Nottingham Victoria Station subway


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Interesting, because I've never heard of such a thing before. I've zoomed in on the photo to the street scene in the background, and it's not easy to work out which direction the photographer is facing.

I'd actually question if that is Nottingham Victoria at all. The track level is not much lower than the street level beyond the fence. All the track at Victoria is MUCH lower than that. It was in a much deeper hole.

There is a detailed, original, plan of the station here http://www.railwayarchive.org.uk/map/planBookThumb.php?planNo=33 and no such feature is shown.

I'll say I don't think it is Nottingham Victoria. I'm sure some of the railway experts on Nottstalgia will be able to add something.

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There was a subway, but it was for parcels, etc, traffic rather than passenger use. I think it's been mentioned somewhere in one of the other threads on this site about Victoria, but the following is from the book 'Scenes From the Past: 11 - Railways in and Around Nottingham' by V. Forster & W. Taylor (Foxline Publishing, 1991):-

'The traveller...could if he wished send his luggage ahead by using one of the two hydraulic lifts which connected with the subway system, a little known feature of this great station. This subway was also used for mails and parcels and was truly located in the bowels of the station below rail level connecting the main station buildings with the two island platforms approximately along the route of the old Charlotte Street. It was of generous proportions being 14 feet wide and almost as high with walls of glazed brick.'

Whether that's what is shown in that photo I can't say.

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Some more information - from 'The Rise and Fall of Nottingham's Railway Network Volume 1 - Lines in the City' by Hayden J. Reed (Book Law Publications, 2007):

'Less apparent remains of the station, lie hidden beneath the feet of busy shoppers. The glazed brick-lined 14 foot wide parcel tunnel that crossed the station still exists deep in the bowels of the shopping centre, today carrying service pipes.'

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A few mentions in the news archives :


....chased through Goldsmith-street, Burton-street. Sherwood-street, and Shakespease-street. , The accused then ran across to the subway at Victoria Station- Witness kept him well in sight and finally caught up with him on a portion of waste ground near Huntingdon-street

15 October 1946 - Nottingham Evening Post



......booking hall, with a basement of the same size, and this is connected with the luggage subway by a hydraulic hoist. When the spacious hotel which is to adjoin the subway has been erected, it will be connected with the booking hall by a covered way.

26 May 1900 - Nottinghamshire Guardian

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#1. Reference the photographs of the construction of the Great Central line held at the Leicester Archive, picture L2780 shows the Bulwell viaduct nearing completion, looking south. What is the large building seen on the left of the image?

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I'd heard of the luggage subway, but I'm not sure if that is what is on the photo. As I said previously, I reckon the object in the photo is too close to ground level to be going under anything in Victoria.

victoriasubway.jpg

As for the building which Chulla mentions; according to the caption this is the north side of Bulwell viaduct, looking south. Looking at Old Maps for the time when the viaduct was built, there is no building in that space. It should be approximately where the white rectangle is.

bulwellvia.jpg

viadumap.jpg

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Cliff Ton for info that same photo of the subway is in the Victoria Station section of Victorian Nottingham by Illiffe and Baggulay.

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As for the building which Chulla mentions; according to the caption this is the north side of Bulwell viaduct, looking south. Looking at Old Maps for the time when the viaduct was built, there is no building in that space. It should be approximately where the white rectangle is.

bulwellvia.jpg

viadumap.jpg

That photo is surely the south side looking north. The topography etc. looks totally wrong to me for it to be north side looking south. The building is part of the Forest Works shown on the map.

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Cliff Ton for info that same photo of the subway is in the Victoria Station section of Victorian Nottingham by Illiffe and Baggulay.

Yes, the caption is: 'Construction of the subway for mail and luggage running underneath Victoria Station'.

Regarding it's apparent low depth beneath what we might call street level, I suppose it's possible that the depth of ground below the fence in the background is just the edge of an area that hadn't been fully excavated to rail level at that stage in the construction. The buildings in the distant background - given their distance - I suppose could be at a higher level. It's maybe worth bearing in mind that we don't normally get a view across the station from that position because the station buildings are in the way, so we don't know what the background would be like.

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My old supervisor (called inspectors in those days0 both at Nottingham Carriage Sidings and later on Derby station once told me about his railway career. He started as a porter at Nottingham Victoria and transferred to Midland when it was obvious what would soon happen. He told me that the old parcels subway at Nottingham Victoria was very useful for an impromptu game of football in between trains.

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The lifts came up to platform level under the stairs of the footbridge, I haven't found a clear image yet, but this one probably tells us a lot. The cage like structure under the left staircase is what I presume to be the frame for the lift.67-010-19.780.jpg67-010-32.780.jpgsideplan.jpg

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  • 3 years later...
On 24/09/2014 at 9:47 AM, Cliff Ton said:

So any guesses which way the photographer is facing? Is that Glasshouse Street in the background, or York Street/Mansfield-Melbourne Road?

It *is* Nottingham Victoria's subway. In the background on the left, St Ann's Street, running away from the camera, and other buildings are on the same plots of land even though they've been rebuilt. There's a couple of others in the set probably taken on the same (very claggy) day, from towards the south end of the site looking north - beneath the temporary bridge (which was situated a little south of where the train sheds would later be).

 

I think the subway photo is deceptive, playing tricks with perspective - the edge of the excavation is some way back but the eye assumes it is more to scale with the exposed subway and tends to under-estimate its height.

 

Mark

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  • 4 years later...

     The excavations of the South end and middle weren’t to the same depth as the North end as they were excavating into a hill.

     The footbridge from the main concourse to the platforms would have been around 20/22 feet from rail level. This would have exited          at the road level of the re-routed Glasshouse Street.

      St Anne’s Street has already been pointed out, but far right, the large building with what looks like twin towers is a maltings building on what used to be Milk Street.

      

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