Did you know that the first railway passenger station in Birmingham was opened at Curzon Street in 1838? Built by the London & Birmingham Railway, engineered by Robert Stephenson. The building was designed by the architect Philip Hardwick. It's time as the Birmingham terminus was shortlived after New Street opened in 1854. But continued for excursions to 1893 / goods to 1966.

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The original Curzon Street Station (1838 to 1893 / 1966)


The original Curzon Street Station (1838 to 1893 / 1966)


Did you know that the first railway passenger station in Birmingham was opened at Curzon Street in 1838? Built by the London & Birmingham Railway, engineered by Robert Stephenson. The building was designed by the architect Philip Hardwick. It's time as the Birmingham terminus was shortlived after New Street opened in 1854. But continued for excursions to 1893 / goods to 1966.


Curzon Street Station

(1838 - passengers 1893 / goods 1966)

The first passenger railway linking London to Birmingham was opened in 1838. From London Euston to Birmingham Curzon Street. The station was originally called simply Birmingham Station (it was renamed Birmingham Curzon Street Station in 1852 after Birmingham New Street Station was being built and opened in 1854).

It was the terminus for both the London & Birmingham Railway and the Grand Junction Railway, with lines from London, Manchester and Liverpool.

The station located at New Canal Street and Curzon Street in what we now call Eastside, was first opened in June 1838, and the first passenger train arrived from London on the 17th September 1838. The station also had platforms for parcels, but there was no through trains.

The architect of the station was Philip Hardwick, while Robert Stephenson was the engineer in charge of building the line from London to Birmingham. The building was inspired by classical Roman architecture, following Hardwick's trip to Italy in 1818-19.

 

The following image shows Curzon Street Station as it was in 1838. It was published by E C & W Osborne and printed by E Y Moody Bros.

dndimg alt="Curzon Street Station" dndsrc="../uploadedfiles/2002V6 Curzon Street Station Birmingham 1838.jpg" style="width: 100%;" />

 

The next sketch shows Curzon Street from New Canal Street in 1839. It was an Engraving from Topographical Views  in Wilkinson Collection Vol iii.

dndimg alt="Curzon Street Station" dndsrc="../uploadedfiles/1996V145.12 Birmingham Station Curzon Street.jpg" style="width: 100%;" />

 

A more recent drawing of Curzon Street Station dated 1950. It was an ink drawing by John L. Baker. Topographical view of Birmingham. By then the station was only being used for goods. It closed in 1966.

dndimg alt="Curzon Street Station" dndsrc="../uploadedfiles/1996V86 Curzon Street Station Birmingham.jpg" style="width: 100%;" /> Images above are free to download from the Birmingham Museums Trust collection, Public Domain. Digital Image Resource. Creative Commons Zero Licence (CCO).

 

The coming of New Street Station to the closure of Curzon Street Station

The problem was that Curzon Street was not centrally located to the centre of town. So the railway companies decided to build a new station in the heard of the town centre. This would become Birmingham New Street Station, and it's first incarnation opened in 1854. Many services were transferred away from Curzon Street at the time. The station was modified at Banbury Street and New Canal Street by 1874, and was used from Easter that year for passenger excursion trips. Which it continued to do so, until it closed by Easter 1893. Such as on public bank holidays to Sutton Coldfield. The old 1838 platforms were not used as much by then.

Going into the 20th Century, the station continued to be used for goods until it closed for good in 1966. The platforms and original good sheds were demolished in the same year. The site was then used as a Parcelforce depot until that closed in 2006.

In the years before HS2 the land behind the station building was used as a public surface car park, and at one point could have been a redevelopment site called Curzone (which never happened in the end). The HS2 announcement in 2009 changed everything.

The surviving building became a Grade I listed building in 1952. At one point it was modified in 1839 to become a hotel called the Victoria. In 1841 a hotel extension was built and this was the Queen's Hotel. It was on Curzon Street. It was later renamed to The Railway Hotel, when another Queen's Hotel opened at New Street. The hotel at Curzon Street closed in 1900 and was demolished by 1980.

The council purchased the station building from British Rail in 1979 and was used by a University of Birmingham student group called 'Three Bugs Fringe Theatre'.

 

Plaques

Inside of Curzon Street Station is this plaque installed during 1947, which was the Centenary Year of the founding of The Institution of Mechanical Engineers on this site on the 27th January 1847. Photo taken in June 2014, during a visit to Birmingham's Hidden Spaces at Curzon Street Station.

dndimg alt="Curzon Street Station" dndsrc="../uploadedfiles/BHS Curzon St Stn (Jun 2014) (3).JPG" style="width: 100%;" />

 

The building also received a Civic Trust Award in 1983. This was probably after Curzon Street Station was restored in the late 1970s and early 1980s (after it had fell into disrepair by 1979). Also seen at Birmingham's Hidden Spaces.

dndimg alt="Curzon Street Station" dndsrc="../uploadedfiles/BHS Curzon St Stn (Jun 2014) (4).JPG" style="width: 100%;" />

 

There is a plaque on the front of the building that was placed on the New Canal Street side of the building in 1988, on the 150th anniversary of the arrival of the first train from London to Birmingham on Monday 17th September 1838. Photo below taken in April 2009. It is now longer possible to see this plaque while HS2 build their new station.

dndimg alt="Curzon Street Station" dndsrc="../uploadedfiles/Curzon St Station (Apr 2009) (3).JPG" style="width: 100%;" />

 

Curzon Street Station - exterior of the building 2009 to 2021

Now a gallery of photos of Curzon Street Station taken over the last 12 years or so.

 

View of Curzon Street Station from New Canal Street, taken April 2009. Millennium Point can be seen to the left.

dndimg alt="Curzon Street Station" dndsrc="../uploadedfiles/Curzon St Station (Apr 2009) (2).JPG" style="width: 100%;" />

 

A view taken during August 2009 of Curzon Street Station from a now lost road called Bartholomew Street. By then it had long since been closed off. And would disappear by 2011-12 when Eastside City Park was built.

dndimg alt="Curzon Street Station" dndsrc="../uploadedfiles/Curzon St Station (Aug 2009) (1).JPG" style="width: 100%;" />

 

It is now January 2010, and Curzon Street Station can again be seen from Bartholomew Street, but in the snow. The Woodman public house seen on the left.

dndimg alt="Curzon Street Station" dndsrc="../uploadedfiles/Curzon St Station (Jan 2010) (2).JPG" style="width: 100%;" />

 

By February 2011, I was having a look at Curzon Street Station from the public car park on Curzon Street. All the windows and doors were boarded up. The Rotunda and Pavilions shopping centre were visible to the left of here. Sometimes this car park had been used for the odd fun fair over the years.

dndimg alt="Curzon Street Station" dndsrc="../uploadedfiles/Curzon St Station (Feb 2011).JPG" style="width: 100%;" />

 

The hoardings on the left have not gone up for HS2, but for the building of Eastside City Park. Curzon Street Station seen from New Canal Street during September 2011.

dndimg alt="Curzon Street Station" dndsrc="../uploadedfiles/Curzon St Station (Sep 2011) (1).JPG" style="width: 100%;" />

 

As late as March 2014, the site behind the old Curzon Street Station building was still being used as a public car park. Selfridges, Beetham Tower, Centre City Tower and the Rotunda were visible on the skyline at the time.

dndimg alt="Curzon Street Station" dndsrc="../uploadedfiles/Curzon St Station (Mar 2014).JPG" style="width: 100%;" />

 

By March 2017, it was clear that HS2 would soon take over the building. Hoarding artwork and banners had gone up. It was planned that Curzon Street would become a new cultural hub. The art was from a HS2 / BCU competition, which was won by Sarina Kaur, called Curzon Railway 1838 - 1966.

dndimg alt="Curzon Street Station" dndsrc="../uploadedfiles/Curzon St Station (Mar 2017) (1).jpg" style="width: 100%;" />

 

By March 2020, and before the first lockdown, one last walk down New Canal Street before HS2 closed it off, it was also one last chance to see the Eagle & Tun pub before it was demolished. By then the Curzon Railway BCU art banners had been taken down, but the hoardings were still there.

dndimg alt="Curzon Street Station" dndsrc="../uploadedfiles/Curzon St Station (Mar 2020).jpg" style="width: 100%;" />

 

A view from the train of Curzon Street Station during August 2020. After the first lockdown restrictions were being eased, I got a train from Stechford to Birmingham New Street. New Canal Street is now closed off, you can also see Millennium Point and The Woodman.

dndimg alt="Curzon Street Station" dndsrc="../uploadedfiles/Curzon St Station (Aug 2020) (2).jpg" style="width: 100%;" />

 

October 2020 from Curzon Street. The road beyond was closed by HS2. Was taking a pedestrian diversion from Digbeth to Eastside the long way around (via Lawley Middleway). As HS2 had cut off my old routes. This was before the second lockdown began.

dndimg alt="Curzon Street Station" dndsrc="../uploadedfiles/Curzon St Station (Oct 2020) (3).jpg" style="width: 100%;" />

 

By April 2021, the third lockdown restrictions were being eased, and got the train to Birmingham Moor Street for a walk around Eastside and Digbeth. This time via the Digbeth Branch Canal (which was faster than the route I took the autumn before). Took this view of Curzon Street Station from the canal.  The land all being prepared by HS2. The view might be lost in the future once the station is built, and it might bridge over the canal as well (not like the original brick Curzon Street Tunnel that crosses the canal towards New Street in Eastside).

dndimg alt="Curzon Street Station" dndsrc="../uploadedfiles/Curzon St Station (Apr 2021).jpg" style="width: 100%;" />

 

Early June 2021, and a view of Curzon Street Station taken from the Cross City Line, I caught the train at Birmingham New Street and got it to Sutton Coldfield. It looks like the turntable (to the far right of here) has been filled in. It's hard to imagine the other buildings that was here over 180 years ago. Millennium Point seen behind from the train. HS2 is a hive of activity.

dndimg alt="Curzon Street Station" dndsrc="../uploadedfiles/Curzon St Stn HS2 (Jun 2021) (1).jpg" style="width: 100%;" />

 

For more photos and the feature, go here for the full gallery of Curzon Street Station in Birmingham Gems.

 

Birmingham's Hidden Spaces, June 2014

From the 21st to 29th June 2014, Birmingham's Hidden Spaces opened up Curzon Street Station to the public. It was an exhibition by Associated Architects, and in association with the Birmingham Post. I saw it on the 28th June 2014. This banner was on the outside of the building.

dndimg alt="Curzon Street Station" dndsrc="../uploadedfiles/BHS Curzon St Stn (Jun 2014) (1).JPG" style="width: 100%;" />

Inside the main foyer and a look up the staircase to the ceiling. Unfortunately it was too unsafe to go upstairs, so you could only see the ground floor and basement of the building.

dndimg alt="Curzon Street Station" dndsrc="../uploadedfiles/BHS Curzon St Stn (Jun 2014) (2).JPG" style="width: 100%;" />

Zooming up to the ceiling window.

dndimg alt="Curzon Street Station" dndsrc="../uploadedfiles/BHS Curzon St Stn (Jun 2014) (8).JPG" style="width: 100%;" />

This sign shows A Brief History of Curzon Street Station. Similar to the information I have presented above.

dndimg alt="Curzon Street Station" dndsrc="../uploadedfiles/BHS Curzon St Stn (Jun 2014) (5).JPG" style="width: 100%;" />

Another sign about Curzon Street Station built 1838. Philip Hardwick, architect, Robert Stephenson, engineer. Plus the restoration task force in 1983.

dndimg alt="Curzon Street Station" dndsrc="../uploadedfiles/BHS Curzon St Stn (Jun 2014) (7).JPG" style="width: 100%;" />

Going down the steps to the basement, would have been an exhibition on down here.

dndimg alt="Curzon Street Station" dndsrc="../uploadedfiles/BHS Curzon St Stn (Jun 2014) (6).JPG" style="width: 100%;" />

The rear door was open, so you could have a look outside. There wasn't much to see out there.

dndimg alt="Curzon Street Station" dndsrc="../uploadedfiles/BHS Curzon St Stn (Jun 2014) (9).JPG" style="width: 100%;" />

 

Modern 21st Century photos taken by Elliott Brown. Can be found on Twitter: ellrbrown