LMS Route: Rugby to Wolverhampton

LMS Route: Birmingham New Street to Lichfield

LMS Route: Birmingham New Street to Soho and Perry Barr

Curzon Street Station: lnwrcs1504

Bourne's engraving of the New Canal Street frontage of Curzon Street station. The viewpoint is from the junction of Curzon Street. New Canal Street and Duddeston Row. As originally designed by Hardwick, the arrangement should have been symmetrical about the centre line of the main building with a matching set of gates on the right. Unfortunately, the site was not big enough and the right-hand archway was built right up against the existing houses. As Wishaw noted in his description of the station, Hardwick's frontage building was not part of the station proper but was used as a hotel. Named 'The Queen Victoria', it was normally referred to as 'The Queen'. Entrance to and exit from the passenger station was through the the gates to the left of the main buildings for departures and through the right-hand arch for arriving trains. The station buildings, with their colonnade along the front, can be seen through the left-hand gateway, with the roofs of the train shed just visible to the right. The ticket office and waiting rooms were in this single-storey building. The scene did not stay like this for long; the left-hand arch and gateways were soon taken down to make way for an extension to the hotel. Henceforth passengers had to use a gate in Curzon Street to reach the station.

Richard Foster

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