Nottingham London Road

[DavidLong]

I've attached some shots that I took some years ago at Nottingham London Road. I was always terribly lax about recording the details of my photographs but I would expect them to have been taken around the end of the 1980s. I haven't been to Nottingham for some time but I believe that the Low Level station is now a leisure centre although I'm sure that someone will have more details. My camera wasn't very sophisticated so they may appear a little grainy and a couple of the interior shots are a bit dark. These days with digital I would not only have taken many more but they would have been of better quality!

Firstly the main Low Level station:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A couple of the goods warehouses in the yard at the eastern end of the station:

 

 

 

Finally a couple of the High Level station which was then functioning as some sort of eatery. Does anyone know anything about the small steam loco (Peckett? Avonside?) that has been stuffed and mounted outside? Sorry that the shots are a bit distant.

 

 

 

David

[Richard E]

London Road Station is now a Virgin Active Gym.

 

Not sure but I think the restaurant closed down quite a long time ago, the buildings were demolished in either 1996 or 2006 depending on which source you use.It was a Peckett 0-4-0ST sitting outside, complete with 'Thomas' face. This had originated at Cawdor Limestone Quarries, Matlock and has since moved on in preservation.

 

Works number 1749 it spent its working life at Cawdor Quarry, Matlock in Derbyshire. It was rescued by Brian Roberts, of Tollerton, Nottinghamshire, who later sold it to Pete Clark who named it ‘Fulstow’ after the village where he lives in Lincolnshire. It now works on the Lincolnshire Wolds Railway.

[DavidLong]

Thanks, Richard. So it was a Peckett. Thankfully it now looks a little more dignified at the LWR.

 

http://lincolnshirewoldsrailway.co.uk/locomotives/

 

Do you know if the warehouses still exist? In Manchester we convert those sort of things into apartments!

 

David

[jonny777]

Manchester might, I don't know about Nottingham; but Bristol certainly does not.

 

These have been empty for 30 years.

 

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-bristol-32132450

[pete_mcfarlane]

2006 rings a bell for the restaurant being knocked down. It was a branch of Hooters for a bit after the photos were taken. The last bit of the viaduct from High Level to the junction with the Great Central at Weekday Cross was only knocked down a few months back. 

 

The warehouses are just about still there, although have deteriorated massively since the photos. The smaller of the two has lost its roof and is now an empty shell. The larger one is semi derelict but still in use.

 

That part of the city doesn't seem to have been redeveloped much as it's a bit out of the way and a bit too close to Sneinton with its run down council flats. There's Bio City and the BBC building immediately to the North of where the High level station used to be, but most of the area is wasteland.

 

The warehouse conversions in Nottingham are in the Lace Market - a quarter of a mile or so closer to the city centre. The developers built a few, which were popular, and so built gazillions more. The bottom dropped out of the rental market and half of them are now full of students. 

[Richard E]

The warehouses are listed buildings - they are in the redevelopment plan.

 

By golly it has changed around there since I left the city, the area described above as Bio City used to be Boots and the roundabout was always known as Boots Island ....

[Guest B Exam]

If I remember correctly the Premier Inn hotel now stands on the site of the viaduct, between the BBC building and canal basin with the hotels carpark on the site of the High Level station.

 

I'll have to take a trip over the river to find out for sure.... Not far, about a 20 minute walk....

[pH]

That part of the city doesn't seem to have been redeveloped much as it's a bit out of the way and a bit too close to Sneinton

 

And what's wrong with Sneinton? The Lord Nelson and a terrace house at a rent of 27GBP per month between three of us - you can't beat that! Mind you, I did move from there 41 years ago ...

[Doncaster Green]

Hi David

 

Many thanks for posting these shots.   Being a native of N. Notts. I am trying to build a layout in 2mmFS based on High Level to Weekday Cross Junction (about half a mile to the left of your pics of High Level) as it was in the late 50s/early 60s when the line was still open.

 

The eatery (Great Central Diner I think it was called) was, I believe, the building's third incarnation after closure, the others being an office supplies depot and an antiques centre.   The fifth bay on the right hand side was added by the restaurant, the original building had four bays with some sort of covered area in front of an office/store where the fifth bay is.   I believe 2006 is correct for demolition - the building shows on Google Earth imagery dated 1999 and 2004 but is waste land in 2007.   2006 is also a date quoted in Hayden Reed's 'Rise and Fall of Nottingham's Railway' along with some pictures of the bulldozers in action!   As far as I know (and I haven't been back to Nottingham  for some years) the site is still empty, the Premier Inn is the other side of the canal basin on part of the old Boots Island Street factory site (at the left edge of your pics fronting onto London Road).

 

Low Level station is now a Virgin Active fitness centre and appears from pictures to have been quite tastefully restored.

 

The two warehouses were very badly damaged by fire some years ago and the smaller one has lost its roof and the larger its roof along with most of the top storey, but being listed they still stand.   I have no idea what plans there are for them - I just hope there are some that will see them retained.

 

If you have any more shots like these I would love to see them.

 

Many thanks

 

John

[DavidLong]

Hi David

 

Many thanks for posting these shots.   Being a native of N. Notts. I am trying to build a layout in 2mmFS based on High Level to Weekday Cross Junction (about half a mile to the left of your pics of High Level) as it was in the late 50s/early 60s when the line was still open.

 

The eatery (Great Central Diner I think it was called) was, I believe, the building's third incarnation after closure, the others being an office supplies depot and an antiques centre.   The fifth bay on the right hand side was added by the restaurant, the original building had four bays with some sort of covered area in front of an office/store where the fifth bay is.   I believe 2006 is correct for demolition - the building shows on Google Earth imagery dated 1999 and 2004 but is waste land in 2007.   2006 is also a date quoted in Hayden Reed's 'Rise and Fall of Nottingham's Railway' along with some pictures of the bulldozers in action!   As far as I know (and I haven't been back to Nottingham  for some years) the site is still empty, the Premier Inn is the other side of the canal basin on part of the old Boots Island Street factory site (at the left edge of your pics fronting onto London Road).

 

Low Level station is now a Virgin Active fitness centre and appears from pictures to have been quite tastefully restored.

 

The two warehouses were very badly damaged by fire some years ago and the smaller one has lost its roof and the larger its roof along with most of the top storey, but being listed they still stand.   I have no idea what plans there are for them - I just hope there are some that will see them retained.

 

If you have any more shots like these I would love to see them.

 

Many thanks

 

John

 

John,

 

Another 2FS layout is always welcome and one based on Weekday Cross is doubly so! I'd love to have seen it when it was operational with that view of it from the Lace Market. I've had a small interest in the railways of Nottingham for many years, sparked originally by the articles in British Railway Journal on the Nottingham Suburban Railway. The railway in the area these days lives in much reduced circumstances.

Thanks also for the update on structures and especially on the rather sad fate of the High Level station although, architecturally, it didn't have much to commend it in comparison to its Low Level brother. It's a shame about the warehouses. As I commented earlier, in Manchester they either get bulldozed or converted but they don't tend to hang around crumbling for very long.

I'll have to make a visit to the city as I haven't been for a long time. I would like to sample the trams and the opening of the extensions could offer a suitable reason for an excursion.

By the way, I have no more photos in Nottingham itself as most of my others in the area were photos of the remains of the ironstone lines in the Vale of Bevoir, sadly nearly twenty years after they ceased to function. Back in the mid-1990s I started a small 2FS layout based on the ironstone lines in the area and it still lurks at the back of a cupboard waiting for me to finish it!

 

David

[Joseph_Pestell]

Manchester might, I don't know about Nottingham; but Bristol certainly does not.

 

These have been empty for 30 years.

 

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-bristol-32132450

 

But you do have the Arnolfini. That was a warehouse.

 

Sad to see those warehouses disused. And why, with so much land/buildings available in a city centre, do developers feel the need to cover the countryside with houses?

[Doncaster Green]

Hi David

 

I, too, remember the ironstone lines, but, to show my age, I remember them working.   Unfortunately I didn't possess a camera then.   I also remember the last years of the gypsum quarry lines just to the south of Newark where I lived at the time.

 

I think its the very lack of architectural merit that appeals to me with High Level - so humdrum and day-to-day and the way the old Boots factory looms over it.

 

And, in response to Joseph_Pestell, I wonder if part of the reason nothing has happened with the Corn Stores is ground contamination - the old Eastcroft Gasworks was right next door to them!

 

Regards

 

John

[jonny777]

But you do have the Arnolfini. That was a warehouse.

 

Sad to see those warehouses disused. And why, with so much land/buildings available in a city centre, do developers feel the need to cover the countryside with houses?

 

 

Probably because they can make more profit on greenfield houses.

 

They throw up tiny boxes built from the cheapest possible materials, with minimum sized rooms (so much so that they have 2/3rd sized furniture in the show houses to make the rooms look bigger), and have 'gardens' the size of a postage stamp in order to cram as many dwellings per acre as is legally possible.

 

No structural problems (at least until after the NHBC certificate has expired), as may be encountered with old buildings; and fingers crossed that we never get a big snowfall in winter, because modern 2x1 (or whatever they can get away with these days) roof trusses may not withstand the extra weight.

[Joseph_Pestell]

Probably because they can make more profit on greenfield houses.

 

They throw up tiny boxes built from the cheapest possible materials, with minimum sized rooms (so much so that they have 2/3rd sized furniture in the show houses to make the rooms look bigger), and have 'gardens' the size of a postage stamp in order to cram as many dwellings per acre as is legally possible.

 

No structural problems (at least until after the NHBC certificate has expired), as may be encountered with old buildings; and fingers crossed that we never get a big snowfall in winter, because modern 2x1 (or whatever they can get away with these days) roof trusses may not withstand the extra weight.

But at least you will never need to repoint the chimney. It's a GRP fake! (Sorry, I have gone OT: although slightly related to railway modelling as I think they must have got the idea from Faller kits)

[great central]

We have a thread with some pictures of our new layout which depicts the Trent Lane Junction area, a mile or so east of London Road, in the clubs and society area.

Very interested in the Weekday Cross layout, do you have any photos?

Can't figure out how to create a link to our thread from my phone I'm afraid

[keefer]

Don't know about Nottingham, but Glasgow seems to have a fairly predictable pattern for unwanted listed buildings - lie derelict for a while until the complaints about listed status etc. increase, then they mysteriously go on fire, often so badly damaged that they have to be demolished for safety reasons (this may take more than one fire).

Of course, being in a prime city centre site usually speeds the whole process up - ending with the site being cleared and the previously absent owner suddenly appearing for long enough to sell the site to a waiting buyer for much dosh.

 

Cynical, moi?

[Doncaster Green]

Sorry Great Central, no pictures as yet!   Layout is currently a 1/2 size mock-up while I consult my baseboard expert (I'm no chippy!!) on shapes and sizes.   The intention is to start with Weekday Cross and model as far as the east end of High Level (with a few large chunks of selective compression and modeller's license - like no Eastcroft Gasworks and the Corn Stores moved a little bit NW!   I've already done a fair amount of the artwork for the various structures.   Hopefully some pics in the near future.

 

Regards

 

John

[Kenton]

 

Glasgow seems to have a fairly predictable pattern for unwanted listed buildings

Ah the Glasgow School of Art