The gateway into Newcastle
NEWCASTLE Central Station is set to undergo an exciting £5.2m upgrade, the Chronicle revealed in recent days.
Plans include a new western entrance opposite the Centre for Life, a new short-stay car park and taxi pick-up point and new area for passengers inside the station.
Newcastle city councillors are expected to approve funding for the scheme later this month.
Work would begin next year, with the project being completed in 2021, marking a new chapter for the gateway to the city.
It was railway pioneer Robert Stephenson, his second in command Thomas Harrison, and architect John Dobson who were the leading lights in the planning of the magnificent structure.
It was formally opened by Queen Victoria on August 29, 1850. The day was declared a public holiday in Newcastle.
The opening was a high-profile affair, with rail companies selling viewing spaces for the royal event in special stands built inside the station.
With its neoclassical frontage and its triple-curved roof, the Grade I-listed ‘cathedral’ station is one of the city’s finest buildings, although its development was complicated by the geography of the city, and the need to bridge the steep River Tyne gorge.
Stephenson’s double-deck High Level Bridge, formally inaugurated in 1849 also by Queen Victoria, enabled trains to travel directly across the Tyne and into the newly-built railway station for the first time.
The portico was opened in 1863, the train shed was extended southwards in the 1890s, and the adjoining Metro station was opened in 1981.
At the turn of the 20th century, the station was famed for its highly complex diamond crossing, prompting appearances on many postcards of the day as “the largest railway crossing in the world”.
Meanwhile, the Central Station’s historic entrance was transformed in recent years as part of an £8.6m makeover which saw the glazing over of the 19th century arches, turning the once dark, cheerless front portico into a traveller-friendly area.