Walk 2: Railways

Start: Curzon Street Railway Station, Moor Street Queensway, B4 7UD. OS Grid ref: SP 0743 8689

Finish: Moor Street Station, B4 7UL. OS Grid ref: SP07388677

Distance: 2.0 miles/3.2km

Approx time: 55–60 minutes

Pubs/cafés: Moor Street Station, Millennium Point, the Parkside Building (University of Birmingham),  the Eagle and Ball, the White Tower

Parking: Nearest car park – Moor Street Car Par, B5 5TE

Train: Nearest train stations – Birmingham Moor Street & New Street. National Rail Enquiries Tel: 03457 484950 www.nationalrail.co.uk

Bus: Traveline Tel: 0871 2002233 www.traveline.inf

This self-guided walk follows the railways around HS2 Curzon Street Station as well as related heritage sites.

Follow the route below or to download a simplified version to print, click here: WALK 2

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Start outside the New Curzon Street Railway Station.

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Walk northwards along Moor Street Queensway and turn east onto the pedestrianised length of Masshouse Lane. Continue along the highway onto a pedestrianised walkway  towards the Thinktank Birmingham Science Museum. Stop at the Woodman Public House before the junction of Curzon Street and New Canal Street.

The Woodman Public House was once a lowly drinking establishment, not listed in trade directories: an early reference to the pub was in the census of 1861. The Woodman was located at 31 Duddeston Row (present day Curzon Street) at the junction of New Canal Street, opposite the impressive main building of Old Curzon Street Station. The new Woodman Public House (Grade II listed) was built between 1896–7. James & Lister Lea and Sons, a Birmingham based architects firm, designed the public house for the Ansell’s Brewery. The two architect brothers James & Lister Lea set up their business in 1846 and designed buildings across Birmingham. At the end of the 19th century and beginning of the 20th century this architectural company specialised in designing public houses and in a style  known locally as ‘tile and terracotta’ pubs. As an early example of this style, The Woodman typically has internal surfaces covered in decorative wall tiling and the exterior is clad in ornamental terracotta.

Originally The Woodman was incorporated into the existing early 19th-century residential block of back-to-back housing arranged around courts. Customers of the new The Woodman were likely to have included the residents of the local housing and the Curzon Street Station Goods Yard, post-dating the heyday of the station’s use as a railway terminal. By the mid-20th century, however, the surrounding housing was cleared, except for one building incorporated into The Woodman, and replaced by manufacturing premises. In 2013, the public house had stood empty for some time and work began on refurbishing the pub and despite the setback of being badly vandalised at Easter, the public house reopened on the 26th September of that year.

Cross New Canal Street to:

The Old Curzon Street Railway Station (Grade I listed), first called Birmingham Station, was one of the earliest railway stations to be built. Phillip Hardwick, designed both the railway terminals of Old Curzon Street Station, with its Neo-Classical façade (featuring four Ionic columns) and the now demolished Euston Station, London (with its Doric columns), for the London and Birmingham Railway Co. (L&BR) line. Old Curzon Street Station opened on the 9th April 1838 while the London terminal of Euston opened earlier on the 20th July 1837. The railway line, 112 miles in length, was engineered by Robert Stephenson from 1834 and the first uninterrupted journey between the two stations was on the 17th September 1838 and took 4hrs and 48 minutes. The cheapest fare was £1. The now demolished Grand Junction Railway Station terminal (opened on the 19th November 1838) was built on a northern area of the site, fronting Curzon Street, and connected Birmingham to Liverpool. The three-storey Old Curzon Station main building, built in ashlar sandstone, housed the L&BR railway companies offices and board rooms, while the ground floor and a new northern extension incorporated the Queen’s Hotel. A subsequent southern wing became The Euston Hotel.

The decline of Old Curzon Street Station was a result of its distant location away from the centre of Birmingham. The station lost all of its passenger services to New Street (Grand Central) Station when that opened in 1854, but for the occasional excursion trip, and then became the city’s main goods depot, which closed in 1966. Much of the station’s structure was subsequently demolished.

From Old Curzon Street Station continue eastwards along Curzon Street to the junction and roundabout with Lawley Middleway, head north for a short distance and cross Lawley Middleway using the pedestrian crossings to:

Also known as Moriarty’s, the public house is interesting for being designed in the1930s Art deco style and is built of white ashlar blocks and red brick in stretcher bond and tile that includes herring bone patterns. An earlier public house with the same name was here from at least 1835.

From the corner of the White Tower cross the road on to Vauxhall Road. Walk eastwards, turn into Northumberland Street then walk southwards until you reach Lawley Street Viaduct.

The viaduct (Grade II listed) connected the Grand Junction Railway to its terminus at Curzon Street Station. The viaduct was designed by Joseph Locke, a pioneering railway engineer and is notable for being one of the earliest English major large-scale railway structures. The viaduct is noteworthy for its 28 arches built in red brick with sandstone dressings. Each of the arches has its own individual number in an oval plaque on or close to the arch keystone. Until the viaduct and the bridge over the Digbeth Branch Canal were completed in 1838, a temporary station opened at Vauxhall in 1837. The viaduct in 1893 was raised in height so that trains could access The Curzon Street Goods and New Street Stations. The 1893 viaduct is built of red and blue engineering brick and sits atop and largely masks the northern face of the 1838 structure, best seen on the southern face of the viaduct, but complements the earlier construction with the spacing out of the arches. The latest viaduct is not listed, although it is unusual for supporting two sets of railway lines at different levels.

Pass through the arch to the southern side of the viaduct onto Viaduct Street.

To the south of the viaduct and located within a triangular area of land was the Lawley Street passenger station. The station opened on the 10th February 1842 and was the terminus for the Birmingham and Derby Junction Railway. The passenger station was short lived and closed in 1851 due to its distance from the centre of Birmingham and subsequently became a goods station with a long history. This Goods Station was largely destroyed by fire in 1937 and WWII bombing, reopening in 1945 with the construction of a new goods shed. This station finally closed in 2005. Looking further southwards is a viaduct that was part of the intricate Southern Approach lines that brought the railway into Old Curzon Street and New Street Stations.

Walk south-westwards along Viaduct Street to Lawley Middleway.

The Lawley Street Viaduct and bridge on Lawley Middleway best shows the original construction of the viaduct with the sandstone dressings and arch with its number plaque and the brick surfaces of the archway. The later superimposed 1893 viaduct can be clearly distinguished by its facing of blue engineering bricks and the more numerous arches (on the northern side) complement the span of the earlier viaduct.

Walk northwards under the bridge to the pedestrian crossings. Cross the road here and walk northwards to the junction of Curzon Street and cross the road. Walk a short distance westward and turn northwards on to Belmont Row. Walk down the steps on to the tow path of the Digbeth Branch Canal.

By the start of the 18th century Birmingham was an established leading industrial centre in England but was largely isolated because of its poor transport links to the markets for its products. Canals were the solution to this problem and building of the Birmingham Canal began in 1768, followed by the Birmingham and Fazeley Canal in 1789. This short length (1¼ miles long) of the Digbeth Branch Canal was operational in 1790 and in 1799 was linked with the Birmingham and Fazeley Canal at Aston Junction and the Grand Union Canal at Warwick Bar. This allowed improved access to London by barge. There are six locks located on the Digbeth Branch Canal and the stretch of the waterway before you have Numbers 4 and 5 locks, with No. 6 to the south beyond Curzon Street Bridge.

Walk southwards along the tow path passing under Curzon Street Bridge and Lock number 6. Stop just before the next bridge and its tunnel.

The single span bridge (Grade II listed) over the Digbeth Branch Canal was constructed between 1837–38 and was designed by the railway engineer Joseph Locke. The bridge’s importance is as an excellent early example of English railway engineering and additionally for its Neo-Classical architecture. The bridge was built to carry over the canal the Grand Junction Railway line from Liverpool into the nearby terminus of Curzon Street Station. The bridge and parts of the Lawley Street viaduct were not completed on time and a temporary station was opened at Vauxhall in 1837. With the completion of the bridge and viaduct the Curzon Street Station terminal could open, which it did on the 19th November 1838.

Today, only the northern arch face of the sandstone bridge can be easily observed in its original form and is built of banded and chamfered ashlar sandstone with its arch constructed of stepped blocks in groups of three and flanked by single pilasters below a dentilled cornice and a plain parapet. The interior arch of the bridge is built of red brick.

The southern extent of the 1837–38 bridge is largely masked by an 1893 extension to the bridge, built of blue engineering bricks with a metal parapet, which allowed the railway line to connect with New Street Station. The length of the tunnel created by the two bridges is approximately 120m (400 ft).

Walk southwards through the tunnel noting towards the end of the tunnel (where there is an aperture in the roof) the southern end of the 1837–38 railway bridge, which is narrower and abuts against the narrower 1893 bridge. The later bridge’s visible southern face noticeably contrasts in style with the earlier bridge. Continue walking across the tow path and stop short of the foot bridge over the junction of the Digbeth Branch and (Warwick Bar) Grand Union canals. Look across the canal to:

The building was used to test gun barrels and completed guns by examining and firing the firearms as a quality check for the safety of these weapons. The guns and barrels were stamped if the items passed the tests. The buildings date from 1813–14 and were set up as a statutory institution in response to an 1813 Act of Parliament requiring firearms to be assessed and the act was requested by the Birmingham gun trade. This still active establishment’s building with its ostentatious appearance signifies the importance of the Birmingham gun manufacturing industry in the city.

The Gun Barrel Proofing House, open to the public only through organised tours, is accessed on Banbury Street through an arched gateway with a shaped gable of an 1883 date and has a lodge on either side that leads to a courtyard. The main brick built range of this institution was designed by John Horton of Bradford Street, Deritend and has an impressive entrance consisting of two Tuscan pillars flanking a basket arch below the legend of `ESTABLISHED BY ACT OF PARLIAMENT/FOR PUBLIC SECURITY, ANNO DOM : 1813.’. This is below a niche with a painted trophy of arms with above that a clockface set in a rounded gable. The building contains a museum and impressive board room. Around the courtyard are a number of magazines and metal clad firing ranges or ‘proof rooms’.

Continue walking westward crossing the footbridge and take the ramp or steps on to Fazeley Street. Walk in a westerly direction along Fazeley Street crossing over the Digbeth Branch Canal Bridge to the junction with New Canal Street. Walk southwards along New Canal Street to Bordesley Street and turn west along Bordesley Street to the junction of Allison Street and walk southwards along this roadway, enter the arch of the railway bridge and stop midway. In an arch of the railway bridge is the metal Gentlemen’s urinal.

The cast iron structure (Grade II listed) dates to between circa 1880–90 and consists of eight panels. Each panel is made of two sections. The top panel has a floral motif in an urn, while the lower panel has Neo-Classical oval medallions in the Adams style. The urinal, no longer in use and internally not accessible, was entered from each end through small decorative arches, of which the northern example survives. The convenience would have been used by the workers in the many small industrial premises in the Digbeth area.

Opposite the Gentlemen’s urinal is the entrance to Moor Street Railway Goods Station Shed B, via Moor Street Car Park (please take care of cars if you enter the car park).

At the same time as the Old Moor Street Railway passenger station opened its associated railway goods station was also launched in 1909. The goods station was built on a steep incline and was therefore constructed on two levels with additionally high level metal goods sheds on the platforms. The goods station consisted of two sheds (A and B) designed by L.G. Mouchel employing a reinforced concrete technique pioneered by Francois Hennebique. The station received general goods besides fish, fruit and vegetables for distribution to local markets, including the Bullring. Lifts lowered wagons from the platforms to the lower levels of the sheds. The Goods Station closed in November 1972 and subsequently much of it was demolished. Today only the street level ground floor of Shed B survives and the upper floor was removed, upon which was built other levels of the Moor Street Car Park. Caution should be taken on entering the car park. The Allison Street entrance clearly shows the brick arches of the Moor Street Station railway arches used by the goods shed and located on the northern side of the Goods Station, while the very modern looking reinforced concrete construction designed by L.G. Mouchel is observable on the southern extent.

Return northwards along Allison Street and at the junction of Shaw’s Passage turn left (westwards) following the length of the railway viaduct to the junction with Park Street, turn south onto Park Street to the junction with Moor Street. In front of you are three concrete arches that are the original 1909 build of Goods Station B and from the pavement you can observe the interior of the Goods Shed.

The Park Street entrance to the Moor Street Car Park very clearly shows the c. 1909 L.G. Mouchel reinforced concrete build of Shed B of the Goods Station, without the need to enter the car park.

Walk westwards up the Bus Mall, until you reach Old Moor Street Station. The Bus Mall was the location of the Goods Station Shed A which was demolished in order to make way for the building of this part of Moor Street in 2000.

At the turn of the 20th century Birmingham was facing a problem with growing local commuter traffic and the eventual solution was to build Moor Street Station, which was first opened using temporary buildings in 1909, which were replaced by the current Old Moor Street Station (Grade II listed) which opened on the 7th July 1914. The station is built of brick, partially faced with terracotta tiles and stone dressings with steel and glazed platform roofs and was designed by W. Y. Armstrong. By the 1960s Moor Street Station had become rundown and railway services from here reduced. In the 1980s, however, a new plan for improved local railway services resulted in a new Moor Street Station being built and the old station closed in 1987 and was mothballed, but fortuitously saved from demolition. Local commuter services were again strained in the 2000s, resulting in The Old station being opened and renovated to a cost of £11 million. An important route from Moor Street Station was established to London Marylebone in 1993 and today the station provides links to Worcester and Kidderminster.