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Curzon Street railway station

 
Curzon Street Railway Station

 
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Curzon Street railway station
 
 
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Curzon Street Station was a railway station in Birmingham
Birmingham

Birmingham is a city status in the United Kingdom and metropolitan borough in the West Midlands of England. Birmingham is the most populous of England's English Core Cities Group, and is the List of United Kingdom cities by population British city after London, with a population of 1,010,200 ....
 in the 19th century and is the world's oldest surviving piece of monumental railway architecture. It acted as the terminus
Terminal Station

Terminal Station is a 1953 in film English language film by Italian director Vittorio De Sica. It tells the story of the love affair between an Italian man and an American woman....
 for both the London and Birmingham Railway
London and Birmingham Railway

The London and Birmingham Railway was an early railway company in the United Kingdom from 1833 until 1846, at which date it became a constituent part of the London and North Western Railway....
 and the Grand Junction Railway
Grand Junction Railway

The Grand Junction Railway was an early railway company in the United Kingdom, which existed between 1833 and 1846. The line built by the company was the first trunk railway to be completed in England, and arguably the world's first long-distance railway....
, with lines connecting Birmingham
Birmingham

Birmingham is a city status in the United Kingdom and metropolitan borough in the West Midlands of England. Birmingham is the most populous of England's English Core Cities Group, and is the List of United Kingdom cities by population British city after London, with a population of 1,010,200 ....
 to London
London

London is the capital of both England and the United Kingdom, and the most populous municipality in the European Union. An important settlement for two millennia, History of London goes back to its founding by the Roman Empire....
 and to Manchester
Manchester

Manchester is a city and metropolitan borough of Greater Manchester, England. Manchester was granted City status in the United Kingdom in 1853....
 and Liverpool
Liverpool

Liverpool [] is a city and metropolitan borough of Merseyside, England, along the eastern side of the Mersey Estuary. It was founded as a History of borough status in England and Wales in 1207 and was granted City status in the United Kingdom in 1880....
 respectively.






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Curzon Street Station
Curzon Street Station was a railway station in Birmingham
Birmingham

Birmingham is a city status in the United Kingdom and metropolitan borough in the West Midlands of England. Birmingham is the most populous of England's English Core Cities Group, and is the List of United Kingdom cities by population British city after London, with a population of 1,010,200 ....
 in the 19th century and is the world's oldest surviving piece of monumental railway architecture. It acted as the terminus
Terminal Station

Terminal Station is a 1953 in film English language film by Italian director Vittorio De Sica. It tells the story of the love affair between an Italian man and an American woman....
 for both the London and Birmingham Railway
London and Birmingham Railway

The London and Birmingham Railway was an early railway company in the United Kingdom from 1833 until 1846, at which date it became a constituent part of the London and North Western Railway....
 and the Grand Junction Railway
Grand Junction Railway

The Grand Junction Railway was an early railway company in the United Kingdom, which existed between 1833 and 1846. The line built by the company was the first trunk railway to be completed in England, and arguably the world's first long-distance railway....
, with lines connecting Birmingham
Birmingham

Birmingham is a city status in the United Kingdom and metropolitan borough in the West Midlands of England. Birmingham is the most populous of England's English Core Cities Group, and is the List of United Kingdom cities by population British city after London, with a population of 1,010,200 ....
 to London
London

London is the capital of both England and the United Kingdom, and the most populous municipality in the European Union. An important settlement for two millennia, History of London goes back to its founding by the Roman Empire....
 and to Manchester
Manchester

Manchester is a city and metropolitan borough of Greater Manchester, England. Manchester was granted City status in the United Kingdom in 1853....
 and Liverpool
Liverpool

Liverpool [] is a city and metropolitan borough of Merseyside, England, along the eastern side of the Mersey Estuary. It was founded as a History of borough status in England and Wales in 1207 and was granted City status in the United Kingdom in 1880....
 respectively. The two companies had adjacent, parallel platforms but no through services were provided.

The station was opened in 1838, with the first train from London
London

London is the capital of both England and the United Kingdom, and the most populous municipality in the European Union. An important settlement for two millennia, History of London goes back to its founding by the Roman Empire....
 to Birmingham arriving on September 17. However, the railway station was inconveniently located on the eastern edge of Birmingham city centre. For this reason, its use as a passenger station was short-lived. When the London and North Western Railway
London and North Western Railway

The London and North Western Railway was a railway company of the United Kingdom which existed between 1846 and 1922. It was created by the merger of three railway companies - the Grand Junction Railway, the London and Birmingham Railway and the Manchester and Birmingham Railway, and is effectively an ancestor of today's West Coast Main L...
 was created in 1846, they decided to build a new joint station with the Midland Railway
Midland Railway

The Midland Railway was a railway company in the United Kingdom, which existed from 1844 to 1922 when it became part of the London, Midland and Scottish Railway....
 at New Street
Birmingham New Street Station

Birmingham New Street is a major train station located in the Birmingham City Centre of Birmingham, England. It lies on the Rugby-Birmingham-Stafford Line of the West Coast Main Line....
. It was about half a mile west of Curzon Street Station. When this was completed in 1854, Curzon Street ceased regular passenger use, although holiday excursions ran from the station until 1893. However, it remained in use as a goods station
Goods station

A goods station is, in the widest sense, a railway station which is exclusively or predominantly where goods of any description are loaded or unloaded from ships or road vehicles and/or where goods wagons are transferred to local sidings....
 until its closure in 1966. The station was known simply as 'Birmingham' until November 1852, when the suffix 'Curzon Street' was added. A smaller goods station, Lawley Street Goods Station, was located to the east of the station.

The surviving entrance building, which was designed by Philip Hardwick
Philip Hardwick

Philip Hardwick was an eminent England architect, particularly associated with railway stations and warehouses in London and elsewhere. Hardwick is probably best known for London's demolished Euston Arch....
 and constructed in 1838, is three storeys tall but relatively small. The architecture
Architecture

The term architecture can refer to a process, a profession or documentation.As a process, architecture is the activity of designing and construction buildings and other physical structures by a person or a computer, primarily to provide shelter....
 is Roman
Roman architecture

The Architecture of Ancient Rome adopted the external Greek Architecture for their own purposes, which were so different from Greek buildings as to create a new architecture style....
 inspired, following Hardwick's trip to Italy
Italy

Italy , officially the Italian Republic , is a country located on the Italian Peninsula in Southern Europe and on the two largest islands in the Mediterranean Sea, Sicily and Sardinia....
 in 1818–19. It has tall pillars running up the front of the building, made out of a series of huge blocks of stone. The design mirrored the Euston Arch
Euston Arch

The Euston Arch, built in 1837, was the original entrance to Euston station in North Central London, England. The Arch was demolished when the station was rebuilt in the 1960s, but much of the original stone has been located, and proposals have been formulated to reconstruct it as part of the planned redevelopment of the station....
 at the London end of the L&BR. As part of the original design, the building was to be flanked by two arches leading into the station, but excavations revealed that these were never built. The interior housed the booking hall, with a large iron balustraded stone staircase, a refreshment room and offices.

Adjacent to the station was Queen's Hotel. It was here that the Institution of Mechanical Engineers
Institution of Mechanical Engineers

The Institution of Mechanical Engineers is the United Kingdom engineering society concerned with mechanical engineering. It is licensed by the Engineering Council UK to assess candidates for inclusion on Engineering Council UK's Register of professional Engineers....
 was established on 27 January 1847 with George Stephenson
George Stephenson

George Stephenson was an England civil engineer and mechanical engineering who built the first public railway line in the world to use steam engine locomotives and is known as the "Father of Railways"....
 as its first president. A plaque commemorating the event is located inside the station building, as the hotel has since been demolished.

Current status

The Grade I listed building is not used at present. Following a living exhibition arranged by the theatre group Three Bugs Fringe Theatre
Three Bugs Fringe Theatre

Three Bugs Fringe Theatre is a society of the University of Birmingham Guild of Students. Set up in 2003 by Stephen Makin and Michael Wood, its primary purpose is to allow University of Birmingham Students to take productions to the Edinburgh Festival Fringe each summer....
, a student group based at the University of Birmingham
University of Birmingham

The University of Birmingham is a United Kingdom 'Red brick universities' university located in the city of Birmingham, England. Founded in Edgbaston in 1900 as a successor to Mason Science College, and with origins dating back to the 1825 Birmingham Medical School, it was the first of the so-called Red brick universities to receive a Royal...
, it was to become the new home for the Royal College of Organists
Royal College of Organists

The Royal College of Organists or RCO, is an educational body of the United Kingdom. Its role is to promote organ and Choir music and it offers Music education for organists and choral directors....
, but that proposal foundered for lack of funds. The City Council now hope to refurbish the building and find an alternative tenant. The building is expected to be the centrepiece of the City Park and Masshouse development scheme, which is located around the site (most of the surrounding buildings having been demolished). The Parcelforce
Parcelforce

Parcelforce Worldwide is a courier and logistics service in the United Kingdom. Parcelforce Worldwide is a trading name of Royal Mail.Its international partner network allows it to extend its delivery reach worldwide....
 depot to the rear of the station was demolished in May 2006.

The building has recently housed a number of art exhibitions.

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