Nottingham Victoria

Early years and construction

Nottingham’s massive Victoria station was a magnificent structure – the last of the inspiring Victorian railway age ‘Cathedrals of Steam’.

In its early days, the stunning overall glazed roof and elegant end screens made it light and airy – in spite of the two vast island platforms being well below ground level in a deep sandstone cutting.

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Back in October 1881, Nottingham Corporation’s General Purposes Committee expressed the view that the Midland Railway’s 1848 station, located well south of Broadmarsh, was inconvenient and that it would be desirable to have a more centrally located joint station. In November 1888 a committee was set up to help promote plans for a central station.

In September 1889 Sir Edward Watkin of the Manchester, Sheffield & Lincolnshire Railway (MSLR) approached the Great Northern Railway (GNR) as to the possibility of building a joint line from Nottingham to meet the Metropolitan Railway at Aylesbury and so gain access to London. Although the GNR declined to join the MSLR in its London Extension project, Nottingham Corporation gave support for the Parliamentary Bill.

Read more in the July issue of The RM – on sale now!

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Robinson GCR ‘8A’ class (LNER ‘Q4’) 0-8-0 pulls out of Nottingham Victoria with a Down train of coal empties for Annesley in around 1930. T G HEPBURN/RAIL ARCHIVE STEPHENSON


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