The Great Northern Railway (GNR) opened the station at the terminus of its line from Grantham, originally built by the Ambergate, Nottingham, Boston and Eastern Junction Railway.[4] The station was designed by the local architect Thomas Chambers Hine. GNR trains originally used Nottingham Midland station, but there were frequent disputes; this included when the GNR began running through trains from London King's Cross via Grantham in a shorter time than the Midland Railway could manage. To solve the problem, the GNR opened its own station served by a new line from near Netherfield, adjacent to the Midland line whose tracks it had previously used.
When Nottingham Victoria was opened in 1900, the Great Northern had to construct a new chord line. It carried mainly on brick arches and steel girders, from a junction at Trent Lane, east of London Road, to Weekday Cross where it joined the Great Central Main Line. The new chord line included a station on an island platform, reached by means of a staircase from the booking office on the same approach road to the earlier London Road terminus. To avoid confusion the new station was designated High Level and the old station renamed Low Level. The transfer to Victoria station gave the Great Northern a prestigious location and avoided their need to reverse trains to and from Grantham, Derbyshire and north of Nottingham. Passenger services at the Low Level station were substantially reduced with the opening of Victoria station and the last passenger service ran on 22 May 1944. The station, however, remained open as a mail depot for troops during the Second World War before becoming a parcels depot until the 1970s.[5]
From 7 January 1963, passenger steam trains between Grantham, London Road (High Level) and Victoria were replaced with diesel multiple units.[nb 1][6]
Passengers services to the High Level station were withdrawn on 3 July 1967, when the service to Grantham was diverted to Nottingham Midland. This left only one service using Victoria: the Leicester Central to Rugby Central route on the former Great Central Main Line.
Although severely damaged by fire in 1996, the station building was restored and converted to a Holmes Place health and fitness club;[7] it is now used by Virgin Active. The High Level station was demolished in 2006.[8]
↑Shannon, Paul (2007). Nottinghamshire (British Railways Past and Present). Kettering, Northants: Past & Present Publishing. p.14. ISBN978-1-85895-253-6.
↑Reed, Hayden (March 2007). The Rise & Fall of Nottingham's Railway Network, Volume 1 – Lines in the City. Nottingham: Book Law Publications. p.99. ISBN978-1-901945-70-6.
Sources
Leleux, Robin, A Regional History of the Railways of Great Britain: Volume 9, The East Midlands.
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