Queens Hotel towering above the North side of the station. The original LNWR station was originally to be built with a three-span roof but it was very quickly recognised that the supporting columns would severely restrict the workings of the railways. Therefore Cowper's design of a single-span roof was accepted even though the largest span at the time was the 150 foot wide roof at Liverpool station, some 62 foot less than the 212 foot design adopted at New Street. Whilst the Midland Railway opened in 1868 St Pancras station with its 243 foot wide single span train shed, it was some 151 feet shorter than New Street's. Richard Foster notes that as the site was not quite rectangular which required roof trusses of slightly different lengths together with a height of 75 feet at its apex above rail level, the roof must be regarded as representing 'Midland iron-making industry at its best'.

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