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Livery Street, BIRMINGHAM, B3 2NU

On Edmund Street

Heading down towards Snow Hill station.

The last trains ran south from Birmingham Snow Hill station on the 2nd March 1968 after which the line through the tunnel to Moor Street closed and this box became redundant. After Snow Hill closed completely in March 1972 and the tracks were lifted this once proud station became completely derelict. It was finally demolished in 1977. Fortunately the mistake of closing this line has now been rectified and this spot is once again the site of a busy passenger service, to the extent that the station, albeit only with 3 mainline platforms at present, is stretched to capacity. Compare this view with Image This picture was taken from roughly where the further tram is standing, looking to the left.

Looking through the skeleton of the GWR Station roof at about the time of its demolition. Through the glassless roof the Post Office Tower (as it was called at the time) can be seen.

Some 10 years after the old station had been demolished Image, and nearly 20 since the last train ran, the railway had been re-instated and the new station, essentially in the basement of a multi-storey car park, built. This view, approaching from the tunnel from Moor Street was taken from roughly where the vans are parked in Image! This picture was taken shortly before the line re-opened on the occasion of an open day for charity, organised by the Birmingham Evening Mail (hence the posters) during which the public were allowed to walk through Snow Hill Tunnel from Moor Street Station. Notice the right hand track, platform 4, before it was taken over for the Midland Metro.

Livery Street car park is alongside and several storeys above.

Stairway to daylight, eventually.

A number of plaques and signs greet the traveller at the top of the stairs and escalators Image This one reads: The Jewellery Line To commemorate the opening of The Jewellery Line Birmingham Snow Hill to Smethwick Galton Bridge via the Jewellery Quarter and Hawthorns by The Rt. Hon. John Prescott MP Deputy Leader of the Labour Party Sunday 24th September, 1995 This project was co-funded by West Midlands Passenger Transport Authority, Centro, Regional Railways, Railtrack The European Commission and the Football Trust

Plaques and signs face the traveller at the top of the stairs and escalators Image This one reads: In commemoration of the 150th Anniversary of the opening of Birmingham Snow Hill Station Tuesday 1st October 2002 Unveiled by George Windsor, Station Master, Snow Hill 1960-1963 & Rob Donald, Director General, Centro Birmingham's first major railway station was at Curzon Street, the terminus of the London & Birmingham Railway, opened in 1837-8. Plans for a more central station for through trains were inaugurated in 1846. A New Street site was preferred to the only alternative at Snow Hill. New Street opened in 1854 and was an immediate success. The London & North Western Railway Company contrived to prevent Brunel's Great Western Railway from operating into New Street (or Great Central Station as it was first known). The GWR had to make do with Snow Hill Station, originally opened by the Birmingham & Oxford Junction Railway, 1st October 1852. Source: Richard Foster. Birmingham New Street, the story of a great station. Didcot, Wild Swan Publications, 1990. ISBN 0 906867 78 9