The Central Railway Station (New Street) The Foresters’ Guide to Birmingham and Its Neighbourhood 1883

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This fine station is at the present time being enlarged on the most extensive scale, and will, when completed, include some eleven acres of land. The existing station is an exceedingly fine one, being over 312 feet long. There are four platforms, a quarter of a mile in length; the fine semicircular roof of corrugated iron and glass is 1,100 feet long, 212 feet wide, and 80 feet high. The roof is a perfect span without any intermediate supports. The roof contains 120,000 feet of glass, weighing some 115 tons, and about 100,000 feet of iron sheeting. The total weight of the iron used is over 1,400 tons. Four hundred trains, on an average, enter and leave the station every day.

The Masonic Hall and the new Colonnade, both in New Street, are deserving of notice.

Source: The Foresters’ Guide to Birmingham and Its Neighbourhood. Presented by the Demonstration Committee to the Delegates In High Court Meeting, Assembled in Birmingham, August, 1883.Specially Prepared For the Occasion by John Alfred Langford, LL.D; F.R.H.S. Birmingham: James Upton, Baskerville Printing Works, Great Charles Street. 1883