A blue plaque at the entrance to the platforms at Nottingham Station.
The plaque was unveiled in November 2014 to mark the re-opening of the station after a major refurbishment program.
"A three-year programme of major improvement work to transform Nottingham’s railway station came to a dramatic finale yesterday (Wednesday, 26 November 2014) as The Honourable Sir William McAlpine, chairman of the Railway Heritage Trust and the Lord Lieutenant of Nottinghamshire (Sir John Peace) visited to officially open the new world-class transport hub.
They were joined for the official opening by Elly Blacknell, a year 9 student at the Becket School, West Bridgford. Elly, from Clifton, aspires to be a Paralympic swimming champion and is a true inspiration, having had her left leg amputated below the knee and undergone chemotherapy following the diagnosis of a rare bone cancer in 2012. Despite this, she now walks unaided with a prosthetic limb and Elly has gone on to pick up numerous medals in national swimming competitions, competing against able-bodied swimmers, and has been an inspiration to her family, coaches and teachers. Her positive attitude and courage led to Elly being given the Nottingham Post’s Child of Courage Award at this year’s Nottingham Heroes Awards.
Over £60 million has been invested in creating the new transport hub at the very heart of the city, which serves more than seven million passengers every year.
The station has been designed to dramatically enhance the passenger experience, improve the city’s connectivity and encourage greater opportunities for regeneration, investment and growth.
The station’s Edwardian Grade II* listed frontage has been transformed, with the support of the Railway Heritage Trust, to create a modern passenger environment which is sympathetic to the building’s history. Original features have been painstakingly restored, existing facilities have been modernised and a range of new shops and cafes have been provided in the attractive vehicle-free Porte Cochere.
The impressive new glass-fronted Southern Concourse, which has full lift and escalator access, marks a bold and modern addition to the station. It has been carefully designed to enhance the passenger experience and interchange with different forms of transport, connecting trains, the 950-space multi-storey car park and Nottingham’s tram network, when construction of two new tram lines to Chilwell and Clifton is completed and the expanded system opens to the public next year.
The completion of this scheme, which marks the first major investment in Nottingham’s station in many decades, has been successfully delivered by East Midlands Trains and Network Rail working in partnership with Nottingham City Council, Taylor Woodrow and the Railway Heritage Trust, with £12m additional funding from the country’s first Workplace Parking Levy (WPL) scheme. Combined with the city’s multi-million pound investment in the tram network, this has now created an iconic transport hub.
Both the redevelopment of the station and the expansion of Nottingham’s tram network, which is also benefiting from funding generated by the WPL, topped businesses’ wish lists of transport infrastructure improvements that they see as being key to Nottingham’s future economic success.
As part of his visit to Nottingham station, keen railway enthusiast Sir William McAlpine and Sir John Peace had an opportunity to see at first-hand some of the improvements that have been made for passengers including the new tram link, Porte Cochere and Southern Concourse. They also met some of the key people involved in the multi-million pound scheme, including East Midlands Trains’ station and customer service teams, representatives of Network Rail and of Nottingham City Council. There was also a display of terracotta manufacture by local craftsmen involved in the project."
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'NOTTINGHAM
MIDLAND STATION
Constructed by the Midland Railway to
designs in the Neo-Baroque style by company
architect Charles Trubshaw, with external details
by local architect Albert Edward Lambert,
and opened in January 1904.
The station is Grade 11* listed.
Major refurbishment of the station took place
in 2014 in conjunction with the extension
of the Nottingham tram system.'