Historic photographs of Victoria train station in Norwich

The former Marsh building which is to be demolished (Image: Denise Bradley)

This was the scene on March 31 1962. Probably the last time a steam locomotive arrived in what was left of the once-proud Victoria Station.

A wonderful picture of the John Bunyan at Norwich Victoria in March 1962. We don't know who took it but it was uploaded on the Internet by Robert Gadsdon (Image: Robert Gadson Collection)

This was The Railway Correspondence and Travel Society’s (London Branch) Great Eastern Commemorative Steam Rail Tour on the John Bunyan pulling six Gresley coaches had arrived at Norwich Victoria.

The tour was organised to mark the passing of steam-haulage on the line and it arrived from Liverpool Street via Ipswich, Tivetshall, Trowse Upper Junction and Victoria.

Undated shot of Victoria Station with no platforms. Instead it had large expanses of concrete for trucks to be loaded and unloaded (Image: Newsquest Archive)

After meeting its fans and followers at Victoria, John Bunyan returned via Trowse, Norwich Thorpe, it continued on its travels across Norfolk.

Passing through Wymondham, Dereham, County School, Foulsham, Wendling, Swaffham,Watton, Roudham Heath, Thetford and Brandon before heading off to Ely.

Perhaps you remember seeing John steaming along or even have photograph?

There was a time when Norfolk and Suffolk was criss-crossed with railway stations and ticket offices.

> Working at the ticket office at Thorpe Station in 1965 (Image: Newsquest archive)Buying tickets at Thorpe Station during the 1950s. Do you remember the old ticket office? (Image: Newsquest Archive)

On February 28, 1959 the last trains ran on the Midland and Great Northern Line and Norwich City Station, and others, closed.

The end of the line at Norwich City Station. A picture taken in 1959 when the station closed. No more tickets to ride (Image: Newsquest Archive)

The days of City Station, which had opened with much pomp and circumstance in the 1850s and had been bombed during the 1942 Blitz, were finally over.

Meanwhile across the way at the old pleasure gardens, just outside the City Wall at St Stephen’s and Queen’s Road, we had Victoria Station.

Snow covers Victoria Station in this undated photograph (Image: Newsquest Archive)

More than a million bricks were made at kilns near Tharston for the new railway. In 1849 it started to carry cattle and goods and finally passengers.

Hundreds of flag-waving folk turned up for the opening and when the train arriving from Ipswich there was a slavo of guns and the bells of St Peter Mancroft were ringing.

Alongside the railway line at Victoria Station, undated (Image: Newsquest Archive)

Dear old Victoria lost it passengers in 1916 but survived into diesel days as a goods yard before the large site was re-developed. Today we have Sainsbury’s supermarket and the former Marsh office block known as…Victoria House.

A steam train standing underneath Southwell Road bridge, now the gateway to Lakenham Way and Sainsbury's car park. It covered four sections of railway not used for passenger trains on a roundabout trip starting at Victoria Station before terminating at Thorpe Station on 8 September 1956. The engine was something of a veteran, having been built in 1902, and would have another 18 months service. (Image: Newsquest Archive)Now ticket offices are facing closure…and as for controversial plans to “modernise” Liverpool Street Station which include a rooftop swimming pool. A story for another day.