GWR Route: Banbury to Wolverhampton

GWR Route: North Warwickshire Line

GWR Official Publications: gwrbsh3005

An official plan of the southern end of the platforms of the third Snow Hill Station. This was the approximate area covered by the main glazed roof and shows the locations of the various platform facilities that were available during the interwar period (1918 to 1939). In 1913, the Third Class General Waiting Room on the Up platform became the location of the Birmingham Telephone Exchange containing a combination multiple switchboard. A new low level Booking Office adjacent to the Livery Street entrance to the Main Subway allowed the Up platform Booking Office to become a Store Room, while the Cloak Room on the Down platform became a Parcels Room. The facilities have been also listed below, with the original 1912 usage identified in brackets where this subsequently changed. In 1929, the numbers of platforms 11 and 12 were also reversed.

Up side:		Down Side:

Telegraph Office
		Parcels Room (was Cloak Room)
Telephone Exchange (was 3rd Class General Waiting Room)		Lifts down to Main Subway
Ladies Waiting Room		General Waiting Room
Cloak Room		Stairs down to Main Subway
Lifts down to Main Subway		Telegraph Office
		Stairs down to Gentlemen's Lavatory
Stairs down to Main Subway
Refreshment Rooms with Kitchen below		Platform Booking Office
		Refreshment Rooms with Kitchen below
Stores (was Platform Booking Office)
Stairs down to Gentlemen's Lavatory		First Class General Waiting Room
Ladies Lavatory with Book Stall outside		First Class Ladies Waiting Room
First Class Ladies Waiting Room		Ladies Lavatory with Book Stall outside
General Waiting Room (was First Class only)		Ladies Waiting Room
Station Master's Office
Stairs up to Main Booking Hall, with Inspector's and Ticket Collector's Offices under

Adjacent to each side of the Snow Hill tunnel entrance are short sidings with access to a platform. The two platforms were constructed for loading and unloading live horses, fish, fruit, milk or other perishable traffic, travelling in passenger rated, vacuum braked ‘Brown’ vans, which could be attached to fast passenger trains. The siding on the down side served what became called the ‘Milk Platform’.

Robert Ferris

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