Old Moor Street Station

Details

SP 08 NE BIRMINGHAM
7/10203 Old Moor Street Station

II


Railway station and warehouses. 1911-16. By W.Y. Armstrong, GWR engineer for New Works; warehouses also by L.G. Mouchel employing the Hennebique ferroconcrete system. Station buildings: red brick partly with terracotta facing and stone dressings. Mostly steel and glazed roofs, but some are flat behind parapets and cannot be seen from the ground Restrained Baroque style. Single storey six window entrance range to street. Large wooden mullion-transom arched windows with glazing bars. Gauged brick round arched heads with keystones and moulded hoods. Plinth, pilasters, moulded impost band and cornice with parapet; the parapet is raised on bays 1,3 and 5, that on bay 3 has a segmental head. The entrance has a flat head and is the fifth bay from the left. Front railings with decorative standard to centre and left. Five curved stone coped main roof gables are set back and rise above front parapet, roundel in each. Various brick stacks. Right hand return of four bays with arch headed openings with keyed heads; each bay is treated differently. Pilasters separate the bays; continuous moulded cornice and parapet. The rear elevation shows the five gables of the concourse roof and the two projecting canopies over the platforms.

Interior: Entrance leads to flagged covered area around which are ranged on two sides various offices with similar windows as front, with arched keyed heads. The platforms are beyond; steel barrier gates, with cast iron. Piers lead to platforms which have long steel strutted and glazed roofs similar to the main five span roof N ear the buffer end of the platforms are the remains of two transverses, a rare device used to transfer locomotives from one line to another. To the right of the main building and in similar style are a small weigh office and further right a two-storey office in poor condition.

Warehouses. These are to the right, of and partly underneath the station and stretch back to Allison Street and are traversed by Park Street. At the ground floor level of these two streets are the immense warehouses constructed in re-enforced ferro-concrete to the Hennebique system. Shed 'A' between Moor Street and Park Street is approx.100m x 50- 70m and has multiple concrete piers supporting the concrete beam and roof system over which is a cobbled yard [now used as a car park but which formerly had extensive open iron and boarded warehouses on it]. This contains a weigh office with complete mechanism outside it and a raised platform system for unloading together with the remains of the housings of two wagon hoists for transferring goods wagons between the levels. Shed 'B' is at a slightly lower level between Park Street and Allison Street and is approx. 100m by 65-80m. It is of similar construction but also has a series of brick arches to one side like a viaduct, slightly earlier than the warehouses and supporting the lines and platforms of the station. There are also the remains of the housings of two wagon hoists spanning Park Street for the whole of the Width of the sheds is a steel and brick bridge-like roof.

HISTORY: Moor Street Station was first intended for passenger traffic only, but the opportunity arose to construct a large goods depot as well. The station was first opened 1st July 1906 with temporary buildings. It was intended for traffic on the Stratford-on-Avon line, which could not run into Snow Hill because of being at the wrong end of the tunnel. The permanent station buildings and the warehouses were constructed hand-in-hand 1911-16. Armstrong was one of the first British engineers to employ the Hennebique system of construction promoted in Britain by Mouchel under licence from Hennebique. The grand conception of warehouses with station over was made possible by the slope of the land up to Moor Street from Allison Street. The station was closed in Sept. 1987 when it was replaced by a new station on an adjacent site.

References: G.W.R Magazine, June 1916; Ferro-Cement, March 1912, p.276; further information Dr P.Cusack and the Moor Street Station, Historical Society. R.V.J Butt, The Directory of Railway Stations, P.S.L, 1995, p.35

Listing NGR: SP0738986756

Legacy

The contents of this record have been generated from a legacy data system.

Legacy System number:

469952

Legacy System:

LBS

Sources

Books and journals
Butt, R V J, The Directory of Railway Stations, (1995), 35
Great Western Railway Magazine in June, (1916)
Ferro Cement in March, (1912), 276

End of official list entry