Birmingham - New Street Station - Grand Central
14th November 2025
In: News, Members' Articles
Return To Birmingham – New Street Station
I first got to know Birmingham centre in the late 1960s when Joan, my wife, completed a teaching certificate at the university and in those days New Street Station was coming to the end of its underground smokey environment from the steam era. It was not an attractive place.
I then worked in Birmingham in the late 1990s and found the 1970s shopping precinct – The Pallisades, that had been built as part of the redevelopment to be uninspiring and a bit tatty.
We decided to return to Birmingham in 2019 to see the new library so caught the Cross Country service from Chesterfield. In those days this was a proper train, it was a high speed set with proper coaches and comfortable seats. I believe things have changed!
Arriving at New Street we found the underground station much as it was. Then we rode the escalator to the exit and what a change! In place of the boring 1970s architecture was this sweeping organic roof letting in lots of light to the concourse and leading out to the city centre. It's called 'Grand Central', which is a reuse of the old railway company's name and it is an apt name.
I was in photographic heaven. There were interesting architectural shapes and good opportunities to photograph people plus my favourite subject – images in reflected panels that distorted the surroundings. Many of these pictures were taken on a 16-18-21mm WATE or the 28-35-50 Tri-Elmar. It is just a small selection of those taken, another advantage of digital although I did take some slide photos as well.
We've not been back since Covid and the closure of the John Lewis store, so we are not sure how it is surviving these days but back then we really enjoyed it. I will prepare another article about the library for a later post.
Ken Davis
I first got to know Birmingham centre in the late 1960s when Joan, my wife, completed a teaching certificate at the university and in those days New Street Station was coming to the end of its underground smokey environment from the steam era. It was not an attractive place.
I then worked in Birmingham in the late 1990s and found the 1970s shopping precinct – The Pallisades, that had been built as part of the redevelopment to be uninspiring and a bit tatty.
We decided to return to Birmingham in 2019 to see the new library so caught the Cross Country service from Chesterfield. In those days this was a proper train, it was a high speed set with proper coaches and comfortable seats. I believe things have changed!
Arriving at New Street we found the underground station much as it was. Then we rode the escalator to the exit and what a change! In place of the boring 1970s architecture was this sweeping organic roof letting in lots of light to the concourse and leading out to the city centre. It's called 'Grand Central', which is a reuse of the old railway company's name and it is an apt name.
I was in photographic heaven. There were interesting architectural shapes and good opportunities to photograph people plus my favourite subject – images in reflected panels that distorted the surroundings. Many of these pictures were taken on a 16-18-21mm WATE or the 28-35-50 Tri-Elmar. It is just a small selection of those taken, another advantage of digital although I did take some slide photos as well.
We've not been back since Covid and the closure of the John Lewis store, so we are not sure how it is surviving these days but back then we really enjoyed it. I will prepare another article about the library for a later post.
Ken Davis