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Middlesborough Station

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Butts

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I had occassion to visit this establishment for the first time today.

It looks though it was a grand edifice that has been somewhat eviscerated over the years.

Art Gallery seems to occupy half of what was the station, and I suspect the old Hotel is probably the disused part attatched to platform one.

Having said that the interior is clean and it actually has a BTP office with an enquiry desk that was open. :lol:

One strange thing no "branded" retail outlets Traveline not WHS for Newsagents and an Independent Cafe. This is suprising on a "biggish" station.
 
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simonm

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Please note spelling of the town: MiddlesBROugh. Urban myth suggests misprint on the original town charter...
 

Butts

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Please note spelling of the town: MiddlesBROugh. Urban myth suggests misprint on the original town charter...

You are correct my apologies....please answer the points raised now about Middlesbrough Station:lol:
 

ainsworth74

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You are correct in your assessment of it's reduced stature here's a picture from the 1890s:

middlesbrough%20ststion.jpg


It started to go down hill when the Luftwaffe decided to pay a visit in 1942 (this led to the removal of the entire train shed):

c5518_middlesborough_statio_450x350.jpg


station%20_0001%20495.jpg


And wasn't helped when BR decided to put this monstrosity across the station:

middlesbrough%20station%20zetland.jpg


Thankfully, as you no doubt noticed, they've since removed that leaving the rather lovely sandstone original station buildings fully exposed. As to the rest of your points I can't really help. But personally as a semi-regular user of Middlesbrough station I have to say I think it's pretty good as medium sized stations go.
 

MidnightFlyer

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I was there on Tuesday, it's a wonderful station, both to look at and to use. The tiled LNER map and wooden booking office and beams overhead are beautiful pieces of craftmanship. I think the only real problem is lack of a proper food stall like Pumpkins, the cafe looked like they don't do much to take out, and Cafe Express are hideously expensive.

Just a shame it's in Middlesbrough really ;)
 

DarloRich

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Yes the station at Port Darlington is quite good these days. Must have been a decent station till the German interior designers dropped in.

So much better than fairly recently and the forecourt area was improved no end by the removal of the horrid office block shown in the last picture above

If the main problem is the lack of branded food outlets then the good smog monsters have little to complain about. I remember when the station environs were a haven for ladies of the night and it was not a good idea to be down there after dark! Where is the disused hotel?
 

Butts

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Yes the station at Port Darlington is quite good these days. Must have been a decent station till the German interior designers dropped in.

So much better than fairly recently and the forecourt area was improved no end by the removal of the horrid office block shown in the last picture above

If the main problem is the lack of branded food outlets then the good smog monsters have little to complain about. I remember when the station environs were a haven for ladies of the night and it was not a good idea to be down there after dark! Where is the disused hotel?

Thanks for all the input.

If you are at the front of the building exiting there is a huge building to the left which looks like an old hotel - it is connected to the station. (platform 1)
 

DarloRich

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Not sure where you mean. I have been in the sun all day today so my brain may have melted. The main building side (Zetland Road) or back entrance(Bridge Street)? IS it the building running up to the bridge on Exchange place?
 

Butts

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Not sure where you mean. I have been in the sun all day today so my brain may have melted. The main building side (Zetland Road) or back entrance(Bridge Street)? IS it the building running up to the bridge on Exchange place?

If you are standing on Platform One (in front of the concourse) turn right and walk half way up the platform. There are a lot of disused offices and a building joined to the station that stretches back a long way running parallell to the road outside the station. It looks like a disused giant pub which makes me think it may have been a Hotel at one time.

Talking of Pubs did I misread John Smiths at £1.39 Pint in some hostelries :p
 

142094

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The cafe in the main station building is quite good, had an all day breakfast there recently and for the price it was fantastic. Also does other stuff as well, and I'm sure it does take-away food.

There is a Wetherspoons just across the road, which I only found recently. Apart from that Middlesbrough isn't too fantastic.

And yes £1.39 for a Smiths does sound about right.
 

Butts

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Just before you get into Middlesbrough there was a huge siding on the left hand side with loads of EWS and other Freight Trucks - looked like a "graveyard" - did there used to be a big depot there or factory. There seems to be a lot of demolition going on.

Also Teeside Airport stop - I had a timetable and as far as I could see only one service a week on a Sunday stops there - are they trying to discourage people from travelling to the Airport by Rail ?
 

MidnightFlyer

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I assume you mean the west side of Middlesbrough, in which case that's Tees Yard, quite a large yard and still very busy. IIRC that area (the Tees either side of Middlesbrough) is still one of the busiest ports in the country, ahead of Dover, Southampton and maybe even Immingham / Grimsby.

Tees-side Airport is a strange one - the station is on completely the wrong side of the passenger terminal and as such is quite a walk (about 25-30 minutes I believe, not allowing for having luggage too). Unless this is ever rectified (a resiting of the station may help, or a bus link) I can't ever see it becoming one of the busier stations in County Durham.
 

DaveNewcastle

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If you are standing on Platform One (in front of the concourse) turn right and walk half way up the platform. There are a lot of disused offices and a building joined to the station that stretches back a long way running parallell to the road outside the station. It looks like a disused giant pub which makes me think it may have been a Hotel at one time.
It was indeed a pub. The Corner House, also operating as a night club, comedy club and live music venue. It stretched a long way under the station.
But before all that, it was occupied for many decades by a long-established family owned firm of wine importers, Winterschladen & Co. Their cavernous bonded warehouse built into the victorian-gothic railway arches made an excellent wine cellar - full of dusty maps of german vinyards and, odd-shaped cellars of dusty wine barrels. I remember it well!

I've just tried a google search for the firm, and here we are (though sadly no pictures of the interior) : http://www.hidden-teesside.co.uk/2012/06/08/winterschladens-1885-1980/
 

ainsworth74

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As above that's Tees Yard and remains quite busy but I don't think you're wrong to suggest that a fair bit of the rolling stock there has just been left to rot. But it does remain fairly busy servicing port traffic and other industrial traffic. Where the demolition has taken place is the former location of Thornaby TMD which close some years ago now but used to supply a wide verity of freight locomotives to work the various freight workings of the area but with the decline of industry in the area the need to keep a large number of locomotives nearby has fallen.
 
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You are correct in your assessment of it's reduced stature here's a picture from the 1890s:

middlesbrough%20ststion.jpg


It started to go down hill when the Luftwaffe decided to pay a visit in 1942 (this led to the removal of the entire train shed):

c5518_middlesborough_statio_450x350.jpg


station%20_0001%20495.jpg


And wasn't helped when BR decided to put this monstrosity across the station:

middlesbrough%20station%20zetland.jpg


Thankfully, as you no doubt noticed, they've since removed that leaving the rather lovely sandstone original station buildings fully exposed. As to the rest of your points I can't really help. But personally as a semi-regular user of Middlesbrough station I have to say I think it's pretty good as medium sized stations go.

I can see what the OP meant by eviscerated from photos 2&3!!
 
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142094

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Tees Yard does seem to have a lot of steel-carrying wagons of various types stored there at the minute, no doubt probably due to the recession and closure of Redcar steelworks for a long period. From time to time they are shifted around with some sent for repairs (some are repaired on site by mobile work teams), and some are scrapped.

There are now two services to serve Tees-side Airport on Sundays, so you can do a return trip now. As has been said it is far from the airport terminal, although apparently there used to be a shuttle bus provided. The other problem is that the airport itself doesn't have many flights, the only two routes that seem to be operating are to Aberdeen and Amsterdam.
 

ainsworth74

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I can see what the OP meant by eviscerated from photos 2&3!!

Yes the Germans rather did a number on the station though as was often the case during the war the station was reopened to traffic rather quickly. There are a few more photos I've dug up from a google search:

station%20_0003%20495.jpg


Taken a few days later with the station open to traffic once again and this one:

station%20495%20.jpg


Taken a few weeks later. As I noted above the train shed was never repaired, which is a shame really, though even it had survived the war intact it would have probably have been removed by BR at some point such as happened at Stockton.
 

OMGitsDAVE

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Tees Yard does seem to have a lot of steel-carrying wagons of various types stored there at the minute, no doubt probably due to the recession and closure of Redcar steelworks for a long period. From time to time they are shifted around with some sent for repairs (some are repaired on site by mobile work teams), and some are scrapped.

There are now two services to serve Tees-side Airport on Sundays, so you can do a return trip now. As has been said it is far from the airport terminal, although apparently there used to be a shuttle bus provided. The other problem is that the airport itself doesn't have many flights, the only two routes that seem to be operating are to Aberdeen and Amsterdam.

There are NO services from Middlesbrough to Tees-Side Airport anymore, it is the Darlington - MetroCentre (via Hartlepool) which calls there now!
 

142094

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There are NO services from Middlesbrough to Tees-Side Airport anymore, it is the Darlington - MetroCentre (via Hartlepool) which calls there now!

I know, all I said was that there are two services that stop there! It probably would be better if it was a Darlo - Saltburn train that called there, but Northern have decided that the Darlo - MetroCentre one should instead.
 

DarloRich

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It was indeed a pub. The Corner House, also operating as a night club, comedy club and live music venue. It stretched a long way under the station.
But before all that, it was occupied for many decades by a long-established family owned firm of wine importers, Winterschladen & Co. Their cavernous bonded warehouse built into the victorian-gothic railway arches made an excellent wine cellar - full of dusty maps of german vinyards and, odd-shaped cellars of dusty wine barrels. I remember it well!

I've just tried a google search for the firm, and here we are (though sadly no pictures of the interior) : http://www.hidden-teesside.co.uk/2012/06/08/winterschladens-1885-1980/

You beat me to it! I did some digging but hadn't had a chance to post due to Olympic shifts.

The last time is was in the land of Smog the corner house under the station was still open
 

JohnCarlson

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Yes the Germans rather did a number on the station though as was often the case during the war the station was reopened to traffic rather quickly. There are a few more photos I've dug up from a google search:

station%20_0003%20495.jpg


Taken a few days later with the station open to traffic once again and this one:

station%20495%20.jpg


Taken a few weeks later. As I noted above the train shed was never repaired, which is a shame really, though even it had survived the war intact it would have probably have been removed by BR at some point such as happened at Stockton.


Yes its a shame that the train shed wasn't kept but after the war the emphasis was on the utilitarian look and Victoriana was well out of fashion. Just look at what happened with Euston station.

Nowadays it would have been seen as almost a tourist attraction in its own right.
--- old post above --- --- new post below ---
I assume you mean the west side of Middlesbrough, in which case that's Tees Yard, quite a large yard and still very busy. IIRC that area (the Tees either side of Middlesbrough) is still one of the busiest ports in the country, ahead of Dover, Southampton and maybe even Immingham / Grimsby.

Tees-side Airport is a strange one - the station is on completely the wrong side of the passenger terminal and as such is quite a walk (about 25-30 minutes I believe, not allowing for having luggage too). Unless this is ever rectified (a resiting of the station may help, or a bus link) I can't ever see it becoming one of the busier stations in County Durham.

While the tees yard is still in use there is much empty land there and there seem to be plans to reorganise it, build housing on part of it and also a new station.

http://www.smi-teesvalley.co.uk/dev_strategy/tees.htm

The airport is also struggling which is why proposals to reposition the airport station are on hold.

http://www.gazettelive.co.uk/news/t...of-durham-tees-valley-airport-84229-30574395/

John
 

Marton

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Please note spelling of the town: MiddlesBROugh. Urban myth suggests misprint on the original town charter...

Definitely urban myth.

Middlesbrough, although a new town in the 1840s, was sited on Middlesbrough Farm/Grange, a mediaeval settlement said to be half way from the ecclesiastical centres of Durham to Whitby.
 
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Yes the Germans rather did a number on the station though as was often the case during the war the station was reopened to traffic rather quickly. There are a few more photos I've dug up from a google search:

station%20_0003%20495.jpg


Taken a few days later with the station open to traffic once again and this one:

station%20495%20.jpg


Taken a few weeks later. As I noted above the train shed was never repaired, which is a shame really, though even it had survived the war intact it would have probably have been removed by BR at some point such as happened at Stockton.
Never been to Middlesbrough station - must pop in sometime. Very interesting photographs though.
 

DarloRich

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Definitely urban myth.

Middlesbrough, although a new town in the 1840s, was sited on Middlesbrough Farm/Grange, a mediaeval settlement said to be half way from the ecclesiastical centres of Durham to Whitby.

Pedantic point of order - By 1801 Boro was a hamlet of 25 people. That was until the Stockton & Darlington Railway saw the potential in creating a port to help with the trade of North East coal.

Joseph Pease bought up the land occupied by these people (Middlesbrough Farm/Grange) in 1829 developing what he called Port Darlington. The land he purchased became the town of Middlesbrough, housing the work force to service the port.

Joseph Pease was the son of Edward Pease, one of the men responsible for financing and constructing the Stockton and Darlington Railway, which extended to Middlesbrough in 1830. This railway helped move the coal, iron ore, iron and steel that became the foundation of Middlesbrough.


So Middlesbrough is, in fact, a suburb of Darlington ;)
 
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