My daughter took us to
her gym. It is quite a posh affair, compared to the local authority run centre
that we usually use, and it appears to attract a lot of young professionals, encouraging
those on their way to and from office jobs in the centre of Nottingham
to include a daily work-out into their busy routines. It occupies the former
train shed of the original Great Northern Railway station.
The grade two listed
building dates from 1857, when it opened as London Road station. It was designed by a
local architect, Thomas Chambers Hine. It became the terminus of the line built
from Grantham in 1850, by the Ambergate, Nottingham, Boston
and Eastern Junction Railway, soon after it was extended into Nottingham
itself from Netherfield, which is north east of the city. It had seven
platforms, which, according to Vic Forster and Bill Taylor in their book, “Railways
in and around Nottingham ,” turned out to be
somewhat optimistic. They went on to point out that although it was the least
well used of the city’s three mainline stations, it is the one that has lasted
the longest, though that now incorporates a change of function.
The later provision of
an island platform at London Road High Level, situated on a spur from the Grantham
line which threaded its way across an already heavily built-up area of the city
to join the Great Central Railway at Weekday Cross, meant the original building
then became London Road Low Level. The two stations shared a forecourt. The
platform for High Level was positioned on two viaducts that were separated by a
lattice girder bridge over London
Road and an adjacent bridge over the Nottingham Canal .
P. Howard Anderson,
writing in his book, “Forgotten Railways Volume 2: The East Midlands,” described
the detailed architecture of the original red brick building with its complex and
elaborate frontage and drew attention to the unusual, projecting porte-cochere which was provided to
accommodate horse-drawn road carriages, so that passengers could avoid the rain
when making their transfer.
High Level survived
until the 1960’s but the main Low Level station had previously closed to
passengers in 1944. It then operated as a goods depot up to 1972 and for
parcels until total closure in around 1989. Damaged by fire in 1996, it was finally converted
to what is now a Virgin Active Health Club, where my daughter and her husband
are currently members.
I completed my normal
forty lengths and on our way out my daughter informed me that because of the
need to work within the limitations set by the framework of the protected
building, the swimming pool was actually one metre short of the norm. Consequently,
this meant that I had not actually managed my regular, nice round number swim
of exactly one kilometre, and that I was, in fact, exactly forty metres short
of it.
Only by returning for
another couple of minutes, would I have given my body what I consider to be its
just desserts for the day. There was no chance of that happening. I had just thought
I had been in particularly good form, making excellent time as I sliced impressively
through the waves. Actually, this same daughter has pointed out to me on more
than one occasion that my swimming style is nothing if not amusing. She then
mimicked how I stretch my neck and strain my head upwards as if it were on a
stalk, so that I don’t get any water in my mouth, nose or ears, in what just
about passes for a weak breast stroke.
The four broad
swimming lanes in the main pool must roughly coincide with platform roads in
the old station and as I powered down the straight I could easily have been following
the line of a former platform edge. With my head raised, as described, I could
clearly see the dagger boards, reconditioned for sure, but still attached to the
canopies running the full length of the train shed and also to the arched former
entrance for the tracks themselves, ahead of me. Looking from below, the roof
itself is an uncovered timber structure, which again appears to be in first
class condition, and is clearly, at the very least, in keeping with the overall
design as it must have appeared over one hundred and fifty years ago.
Alongside the pool at
the station building end is a very chunky and obviously structural cast iron
pillar that reminds me of similar, substantial, weight-bearing columns located at
the wharf side in the restored Albert Dock complex in Liverpool. Smaller
pillars opposite hold up patterned wrought iron work, separating large sheets
of glass. A hefty and carefully restored red brick wall runs parallel to the
adjacent smaller family pool, in the direction of the main station building.
Well, don’t you think
that is just a great way to preserve an old building? It is still there,
tastefully developed and carefully looked after. There are clues everywhere you
look as to its former use and plaques to help the mystified to make sense of what
has been going on there all this time. It is protected for future generations,
fulfils a useful role in the modern city and provides work for local people. I
hope it all lives happily ever after.
The next time I go for
a dip, I promise my body that I will complete 1040 metres, to make up for the
restriction forced on me last time by Mr Hine.
[This article first
appeared in the Railway Antiques Gazette. Thanks are due to the editor, Tim
Petchey]
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