The frontage of Leicester Central Station.

The entrance hall, with the booking hall through the entry on the left.

The booking hall.

There were three passageways under the tracks to the platforms, and at this time only the one on the left was still in use and led to the south staircase. The centre passage had led to the lift and the right passage led to the north staircase.

Redundent signals are being dismantled and track lifting has started. The low wall surrounding the turntable can just be made out behind the loading gauge.

Looking south from the south bay.

Looking north along the south bay from the end of the platform, with the parcels depot on the far right.

The south bay hydraulic buffer stops. Since the bay platforms were no longer in use the buffers appear to have been drained and were fully retracted.

Platform 5, the northbound platform, looking north. I believe that the north bay had platforms 1 & 2, the south bay had platforms 3 & 4, and the through platforms were 5 & 6.

Platform 6, the southbound platform, looking north.

The Waiting Room then in use, one of several original ones. The fire place and seating are very similar to those still in place in some of the stations on the preserved Great Central Railway.

By this time the Refreshment Room was out of use, so had to be photographed through the window. Notice the two beer hand-pumps on the counter.

The goods lifts.

The north bay, looking south.

Looking northbound from the north bay. Note that the out-of-use colour light signals have been turned sideways, and the roof of the Great Central Hotel (now long demolished) on the right.

Aerial view of Leicester Central Station, looking north, in about 1930. The turntable is to the right of the centre, with Great Central Road just beyond running parallel to the station. The River Soar / Grand Union Canal is in the foreground at bottom left.

Panoramic photograph take outside the north end of Leicester Central station. Soar Lane goes under the bridge on the left, the Great Central Hotel is in the centre, and Northgate Street bridge is on the right.

Scenes around Leicester Central station before demolition started.

Panoramic photograph of the north viaduct from Slater Street, looking west.

The Great Central Railway goods offices at the Western Boulevard goods depot. After closure for railway use the goods depot was taken over by British Road Services (which became roadline) as a distribution depot. The offices were later demolished when this whole area was redeveloped as a business park.

The south goods yard from Upperton Road bridge, showing the coal sidings which were soon to become the major part of Vic Berry’s scrap yard, 1973. The goods warehouse is to the left of centre, with the track bed of the main line passing it on the left. By this date access to these sidings was via the new chord line from the ex-Midland Railway Leicester-Burton line, see below. More photographs of activity here are in the Old Photographs; Trains section.

The remains of the carriage sidings and the gas works building, originally used for generating gas for lighting the coaches, looking north, 1979. The main line and goods warehouse are off the picture on the right. The Old River Soar runs behind the building.

The goods shed, 1979, seen while standing on the track bed of the main line, looking north, with Braunstone Gate bridge just visible in the distance.

Leicester Great Central Railway engine shed photographed from the roof of Leicester power station (itself now long demolished) April 1967.
The shed had been closed for a few years and through trains to London had ceased the year before. Local freight traffic was being handled from Nottingham, as evidenced by the two wagons in the timber yard alongside the shed.
The GC main line runs from right to left in the background, while the Midland Railway’s Leicester to Burton line runs diagonally from left top to centre top. The embankment for the chord line can be seen curving down from the Midland to the GC.
At bottom left is the Grand Union canal. A gap in the fence from the tow path allowed the spotter access to the shed, while no one was looking!