If you'd have taken an Edwardian man on a tour around Britain in the 70's, they'd have wept at the grimness, the terminal decline, and the sheer scale of destruction of fine buildings - a lot of which were unscathed during WW2.
People forget that the public's attitude in the 60s was not the same as it is today. There was a public rejection of Edwardian and Victorian architecture back then, as it was seen as a dated reminder of the past. So the pulling down of a building that had stood in Nottingham for most people's lifetimes, and replacing it with something new and futuristic was welcomed by most of the public. The Vic Centre was an example of the new "brutal" architectural style that was incredibly popular at the time, and was seen as much more exciting and forward-looking. We can see exactly the same attitude today - the Vic Centre has been around for most people's lifetimes and is now despised and rejected, in the same way that the station was in the 70s. The Council had very little to do with it - they simply gave planning permission to something that the majority of Nottingham people agreed with. The developers were the ones who demolished the oid Vic and built the new one.
@@lorisarvenduThe problem with people in this side of the hemisphere, is they let things really get them down, the past is not their favourite they would rather forget history than honour it. It is a shame and now they’re saying they miss the old days.
@@scottishtransportvideos264 No, he picked a great time stamp which I have repeated in the comments so other people can see quickly how they smashed it all down. Good riddance to this useless building and hello to a nice shopping centre.
@@PreservationEnthusiast Your last sentence perfectly encapsulated the prevailing public attitude at the time. Away with the old and in with the new. 50 years later the wheel has turned full circle and we now prefer the old (or more accurately the lost past) to the new. If anyone wants to blame someone, blame your parents. It was their generation that wanted the station gone. You only have to look at contemporary newspapers to see that the new shopping centre was broadly welcomed and although the station was mourned, its demolition was regretted by a minority. Times change, and so does the Public's likes and dislikes.
One more reason to loathe the 'revolutionary' social ideas of the 60s.. The excrescence that now occupies the site is hideously brutal.. I know.. my best friend lives 22 floors up in it..
It's so sad to see this video. The train station had been built solidly and was meant to last for centuries, and yet it lasted a mere 66 years before it was closed and subsequently demolished... such a tragety for Nottingham's architecture and infrastructure.
I've come to the conclusion that Britain must have really hated itself during the 60's and 70's. People think of free love, The Beatles, Stones, and later Queen and Bowie when they think of the 60's and 70's, but pop music aside they were both dark decades.....none more so than the 1970's, a time when this country went broke, the government owned nearly everything, and also destroyed many things too. If the first decade of the 20th century was Britain at its peak, then the 1970's was the nadir.
Thanks so much for posting this. Great to see the station in lovely colour and yet sickening to see it demolished. I wish I could say they've learnt by this mistake in Nottm , but no they haven't.
i'm twenty years old learn this history I feel sick lovely building in Nottingham I glad kept clock tower and hotal part Nottingham Victoria railway station
Nottingham Victoria is symptomatic of a lot of stations that were well and truly wrecked. All that great architecture some of which were like cathedrals all made way for concrete carbunkles. Progress eh?
I was at Nottingham Trent Poly 1990 - 1995. This is a gem of a video, and so sad they pulled down this fine building. Why were they so mad. These buildings were built to last and should've remained. My house is 100 years old and still going good.
This is heartbreaking. I'm 17 years old and hate Victoria Centre with a passion. This station (from what I've read an heard) was beautiful. Why it had to go in first place I'll never know. Dr. Beeching you really ruined this country. No thanks to you for ruining railways such as this one, now a concrete carbuncle lies on top of this once beautiful building, I hope you're happy.
Two pieces of architectural vandalism of around 1968: 1) Demolition & rebuilding of Newhaven, Leith 2) Ditto, Nottingham Victoria. The Victoria Centrethat subsequently went up is an architectural blunderbuss and the poor wee clock only brings this bastardisation into sharp relief.
Cant believe what they did to city back then!! Fair enough, places like St Anns & the Meadows were run-down. But what they built in place of the old terraced houses just rippid the heart out of those close communties!! Not forgetting what they did to the Broad Marsh area too!!
I am a Nottinghamien and I think the city is faceless, the Old Market Square is one are that springs to mind. The demolition of The Victoria Station has cost this city dear and I am appalled that the Midland was allowed to be the principle gateway by rail - that one should have gone and then we wouldn't have the tram that doesn't even go anywhere that a bus could go and is far cheaper. BRING BACK THE "VIC" .
My G.G Grandfather was a forman who helped to build Vicci Station & pulling it down was bull, they saved the clock tower but could of at least saved the facade of the building to retain the charactor of the area. Vicci centre is ironically now a run down dirty shopping area which has done no justice to the beautiful building that was destroyed to put up that piece of crap.
great shame to see this. having lived in Nottingham, the shopping centre that replaced this is dire. The tragedy is that, out of all the lines out of London, the GC was built to the highest spec. If it had all survived, Nottingham would have still had a station that was truly central, on many of the bus routes and 5 mins walk from all of the others
They should now do the same to the Victoria Centre, what an absolute shambles that a once great gateway into the city was destroyed due to shortsightedness and absolute disregard to a future transport system within the city, this mistake has cost us billions. We now have the prospect of an expensive tram network that we do not and will not need. Edward Watkin had the foresight to plan for a future Channel tunnel and the Great Central Line was planned well in advance, Beeching had other ideas!
We need to reopen the whole Great Central railway line and scrap HS2 Railway project .The HS2 rail link wood cost £50 Billion .and the Great Cntral wood cost a cool £6Billion so which one wood you go for on Cost.
peter jarai That's a terrible idea The Great Central Railway did not run to Birmingham, Britain's second city. HS2 will do that and more. Demolish the GCR and let's build a proper railway!
I used to go there train spotting in the late 50's. Blow me if I didn't go there to work for about a year after leaving school. I wonder what happened to all the rubble from this beautiful building. Must have gone somewhere.
It was crushed up and used as a base for roads. Beeching was right to close the useless duplicate Great Central Line. The steam locomotives were cut up for scrap and the metal recycled to make cars and trucks!
I lived in N0ttingham for a big junk of my life, the clock tower is dwarfed by the victoria center flats. That wa such a grand station in its day. Shame.
Why knock down one of the best sited City Centre Stations anywhere in the country? And why did the planners get rid of all the trains using the station? It was heavily used by passenger and freight when under Eastern Region control, when, sadly, under British Railways policy, no provincial town or city could be served by more than one region. The GC then came under control of the London Midland Region who deliberately decided to run the system down, even though it was at least breaking even, unlike many other lines. As early as 1960, there were protests among Nottingham's citizens, protesting about the reduced services from the station, and possible eventual closure. Two years later, the local TUCC made it clear that the station would remain open, even if the GC was closed. Then came Beeching a year later. Even then, for two or three years, there were regular complaints about the proposed closure of the station, but they were all ignored. There were numerous suggestions from those who knew the rail network at the time as to how all traffic could be concentrated on Victoria, but, again, nobody in authority listened. Finally, early in 1965, Nottingham Chamber of Commerce proclaimed that railways were obsolete, and were unnecessary. One should also add that cash-strapped British Rail sold the site for far less than its commercial value. Thanks to these mistakes, Nottingham is virtually isolated from the main British Rail network.
I think we destroyed more in the 60's than Hitler did in the 40's. What a crying shame. I never saw this station, just the pit at the north end with blocked up tunnel, viewed from the shopping centre.
@Bridport6705 -god i remember that hole in the ground -and buses use to go in victoria centre at that time around 1972 era that was all buses use to drive in and smell the diesel smoke also i remember that because of a blind guy selling papers and the mushy pea's in the centre it self going to be in notts this friday coming from canada cant wait
So sad. I never saw this station as I was born after its demolition. How could they have got it SO wrong?? .....chronic short termism and the destruction of fine Victorian and Edwardian buildings was pure cultural vandalism - something not seen on a scale since Henry VIII ordered the destruction of monasteries all over England. Many Politicians and planners in the 60's and 70's squandered much of our Victorian and Edwardian heritage. Even the Luftwaffe weren't this bad or this ruthless.
what a waste of a beautiful building but then back then it was thought out with the old in with the new and fuck history, we dont need it. thats what they did in this case and its sickening. im only half english but i still respect the Architecture of the time and we should keep it and repair it instead of trashing it for crapy strip malls and fast food joints.
@LordReserei01 yep nottingham city council are shocking! time and time again we're loosing amazing parts of our history! nice to hear from someone young who cares about their city!
And now the council want to / are going to destroy the Victoria Leisure Centre in Sneinton. Another beautiful Victorian building lost to the continually idiotic council and to be replaced by an ugly concrete block. The centre has been open as a swimming pool for 160 years and will close forever and to the sound of the demolition gang on April 1st 2010. What a sick joke.
I always wondered why there was a clock tower next to the Victoria Centre now I know :o) Yeah the station looked better than the awful Vic Centre that is in its place,,, Lets hope Vic Centre days are numbered like Broadmarsh, both depressing shopping centres
Because it was in direct competition with the Midland Region Mainline. The Midland line was slower and older but the Midland Region had control. The Great Central was built for speed and was the HS2 of its day and both Leicester and Nottingham etc lost their direct lines to London. A real tragedy.
@@larrybarker2495 Yes, that was the reason British Rail closed it and sold the land to developers. But it was the developers who demolished it, because the public didn't want an old Victorian building that now had no use. They wanted a lovely new shopping centre.
I don't consider it a "chav" shopping centre. I remember going there as a child in the mid 80s with my Mum every Saturday morning. She watched this being knocked down actually, and in conversation to Nottingham folk in the late 60s, she says everyone just thought it was part of how life goes on...like the new houses and centres they build today go on being built all around us; we don't think about it really. She said it was dull and dirty, could have been cleaned I suppose.
The shopping centre is really useful and gets 20 million visitors a year. Victoria station had next to no passengers. Give the people of Nottingham what they need on prime sites. Not some useless crap to titillate a handful of railway buffs.
@@PreservationEnthusiast Giving the people of Nottingham what they want doesn’t have to involve destroying their architectural heritage. The station became less-used only because fewer services stopped there (through no fault of the passengers!), the same as happened with Derby’s Friar Gate station. The building could have been saved and refit for use as many things. We cannot save everything, but once great buildings like this are gone - they’re gone.
@@sawleyram7405 Saving the building would have compromised the centre. Probably the only thing they could have done is facade retention and offices. But that would have been expensive and you end up with an inferior product. Architecture is subjective. I thought the old Station was a mess. Typically fussy late Victorian with lots of nooks and crannies. A haven for things like pigeons which shit all over the place and generally a cleaning/maintenance nightmare. Far better to smash it all down and start again with the clean lines of a modern structure. So not everyone has the same ideas about "heritage". The professional planners and architects agreed with me.
@@PreservationEnthusiast The "professional planners" and architects, though, shouldn't be used as a measure of whether one is right or not. After all, their remit (especially at this point in civic history) is chiefly to produce a building that the client wants within the money that is available. Unfortunately that resulted in the featureless monstrosity we see there today. Other countries managed to overcome this though and save their heritage; one of my favourites being Albury Railway Station in Australia which is worth looking at. As you perfectly put it and exemplified with your viewpoint though -- architecture is subjective!
@@sawleyram7405 The thing is, people often glibly say "they should do this" or "they should save that" but when it comes to putting their own money on the line they run a mile. They expect tax cuts and benefits and hospitals but those things can't be provided if we waste money on saving every bit of redundant infrastructure. In fact we do save quite a fair selection, but you can bet your bottom dollar that anything which is demolished or scrapped will be subject wails of protest from clueless fans that it should become yet another "museum" or some similar fanciful project. A few museums are desirable but multiple ones are not. They don't make money, they suck it in. To overpopulate the country with museums and hopeless old buildings would be a maintenance nightmare and national economic suicide.
Hang on. When did Nottingham Victoria close? 1967 When was the General Election previous to that? 1964 Who came into power at that election? Harold Wilson's Labour administration. Who was the Minister of Transport? Barbera Castle What Union was she sponsered by? Transport and General, a union with strong road transport links. Why didn't she reverse ANY of the Beeching cuts? See answer above.
Its sad to see such a magnificent building being beat up like this. I bet they wished they never done that now. we should learn by our past and not demolish building like this. looks like they saved the clock tower?
These evil developers/council have no right to get rid of things like this,it only takes one generation of assholes to destroy one national treasure that is the property of futre generations LOL.
I agree with all the comments below, well said all not sure would happen today, me thinks would have been saved, does annoy me as I was born in 68, in Nottingham, so just missed the magnificence of this building - a cradle of fine Edwardian architecture - thank God the clock Tower survived - and if it could speak & look up at the shitty Victoria Flats that replaced it must think Christ they demolished all around me for this crap....surprised it just doesn't topple over out of sheer disgust !!!!!!!!!!!!!! (no offence to the people who live in the flats but bet they would agree too - just look at Notts castle - Original was burnt down which looked like a castle Btw - & replaced by a square mansion and we call that a castle - ....bring back I.K.Brunel....!!!! not sure would happen today it would have been saved me hopes/thinks....
it makes you wonder why anybody bothered to build all this,Dr beeching should never have been allowed to do what he did.It sickens me to see all this going on.Graat britain my arse
What a silly attitude.. Why, particularly, are you allowed to be upset by something important to you and others are not? I loathe the destroyers of natural habitats and forests as much as any feeling person, but they could just as easily use your own argument about progress to justify their destruction. God architecture is important to human conciousness, just as the natural environment is..
BIG BIG MISTAKE!! Take a look at this. Its like Woodhead and so much more of our railway heritage, destroyed by accountants and wretched political incompitance. Thats why theres so many cars on the roads, simple really. A little bit of forsight goes a long long way.
@biopsychosocio There is another rotten council not so far away it's called Doncaster Metropolitan Borough Council - possibly all part of the same council officers career club and you can buzz 40 miles along a motorway in no time. The official doctrine of Doncaster planners is to tear down special and iconic buildings and replace them with ugly concrete rubbish - a property developers free-for-all.
It's a horrible thing that they demolished this beautiful station, you probably have no knowledge about UK Railways or this station. It was a sad loss.
Such a senseless waste of history. Foolish, shortsighted history. It reminds me of the time someone wanted to bulldoze Axel Erlandson's "Circus of Trees" to build a shopping center. Fortunately some brave citizens were able to save them.
