Leicester Central railway station
Encyclopedia
Leicester Central was a railway station in Leicester
. It was situated to the west of the city centre
, on Great Central Street which is today just off the inner ring road
. It was closed in 1969.
's London Extension linking Nottingham
with Marylebone in London. The railway crossed built-up Leicester on a Staffordshire blue brick
viaduct, incorporating a series of fine girder bridge
s. In a detail typical of the high standards to which the London Extension was built, the abutments of the girder bridges that crossed public roads were lined in white-glazed tiles to increase the level of light under the bridges. In total the viaduct was in excess of a mile and a half in length and it was upon this that Leicester Central station would be constructed. At the time of construction, the station was the largest single building to be erected in Leicester.
The viaduct's construction required a large area of land to be acquired by compulsory purchase with the GCR agreeing to re-house at its own expense the inhabitants of around 300 houses which had to be demolished; the area principally affected by the works was the working class
Blackfriars district (near modern day Frog Island
), where the slums in Sycamore Lane, Charlotte Street and Friars Road were entirely swept from the map, to be replaced by Great Central Street. Around 250 houses were constructed in Newfoundpool
to the west of Leicester.
on a "bowstring" girder bridge
before splaying out on either side of a large 1,245ft H-shaped island-style platform
upon which the station was built. Six running lines flanked either side of the station - the Up lines on one side and the Down lines on the other, with bays at either end to accommodate local workings to Nottingham and Rugby
. A parcels office and stabling point for locomotives were also incorporated into the site. The
Under the main section of the platform on the south-side of the station part of a Roman pavement was discovered and encased in a glass panel which could be viewed from above. A local shopkeeper was entrusted with the key to the chamber and would provide access to the public upon request. The main station entrance was on Great Central Street where a large ornate terracota-lined archway crowned by an ornate clocktower led through to the entrance hall and cab waiting area; the station frontage itself had a red brick and terracota facade, to the left of which was the entrance to the parcels office. A second entrance was in Jarvis Street where a subway 20ft below the platforms led through to the main booking hall, a light and airy space topped by a glazed roof. Stairs led up to the platforms, whilst a hydraulic lift was used to transport luggage from the booking hall.
in 1947 the Great Central passed from the control of the London & North Eastern Railway into the newly created Eastern Region of British Railways
, and then to the London Midland Region in 1958. The line was regarded by its new operators as somewhat of an unnecessary duplication of existing North-South routes, and began gradually to run down services. The Leicester Central engine shed played host to increasingly old and worn-out locomotives; in 1958 the engine stud was made up of 11 LMS Stanier Class 5 4-6-0
s, 3 LMS Stanier Class 4 2-6-4
s, 2 BR Class 5 4-6-0
s and 1 0-6-0 diesel shunter
.
The publication of the Beeching Report in 1963 saw the Great Central identified as an unremunerative line earning less than £5,000 per week in revenue and it was proposed to withdraw passenger services from the line as far as Banbury
. So began "several years of deliberate neglect and decline and retrenchment" designed to reduce the former busy trunk route into a state whereby closure could be easily achieved. It was announced that as from March 1964 12 stations on the Great Central Main Line (including Leicester Central) would close on Sundays which would allegedly save £250,000; 200 objections were lodged against the proposal and representations were made by local authorities to members of parliament.
The engine shed closed in 1964, and freight services were withdrawn from the line in June 1965. On 3 September 1966 the line ceased to be a trunk route with the withdrawal of services to Sheffield and Marylebone, leaving Leicester Central operating a sparse DMU
local service to Nottingham and Rugby. The line north of Nottingham would be closed and the track lifted, ditto for most of the track between Rugby and Quainton Road
. In the last few months before its own closure on 5 May 1969 the station was little but an unstaffed halt.
.
area. The arches will be made in to shops. The front taxi waiting area still stands and has its original lights and glass roof. The booking office with ticket windows is intact and old timetables and signs are still on the wall. There is a sign above the entrance to the parcels office.
was purchased by Leicester City Council
which converted it into a cycleway known as the Great Central Way. This included the Braunstone Gate Bridge (also known as the "Bowstring Bridge") which spans Duns Lane to Bede Park, straddling Western Boulevard. Leicester City Council had purchased the bridge and the viaduct for a token payment in the 1970s and received a Manpower Services Commission grant to engage craftsmen to supervise young people painting the bridge in green and cream colours. The bridge, viaduct and land nearby, including the Pump and Tap pub, were later sold to De Montfort University
.
In 1997, the cycleway was diverted on to the Boulevard after the demolition of the Kirby & West dairy, and the section of the viaduct north of the site (including the Bowstring Bridge) went unmaintained and became derelict. In 2002, the Secretary of State for the Environment
refused an application to list the bridge as a monument to the city's industrial heritage. In 2005, the Council proposed to demolish the bridge to allow De Montfort University to expand its John Sandford sports hall and build a swimming pool in a £6 million development. The Council claimed that the bridge had to be removed as a report revealed that it could only support its own weight and would not last another year without major repairs. According to the report, the 108-year old bridge was "approaching the end of a normal life span of 120 years" and could have lasted "long into the future if only a pro-active maintenance strategy had been in place. Unfortunately, lack of funding and the demise of this section of the railway are instrumental in the extremely poor condition of the structure components. The bridge, which once carried a railway, can only carry its own weight". The report estimated the costs of restoration at between £250,000 and £270,000.
The bridge had a last-minute reprieve in July 2005 when, just before a meeting at which councillors were about to vote on its demolition, an email was sent to them by Richard Tilden-Smith of the heritage Great Central Railway
urged them to postpone a decision until experts could examine the state of the bridge. He indicated that if the bridge were saved, it might still be possible to extend his organisation's operations through Leicester, with funding possibly coming from the Heritage Lottery Fund
. The cabinet agreed to give the bridge more time. Two weeks later, the heritage railway pulled out of talks with the Council, stating that the restoration works would be too expensive and would not fit in with the Council's timetable for the area.
In October 2005, Leicester City Council released an engineer's report indicating that the bridge could only support its weight and would need £775,000 to keep it intact over the next three years. Full restoration would cost £2.5 million according to the report. The Council planned to demolish the bridge by Summer 2006 but had to revise their plans once it was discovered that as the bridge was still classed as a public highway which used to carry the Great Central Way footpath, a formal stopping-up order extinguishing the highway would have to be obtained. This process would take up to a year. By March 2008 the order had still not yet been granted and considerable local opposition against the plans was manifesting itself on the internet with more than 2,500 people joining a campaign on the Facebook
website, and a further 1,200 signing a petition on the 10 Downing Street website.
The court hearing for the stopping-up order took place at 2.15pm on 4 June 2008 at Leicester Magistrates' Court in Pocklington's Walk. Representatives from the Ramblers Association, The Victorian Society
, The Footpath Association, The Civic Society and Leicestershire Industrial History Society were present in Court 5. The Council applied for the order using Section 116 of the Highways Act 1980
to have 410 metres of the bridge closed, thereby avoiding the public enquiry that would have been necessary if Section 118 (also concerned with closure) had been used. The hearing was adjourned until 17 June when the application will be heard by a district judge and a date will be set for a full hearing of the case.
Leicester
Leicester is a city and unitary authority in the East Midlands of England, and the county town of Leicestershire. The city lies on the River Soar and at the edge of the National Forest...
. It was situated to the west of the city centre
Leicester City Centre
Leicester City Centre is an area covering the core inner city area and central business district of the city of Leicester, England. It is roughly delineated from Leicester's suburbs by the A594, Leicester's inner ring road....
, on Great Central Street which is today just off the inner ring road
A594 road (Leicester)
The Leicester version of the A594 is that city's inner ring road, surrounding the core area of Leicester City Centre. Leicester has two other ring-roads, the A6030, and the A563....
. It was closed in 1969.
Construction
Opened on 15 March 1899, the station was part of the Great Central RailwayGreat Central Main Line
The Great Central Main Line , also known as the London Extension of the Manchester, Sheffield and Lincolnshire Railway , is a former railway line which opened in 1899 linking Sheffield with Marylebone Station in London via Nottingham and Leicester.The GCML was the last main line railway built in...
's London Extension linking Nottingham
Nottingham Victoria railway station
Nottingham Victoria railway station was a Great Central Railway and Great Northern Railway railway station in Nottingham, England. It was designed by the architect Albert Edward Lambert....
with Marylebone in London. The railway crossed built-up Leicester on a Staffordshire blue brick
Staffordshire blue brick
Staffordshire blue brick is a strong type of construction brick, originally made in Staffordshire, England.The brick is made from the local red clay, Etruria marl, which when fired at a high temperature in a low-oxygen reducing atmosphere takes on a deep blue colour and attains a very hard,...
viaduct, incorporating a series of fine girder bridge
Girder bridge
A girder bridge, in general, is a bridge built of girders placed on bridge abutments and foundation piers. In turn, a bridge deck is built on top of the girders in order to carry traffic. There are several different subtypes of girder bridges:...
s. In a detail typical of the high standards to which the London Extension was built, the abutments of the girder bridges that crossed public roads were lined in white-glazed tiles to increase the level of light under the bridges. In total the viaduct was in excess of a mile and a half in length and it was upon this that Leicester Central station would be constructed. At the time of construction, the station was the largest single building to be erected in Leicester.
The viaduct's construction required a large area of land to be acquired by compulsory purchase with the GCR agreeing to re-house at its own expense the inhabitants of around 300 houses which had to be demolished; the area principally affected by the works was the working class
Working class
Working class is a term used in the social sciences and in ordinary conversation to describe those employed in lower tier jobs , often extending to those in unemployment or otherwise possessing below-average incomes...
Blackfriars district (near modern day Frog Island
Frog Island, Leicestershire
Frog Island is an inner city area of Leicester, England, so named because it lies between the River Soar and the Soar Navigation...
), where the slums in Sycamore Lane, Charlotte Street and Friars Road were entirely swept from the map, to be replaced by Great Central Street. Around 250 houses were constructed in Newfoundpool
Newfoundpool
Newfoundpool is an area of Leicester lying south of the former Leicester-Swannington railway. The land was purchased by Isaac Harrison in 1830. Harrison intended to develop the area as a spa, using a spring as the source of water for a bathing establishment...
to the west of Leicester.
Layout
The station was comprised within a south-west facing rectangle, bordered on the one side by Blackfriars Street and Jarvis Street, and on the other side by the new Great Central Street. The tracks ran north-east to south-west, crossing the A50 Northgate StreetA50 road
The A50 is a major trunk road in England. It runs from Warrington to Leicester; however, it was once a much longer route.-Current route:...
on a "bowstring" girder bridge
Tied arch bridge
A tied-arch bridge is an arch bridge in which the outward-directed horizontal forces of the arch, or top chord, are borne as tension by the bottom chord , rather than by the ground or the bridge foundations...
before splaying out on either side of a large 1,245ft H-shaped island-style platform
Island platform
An island platform is a station layout arrangement where a single platform is positioned between two tracks within a railway station, tram stop or transitway interchange...
upon which the station was built. Six running lines flanked either side of the station - the Up lines on one side and the Down lines on the other, with bays at either end to accommodate local workings to Nottingham and Rugby
Rugby Central Railway Station
Rugby Central was a railway station serving Rugby in Warwickshire on the former Great Central Main Line which opened in 1899 and closed in 1969....
. A parcels office and stabling point for locomotives were also incorporated into the site. The
Under the main section of the platform on the south-side of the station part of a Roman pavement was discovered and encased in a glass panel which could be viewed from above. A local shopkeeper was entrusted with the key to the chamber and would provide access to the public upon request. The main station entrance was on Great Central Street where a large ornate terracota-lined archway crowned by an ornate clocktower led through to the entrance hall and cab waiting area; the station frontage itself had a red brick and terracota facade, to the left of which was the entrance to the parcels office. A second entrance was in Jarvis Street where a subway 20ft below the platforms led through to the main booking hall, a light and airy space topped by a glazed roof. Stairs led up to the platforms, whilst a hydraulic lift was used to transport luggage from the booking hall.
Decline
Upon nationalisation of the railwaysTransport Act 1947
The Transport Act 1947 is an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. Under it the railways, long-distance road haulage and various other types of transport were acquired by the state and handed over to a new British Transport Commission for operation...
in 1947 the Great Central passed from the control of the London & North Eastern Railway into the newly created Eastern Region of British Railways
Eastern Region of British Railways
The Eastern Region was a region of British Railways from 1948. The region ceased to be an operating unit in its own right in the 1980s and was wound up at the end of 1992...
, and then to the London Midland Region in 1958. The line was regarded by its new operators as somewhat of an unnecessary duplication of existing North-South routes, and began gradually to run down services. The Leicester Central engine shed played host to increasingly old and worn-out locomotives; in 1958 the engine stud was made up of 11 LMS Stanier Class 5 4-6-0
LMS Stanier Class 5 4-6-0
The London Midland and Scottish Railway's Class 5 4-6-0, almost universally known as the Black Five, is a class of steam locomotive. It was introduced by William Stanier in 1934 and 842 were built between then and 1951...
s, 3 LMS Stanier Class 4 2-6-4
LMS 2-Cylindered Stanier 2-6-4T
Sir William Stanier's London, Midland and Scottish Railway 2-Cylinder 2-6-4T is a class of 206 steam locomotive built between 1935 and 1943. They were based on his LMS 3-Cylinder 2-6-4T....
s, 2 BR Class 5 4-6-0
BR standard class 5
The British Railways Standard Class 5MT 4-6-0 was one of the standard classes of steam locomotives built by British Railways in the 1950s. 172 were built, essentially being a development of the LMS Stanier Class 5 4-6-0 .- Background :...
s and 1 0-6-0 diesel shunter
0-6-0
Under the Whyte notation for the classification of steam locomotives, 0-6-0 represents the wheel arrangement of no leading wheels, six powered and coupled driving wheels on three axles, and no trailing wheels...
.
The publication of the Beeching Report in 1963 saw the Great Central identified as an unremunerative line earning less than £5,000 per week in revenue and it was proposed to withdraw passenger services from the line as far as Banbury
Banbury railway station
Banbury railway station serves the town of Banbury in Oxfordshire, England. The station is currently operated by Chiltern Railways, on the Chiltern Main Line, and has four platforms in use.-History:...
. So began "several years of deliberate neglect and decline and retrenchment" designed to reduce the former busy trunk route into a state whereby closure could be easily achieved. It was announced that as from March 1964 12 stations on the Great Central Main Line (including Leicester Central) would close on Sundays which would allegedly save £250,000; 200 objections were lodged against the proposal and representations were made by local authorities to members of parliament.
The engine shed closed in 1964, and freight services were withdrawn from the line in June 1965. On 3 September 1966 the line ceased to be a trunk route with the withdrawal of services to Sheffield and Marylebone, leaving Leicester Central operating a sparse DMU
Diesel multiple unit
A diesel multiple unit or DMU is a multiple unit train consisting of multiple carriages powered by one or more on-board diesel engines. They may also be referred to as a railcar or railmotor, depending on country.-Design:...
local service to Nottingham and Rugby. The line north of Nottingham would be closed and the track lifted, ditto for most of the track between Rugby and Quainton Road
Quainton Road railway station
Quainton Road railway station was opened in 1868 in undeveloped countryside near Quainton, Buckinghamshire, from London. Built by the Aylesbury and Buckingham Railway, it was the result of pressure from the 3rd Duke of Buckingham to route the railway near his home at Wotton House and to open a...
. In the last few months before its own closure on 5 May 1969 the station was little but an unstaffed halt.
Post-closure
During 1970 Leicester Central's platform buildings, canopies and platforms were demolished and replaced by industrial premises; the signalboxes were removed and the site of the turntable became a car park. The former booking offices were reused as part of a business; the station's clocktower had previously been removed by British Rail. Much of the Great Central's viaduct through Leicester had been demolished by the beginning of the 1980s and the bowstring bridge over Northgate Street was dismantled in 1981. The Roman pavement was removed from the site in 1976 and is now on display in the Old Jewry Wall MuseumJewry Wall Museum
The Jewry Wall Museum is a museum in Leicester. It faces the Jewry Wall ruins, and houses artifacts from iron age, Roman, and medieval Leicester....
.
Present day
The station buildings remained largely intact until the 2000's, but are now scheduled to be restored as part of the regeneration of the watersideRiver Soar
The River Soar is a tributary of the River Trent in the English East Midlands.-Description:It rises near Hinckley in Leicestershire and is joined by the River Sence near Enderby before flowing through Leicester , Barrow-on-Soar, beside Loughborough and Kegworth, before joining the Trent near...
area. The arches will be made in to shops. The front taxi waiting area still stands and has its original lights and glass roof. The booking office with ticket windows is intact and old timetables and signs are still on the wall. There is a sign above the entrance to the parcels office.
Bowstring Bridge
The surviving length of Great Central viaduct from Duns Lane to Glen ParvaGlen Parva
Glen Parva is a civil parish in Leicestershire with a population of over 5,000. To the north it runs into Aylestone, and to the east Eyres Monsell and South Wigston...
was purchased by Leicester City Council
Leicester City Council
Leicester City Council is a unitary authority responsible for local government in the city of Leicester, England. It consists of 54 councillors, representing 22 wards in the city, overseen by a directly elected mayor. It is currently controlled by the Labour Party and has been led by Mayor Sir...
which converted it into a cycleway known as the Great Central Way. This included the Braunstone Gate Bridge (also known as the "Bowstring Bridge") which spans Duns Lane to Bede Park, straddling Western Boulevard. Leicester City Council had purchased the bridge and the viaduct for a token payment in the 1970s and received a Manpower Services Commission grant to engage craftsmen to supervise young people painting the bridge in green and cream colours. The bridge, viaduct and land nearby, including the Pump and Tap pub, were later sold to De Montfort University
De Montfort University
De Montfort University is a public research and teaching university situated in the medieval Old Town of Leicester, England, adjacent to the River Soar and the Leicester Castle Gardens...
.
In 1997, the cycleway was diverted on to the Boulevard after the demolition of the Kirby & West dairy, and the section of the viaduct north of the site (including the Bowstring Bridge) went unmaintained and became derelict. In 2002, the Secretary of State for the Environment
Secretary of State for the Environment
The Secretary of State for the Environment was a UK cabinet position, responsible for the Department of the Environment . This was created by Edward Heath as a combination of the Ministry of Housing and Local Government, the Ministry of Transport and the Ministry of Public Building and Works on 15...
refused an application to list the bridge as a monument to the city's industrial heritage. In 2005, the Council proposed to demolish the bridge to allow De Montfort University to expand its John Sandford sports hall and build a swimming pool in a £6 million development. The Council claimed that the bridge had to be removed as a report revealed that it could only support its own weight and would not last another year without major repairs. According to the report, the 108-year old bridge was "approaching the end of a normal life span of 120 years" and could have lasted "long into the future if only a pro-active maintenance strategy had been in place. Unfortunately, lack of funding and the demise of this section of the railway are instrumental in the extremely poor condition of the structure components. The bridge, which once carried a railway, can only carry its own weight". The report estimated the costs of restoration at between £250,000 and £270,000.
The bridge had a last-minute reprieve in July 2005 when, just before a meeting at which councillors were about to vote on its demolition, an email was sent to them by Richard Tilden-Smith of the heritage Great Central Railway
Great Central Railway (preserved)
The Great Central Railway is a heritage railway split into two adjacent sections, one in Leicestershire and the other Nottinghamshire.The Leicestershire section is currently Britain's only double track mainline heritage railway, with of working double track, period signalling, locomotives and...
urged them to postpone a decision until experts could examine the state of the bridge. He indicated that if the bridge were saved, it might still be possible to extend his organisation's operations through Leicester, with funding possibly coming from the Heritage Lottery Fund
Heritage Lottery Fund
The Heritage Lottery Fund is a fund established in the United Kingdom under the National Lottery etc. Act 1993. The Fund opened for applications in 1994. It uses money raised through the National Lottery to transform and sustain the UK’s heritage...
. The cabinet agreed to give the bridge more time. Two weeks later, the heritage railway pulled out of talks with the Council, stating that the restoration works would be too expensive and would not fit in with the Council's timetable for the area.
In October 2005, Leicester City Council released an engineer's report indicating that the bridge could only support its weight and would need £775,000 to keep it intact over the next three years. Full restoration would cost £2.5 million according to the report. The Council planned to demolish the bridge by Summer 2006 but had to revise their plans once it was discovered that as the bridge was still classed as a public highway which used to carry the Great Central Way footpath, a formal stopping-up order extinguishing the highway would have to be obtained. This process would take up to a year. By March 2008 the order had still not yet been granted and considerable local opposition against the plans was manifesting itself on the internet with more than 2,500 people joining a campaign on the Facebook
Facebook
Facebook is a social networking service and website launched in February 2004, operated and privately owned by Facebook, Inc. , Facebook has more than 800 million active users. Users must register before using the site, after which they may create a personal profile, add other users as...
website, and a further 1,200 signing a petition on the 10 Downing Street website.
The court hearing for the stopping-up order took place at 2.15pm on 4 June 2008 at Leicester Magistrates' Court in Pocklington's Walk. Representatives from the Ramblers Association, The Victorian Society
The Victorian Society
The Victorian Society is the national charity responsible for the study and protection of Victorian and Edwardian architecture and other arts in Britain....
, The Footpath Association, The Civic Society and Leicestershire Industrial History Society were present in Court 5. The Council applied for the order using Section 116 of the Highways Act 1980
Highways Act 1980
The Highways Act 1980 is an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom dealing with the management and operation of the road network in England and Wales. It consolidated with amendments several earlier pieces of legislation. Many amendments relate only to changes of highway authority, to include...
to have 410 metres of the bridge closed, thereby avoiding the public enquiry that would have been necessary if Section 118 (also concerned with closure) had been used. The hearing was adjourned until 17 June when the application will be heard by a district judge and a date will be set for a full hearing of the case.