The amazing transformation of New Street Station

Arriving in July 2015 and standing before a huge eye looking out over the cityscape, resembling one of H.G. Well’s fighting machines from ‘The War of the Worlds’, the eye a glazed screen set in a huge polished stainless steel ribbon, that gives the most amazing abstract reflections of the city, from the trains passing below to people moving along a new thoroughfare that threads between the hole in the city fabric that surrounds tracks and platforms and the back of the Odeon Cinema, it is a very busy thoroughfare with a green wall on the right side, where clipped vegetation in a raised planter that forms a continuous bench, creates an edge along what is essentially a huge blank brick wall turning its back on the life of the city, on the left a glass wall, giving a clear view of the constant flow of trains arriving and departing at what is the UK’s busiest station outside of London.

Beyond, the high concrete wall that for so long has divorced the station from the life of the city. Following the green wall beneath the steel ribbon and straight onto Stephenson Place! Such a seemingly insignificant addition to the city’s fabric, is having a major impact, probably reducing the walk from Moor Street to New Street by 5 minutes, which in the morning rush is a major advantage. Stephenson Place, below the steel ribbon is abuzz with construction activity, like Corporation Street, tram lines are being laid in the street surface in a move the will finally provide the transit link between Snow Hill and New Street in the first phase of the extension to the Midland Metro, joining up arrival at New Street with a quick and convenient link to Birmingham’s financial district.

Walking off Stephenson Place and straight onto the concourse of New Street Station, no more fighting your way along the McDonalds ramp and through the Pallasades shopping centre, situated where the lower car park used to be, this is without a doubt a very smart move, finally reconnecting what should be the centre of the city with the life of the city. 

The walk along the concourse feels a bit like some of the newer underground stations in London at this stage, as the atrium is still under wraps, rapidly nearing completion. High quality finishes, increased ceiling height, make a huge difference to the dispersal bridge that previously provided the route between the shopping centre above and the trains below. No longer an artificially lit corridor, even as work is still in progress this is a huge improvement, daylight at the far end signals the arrival onto the corner of Hill Street and Station Street, gone is the taxi route of Queens Drive and the sunken pit of the parcels depot and Stephenson Tower on its spindly columns above a dark undercroft, and steps lead out into the brightness of the city. No longer is Hill Street a one sided street, its life reflected back on the continuous steel ribbon, above the ribbon a curving frosted glass volume, probably five storeys high, bearing the name John Lewis, a fitting counterpoint to Future Systems’ Selfridges at the far end of the Bull Ring.

The ribbon, reflects the sky and the life of the city in what seems to be a constantly moving abstract sculpture, creating a bright centre of the city, and more importantly, the activities below and beneath the surface treatment of the waving façade, have been reconnected with the life of the city. From a theoretical point of view some of the reorganization of the activities may seem quite simple, substitute a car park for concourse, open up entrances onto the street, create a new bridge alongside the pit, but to do this on an operational station that is handling 35 million passengers a year (The Guardian 22 July 2015) is nothing short of amazing. As streetscape, this is a huge volume, and as a object in the centre of the city, indeed it is the centre of the city and the solution of wrapping a huge reflective ribbon around it is nothing short of genius, where the concrete structure beneath sucked life out of the city, now the vista looking along any street leading to the station is met with brightness, even on a dull day, it is unmistakable from anywhere that New Street Station and its partner, Grand Central, the retail concourse above, has established itself as a destination in its own right.

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The Tide of Change

Written from the perspective of arriving to Birmingham in 1993 and discovering the layers that make up the city, subsequently many more layers have been applied in the constant tide of change, and now with the opening of the new Birmingham New Street station following its epic reorganisation, this piece gives a brief insight into the urban journey.

On the sixth floor of the Central Library, is the map section, containing Historic maps of Birmingham in plan chests that do not show Spaghetti Junction, or the areas surrounding it. The earliest is dated 1732 and shows St Martins, surrounded by small buildings and sure enough the Shambles as the mural in the Bull Ring depicts. On the map Birmingham is a market town, English Market, Welsh Market, Beast Market. The greatest landmark is the manor house protected by a moat that the local histories cite as the residence, the seat of power of the landowners the de Berminghams, dating back to the Tenth Century. Later maps show the inundation of industry and workers housing, small outdoor markets, replaced by Market Hall. Then slum clearance at the railway company’s expense, a significant area of town disappears from the map to make way for New Street Station, Peck Lane and the Froggary, along with three churches and a synagogue disappeared from the city map, as the site was lowered by 25ft in 1850. In a sense, urban devastation in the name of the public good, stories tell of the public exerting pressure on the railway companies, complaining that the existing station at Curzon Street was too far out of the city centre.

During construction the project was referred to as “Grand Central station at Birmingham” in ‘the Builder’ on 25th January 1853; reporting on the erection of vast 25 Ton ribs, 45 of which make up the roof.

In addition new civic buildings were erected exuding the wealth of the city, such as the hotel that was being erected on the site by the London and North Western Railway. The hotel became the Queens Hotel when it opened on 1st June 1854, along with the station becoming New Street Station, although not actually on New Street, I suppose the name ‘New Street’ sounds more glamorous than ‘Peck Lane’, although what happened to the name ‘Grand Central Station’ went, is unknown. There are other significant events that have changed the map, from the enlargement of the station during the 1870's, to the events of World War II taking their toll on the station as the grand iron roof sustained numerous direct hits, along with the neighbouring market hall, and finally the Manzoni Plan that has resulted in the city as it stands today. On the ground, traces remain of the market town shown on the maps, the blackened edifice that is St Martins hidden among the ring road, shopping centre and numerous car parks. Four lanes of traffic now circulate on Moat Lane where the historic maps show the moat to the manor house. The site of the manor house itself is now hidden beneath the vast concrete framed enclosure of the Wholesale market. Along Digbeth High Street, car dealerships dominate the street scene, car parks, billboards, filling in the spaces between the more significant buildings: Police Station, Coach Station, Irish Centre…Away from the high street, the dark brick arches of Bordesley viaduct dominate the street scene, now detached from the railway and marooned above the rooftops.

To be continued...

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