Nottingham station, briefly known as Nottingham City and for rather longer as Nottingham Midland, is a railway station and tram stop in the city of Nottingham, England. It is the principal railway station of Nottingham. It is also a nodal point on the city's tram system, with a tram stop that was originally called Station Street but is now known as Nottingham Station. It is the busiest station in Nottinghamshire, the busiest in the East Midlands, and the second-busiest in the Midlands after Birmingham New Street.
The station was first built by the Midland Railway (MR) in 1848 and rebuilt by the same company in 1904, with much of the current building dating from the later date. It is now owned by Network Rail and managed by East Midlands Railway (EMR). Besides EMR trains, it is also served by CrossCountry and Northern trains and by Nottingham Express Transit (NET) trams.
The station was one of several that once served the city of Nottingham. Amongst these were the city centre stations of on the Great Central Railway, and on the Great Northern Railway; both of these stations are now closed. A number of minor stations served localities outside the city centre, but the only such station to remain open within the city boundaries is .
History
Early beginnings
Nottingham's first station was Carrington Street station, which opened in May 1839, when the Midland Counties Railway opened the line from Nottingham to Derby. This terminus station was situated on the opposite side of Carrington Street from the current station, on a site now occupied by Nottingham Magistrates' Court. The original station gate posts still exist and form the pedestrian entrance to the Magistrates' Courts area.
thumb|Nottingham Midland Station tower
thumb|Nottingham station's Art Nouveau gates
The 1848 station
In 1844 the Midland Counties Railway merged with two others into the Midland Railway. By 1848 the new company had outgrown Carrington Street station and new lines to Lincoln had been opened. A new through station was opened on the current station site on 22 May 1848, replacing the Carrington Street station. George Hall of Derby was the architect, and J.C. Hall of Nottingham the contractor and it had its entrance on Station Street. During 1869 the Midland Railway purchased the West Croft Canal arm, filling it and building additional parallel tracks to south.
During the 1880s, Nottingham station employed 170 staff. Although attractive when it first opened, by the early 20th century the station was quite cramped, having only three platforms.
On 18 August 1896, a light engine, running tender first, was passing through the station when it collided with six empty fish trucks. One of the trucks was thrown off the rails against a cast-iron column supporting the inner ends of the principals of the station roof and, when the column broke, a portion of the roof, measuring about by , fell onto the platforms and track. Six people on the platform were injured.
thumb|Carrington Street entrance of the Edwardian Nottingham station
The 1904 station
right|thumb|Nottingham Station, arrivals from the western perspective
When the Great Central Railway opened its Nottingham Victoria Station in 1900, the Midland Railway appointed Albert Edward Lambert, a local Nottingham architect, to rebuild the Midland station. Lambert had been the architect for Great Central's station and, consequently, the two buildings had many similarities in their design. The station was rebuilt largely on the same site as the Station Street station, but the entrance was relocated onto Carrington Street.
The first contract for the station buildings was awarded to Edward Wood and Sons of Derby on 23 January 1903, who were also awarded the contract for the buildings on platforms 1 and 2 on 16 September 1903. The contract for the buildings on platforms 4 and 5 was awarded to Kirk, Knight & Co of Sleaford on 18 June 1903, who were also responsible for building the parcels office (Forward House) on Station Street, which opened in November 1903. The structural steelwork and cast-ironwork was done by Handyside & Co. and the Phoenix Foundry, both of Derby.
The station was built in an Edwardian Baroque Revival style at a cost of £1 million (£ million in ) and was described by the Nottingham Evening News on the eve of its opening (16 January 1904) as a "magnificent new block of buildings". The building used a mix of red brick, terracotta (used as a substitute for building stone) and faience (a glazed terracotta), with slate and glazed pitch roofs over the principal buildings. The carriage entrances have Art Nouveau wrought-iron gates.
The station's forebuildings were opened to passengers without any formal ceremony on 17 January 1904, although next day the Evening News reported that the platforms were still in a state of chaos and were not expected to be ready for another nine months. However, it did note that "the result promises to be the provision for Nottingham of one of the most commodious and most convenient passenger stations in the country". The day began with the closure of the booking offices in the old station, after the last tickets were issued for the 5:25 a.m. London train and the new booking offices were opened in time to issue tickets for the 6:25 a.m. Erewash Valley train. No attempt was made to exclude the public from the building and many took the opportunity to view the new station buildings. The Evening News commented on the public's admiration of the style and elegance of the station approaches and booking hall; it went on to describe the day's events.
20th century
thumb|right|Detail of structural pillar showing the Handyside company logo
The station became the property of the London, Midland and Scottish Railway, under the railway grouping of 1923. On 2 July 1939, the station was targeted by the Irish Republican Army in an attack on eight stations in the Midlands under their S-Plan; the others being Leicester, Derby, Birmingham, Stoke, Coventry, Leamington Spa and Stafford. A bomb was left in a suitcase and exploded at 6:30 a.m. The glass roof of the cloak room and enquiry office was blown away.
The station was nationalised in 1948, under the Transport Act 1947, becoming part of British Railways. Following the privatisation of the railways in the 1990s, ownership was transferred to Railtrack and subsequently to Network Rail.
For many years, the Midland Railway suffered the indignity of its rival, the Great Central Railway, crossing above the station on a bowstring girder bridge. This bridge became redundant in 1973 and was finally dismantled in the early 1980s. The alignment was later used for a new tramway bridge. Under the scheme, the station's porte-cochère was to be made vehicle-free and the station's Grade II* listed buildings restored. The redevelopment also included the construction of another platform, more shops and a bridge to carry Nottingham Express Transit trams over the top of the station. East Midlands Development Agency (EMDA) stated they would contribute £9.5 million to the project, but had to reduce this amount following government cuts. In July 2009, the then Transport Minister, Sadiq Khan, gave conditional approval for the city council to use funds raised from their controversial Workplace Parking Levy to contribute to the redevelopment.
The final funding was reorganised to be around £60 million, with Network Rail contributing £41 million, Nottingham City Council £14.8 million, EMDA £2.1 million, East Midlands Trains £1.6 million and the Railway Heritage Trust £0.5 million. using the same team that had redeveloped based on an estimate of £550,000 and was launched at Loxley House on 19 July 2002.
BDP engaged Tuffin Ferraby Taylor to undertake surveys of all elements of the station dating from before 1918. and safeguarding for an additional platform. It was built by Vinci Construction beginning in March 2011 and officially opened on 14 May 2012.
The initial car park design had been put on hold in 2008, after being described as a "chicken coop". The final design for the car park has 2,107 coloured metal sheets on the outside, formed of 2.1-millimetre-thick copper and stainless steel (1.5 mm stainless, 0.6 mm "Luvata" Copper). These panels are affixed to the car park using 8,000 cleats fixed to pre-cast channels in the concrete structure. and space for 950 cars.
Remodelling
Schemes costing £19 million (in 2007) and then £14 million (in 2008) were proposed. and took place as part of Control Period 4 (CP4), between 1 April 2009 and 31 March 2014. Nottingham station was partially closed for ten weeks during 2013 for the track and signalling work. During the blockade, the western end of the station was closed to trains for 37 days and the eastern end for 10 days.
Platform 4 was split to create two platforms. All four tracks at the western end were given bi-directional railway signalling, allowing a better choice of non-conflicting routes.
{| class="wikitable"
|+ params|Change in platform numbering and lengths after remodelling
! Platform number
!rowspan="2"| previous
| 1 || 2 || 3
| colspan="2" style="text-align:center;"| 4 || 5 || 6
|-
! Platform length
| 409 || 82 || 409
| colspan="2" style="text-align:center;"| 373 || 372 || 285
|-
! Platform number
!rowspan="2"| post-2013
| 1 || 2 || 3 || 4 || 5 || 6 || 7
|-
! Platform length
|343 || 90 || 296 || 112 || 150 || 290 || 268
|}
On-site preparation works began in September 2011, with all new signal structures installed by June 2013 followed by the "Nottingham blockade"; this itself lasted from July 2013 until the handover in September 2013. The work was spread from Beeston, past Mansfield Junction, Nottingham West Junction and to Nottingham East Junction. On 18 August 1919, the Chief Inspector of Railways John Wallace Pringle visited Nottingham Midlands Station "in connection with this matter". By March 1920 local employer Boots the Chemist were offering to pay the Midland Railway for maintenance of the Trent Street entrance.
On 27 April 1920, a petition was submitted to Parliament "signed by the Mayor, Sheriff, and the Town Clerk on behalf of the civic authorities of Nottingham, the Chairman of the Chamber of Commerce, and the members of the Council, and 18,000 other users of the railway".
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;2024
During October/November 2024, East Midlands Railway (EMR) inhibited access via the Trent Street exit, from platforms 1‒6.
From 28 October 2024, EMR had planned to inhibit access from platforms 1–6 (via the footbridge and the public right of way) to both Queen's Road (south) and Trent Street (north) entrances. , access to both entrances remained open, with the planned pilot project under review.
Blocking of passenger access to the platforms was in place after 16:30 on 30 October 2024.
Taxi drivers based at the Trent Street exit were not informed of the pilot closure and had seen significantly reduced business.
Local members of parliament Nadia Whittome and Lilian Greenwood met with EMR on 1 November 2024. Leader of Nottingham City Council Neghat Khan met with EMR on 12 November 2024 and stated that the closure was "crazy".
The pilot was planned to end on 17 November 2024. access had been re-instated.
;2025
East Midlands Railway (EMR) began inhibiting entrance/exit during evenings and early morning, from platforms 1‒6. Gates between platforms 1‒6 and the footbridge were planned to be closed between 19:00‒06:00 every evening.
Footbridge
thumb|right|2012: Looking north-west over Nottingham station from newly-built car park; the bridge carrying footpath 28 is mid-shot; beyond it work has just started on the new tram bridge
Halfway along the platforms is an overhead footbridge, running from Station Street (at the north) and the tram stop link over station platforms 1–6<!--previously numbered platforms 1‒5--> to platform 7<!--previously numbered platform 6--> and car parking facilities at Queen's Road (at the south). The footbridge carries footpath 28, the only traffic-free crossing over the Midland Main Line in Nottingham. During 2008–2012, BPR Architects submitted designs for automated ticket gate (ATG) barrier installations at , , and Nottingham station concourses plus both ends of Nottingham footbridge 20<small>B</small>. BPR's design included four ATG barriers on the north end of the footbridge itself, plus a new enclosure and four barriers between the car park and platform 6 at the south end. A procedure to permanently stop-up the right-of-way commenced on 19 March 2010, Following a public inquiry held during 8–9 November 2011, the stopping up order was denied; the inspector summing up: