Lawley Street Railway Viaduct

A viaduct of 1838, designed by Joseph Locke, to take the Grand Junction railway line into the Curzon Street Terminus Station. On top of this a later viaduct of 1893 was built to carry trains through to New Street Station. A further viaduct was also built to the north-west of the original viaduct abutting, and largely masking, its north-west face, which is not included as part of this item.

MATERIALS: red brick with sandstone dressings to the earlier arches and red and blue engineering brick to the later C19 structure.

PLAN: the 1838 viaduct consists of 28 arches (each numbered, starting at the south-western end), with curved wing walls to either end. At the south-western end, the later-C19 viaduct is higher and the arches of the upper viaduct keep pace with the rhythm of the earlier, lower structure. As the height of these later arches diminishes, further to the north-east, from arch No. 6 onwards, there are four smaller upper arches to each lower arch, and from arch 13 onwards the walling of the upper viaduct is straight and without arches.

The piers along both sides are faced with stone to their ends but of brick to their inner flanks. These outward faces, running along Viaduct Street, each have massive blocks of stone with chamfered horizontal joints. To their tops are projecting rectangular impost blocks that carry the segmental arches of the viaduct, which have stone voussoirs with stepped upper edges and chamfers. Each keystone connects to a simple stone entablature that runs for the length of the viaduct. Above this is the later-C19 viaduct of blue engineering brick. Each arch of the 1838 viaduct is numbered with an oval metal plaque which is either placed on or close to the keystone. The majority of the archways have been enclosed by later-C19 or C20 brick walls. The exceptions are arches No. 1 to No. 6, of which Nos. 2 and 5 accommodate the traffic of Middleway. Archway No. 15 crosses St James’ Place and arch No. 27 crosses Northumberland Street. The exposed inner flanks of these arches all show stone quoins to either end with Flemish bond walling between and a continuous deep band at the level of the springing of the arch. The later viaduct running along the north-west side of the 1838 viaduct has higher, flat-topped arches, and the lower part of the earlier structure can be clearly seen on this side, including the stone voussoirs, although the entablature has been removed.

Pursuant to s1 (5) of the Planning (Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas) Act 1990 (‘the Act’) it is declared that the later-C19 viaduct, which abuts the north flank of the viaduct dating from 1837-8 by Joseph Locke, is not of special architectural or historic interest.