The iron staircases of Nottingham Central Railway Station are dated 1904.
"When the Great Central Railway opened its Victoria Station in 1900, the Midland Railway appointed Albert Edward Lambert, a local Nottingham architect, to rebuild the Midland station. Lambert had been the architect for the Nottingham Victoria railway station and consequently the two buildings shared many similarities in their design.
The station was re-built largely on the same site as the Station Street station, but the entrance was relocated onto Carrington Street.
The first contract for the station buildings was awarded to Edward Wood and Sons of Derby on 23 January 1903, who were also awarded the contract for the buildings on platforms 1 and 2 on 16 September 1903. The contract for the buildings on platforms 4 and 5 was awarded to Kirk, Knight & Co of Sleaford on 18 June 1903, who were also responsible for building the parcels office (Forward House) on Station Street, which opened in November 1903. The structural steelwork and cast-ironwork was done by Handyside & Co. and the Phoenix Foundry, both of Derby.
The station was built in an Edwardian Baroque Revival style at a cost of £1 million (£79,620,000 as of 2011), and was described by the Evening News on the eve of its opening (16 January 1904) as a magnificent new block of buildings.
The station was built using a mix of red brick, terracotta (which was used as a substitute for building stone) and faience (a glazed terracotta) with slate and glazed pitch roofs over the principal buildings. The carriage entrances have Art Nouveau wrought-iron gates
The station’s forebuildings were opened to passengers without any formal ceremony on 17 January 1904, although next day the Evening News reported that the platforms were still in a state of chaos and these were not expected to be ready for another nine months. However it did consider that ‘the result promises to be the provision for Nottingham of one of the most commodious and most convenient passenger stations in the country’.
The day began with the closure of the booking offices in the old station after the last tickets were issued for the 5:25 am London train and the new booking offices were opened in time to issue tickets for the 6:25 am Erewash Valley train. No attempt was made to exclude the public from the building and many took the opportunity to view the new station buildings. The Evening News commented on the public’s admiration of the style and elegance of the station approaches and booking hall and went on to describe the day’s events. In the morning, local juveniles swarmed into the station and spent their time playing boisterous games and dodging the duty policeman. Then later in the day, when the juveniles had finally been excluded, many top-hatted gents and their ladies came to promenade, no doubt adding some decorum to the proceedings, and to look at the architecturally pleasing buildings and general satisfaction was expressed. Finally as evening approached the gates were closed and none but passengers were allowed inside."
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Phoenix Foundry, Derby, Later Phoenix Foundry and Engineering Co. -
Maker of components for bridges including Battersea Bridge, the flooring for the hydraulic tilt bridges for the Liverpool Overhead Railway, and a number of lock gates and machinery for the Nile Inrrigation Scheme in Egypt were provided by the Phoenix Foundary.