Early history The site of the station was formerly occupied by Oppenheim's Glassworks. This was demolished, but many parts of the building and machinery are believed to be buried underneath the station and car park, and during recent development work alongside the station the area was designated as a
site of archaeological importance by
Birmingham City Council. The station was opened in 1852 on the
Great Western Railway (GWR) main line from to and . Originally called Birmingham Station, its name was changed to Great Charles Street station, and then Livery Street Station. It was finally renamed Snow Hill in 1858, and the Great Western Hotel was added in 1863. It was not originally intended to be the main station, but the railway was prevented from reaching its preferred terminus at
Curzon Street; London and North Western Railway's engineer
Robert Stephenson and solicitor
Samuel Carter argued in Parliament that there would be safety risks in rival companies sharing the congested connection into their station. The original station at Snow Hill was a simple temporary wooden structure, consisting of a large wooden shed covering the platforms. In 1871 it was rebuilt, and replaced with a permanent structure. The 1871 station had two through platforms, and bay platforms at the Wolverhampton end, covered by an arched roof. Access to the station was from the side, in Livery Street. Trains from the south arrived through
Snow Hill Tunnel, built by the cut-and-cover method, and in a cutting from Temple Row to Snow Hill. The cutting was roofed over in 1872 and the
Great Western Arcade built on top. • , , and via Stratford-upon-Avon – These services were diverted via New Street and in 1962. British Railways closed the line between Stratford and Cheltenham in 1976. However the electrification of the rival
West Coast Main Line into New Street, meant that
British Railways decided to concentrate all services into Birmingham into one station, and Snow Hill was seen as being an unnecessary duplication. In 1966 the decision was taken to end main line services through Snow Hill once electrification of the WCML was complete, and divert most of its remaining services through New Street. Long-distance services through Snow Hill ceased in March 1967. Snow Hill tunnel closed to all traffic the following year, with the last train running on 2 March 1968. Local trains from Leamington Spa and Stratford upon Avon were then terminated at Moor Street. It enjoyed a brief moment of fame in 1976 when it was the setting for a fight scene in the locally set BBC TV drama series
Gangsters. However, despite a public outcry, the Snow Hill building was not preserved. The Colmore Row façade was demolished in 1969, and the rest of the station largely demolished in 1977, when the dangerous state of the building was revealed. The ironwork of the station roof was badly corroded in several places, and the unstable ground and foundations on which the station had been built were causing it to slide downhill. A few items, including the original gates and booking hall sign, were saved and later used in the Moor Street restoration. The closure was decided by the London Midland region of British Railways, to whom the station and lines had been transferred to from the Western Region in 1963. The decision was actually against the recommendation of the
Beeching report, which highlighted the route through Snow Hill and Wolverhampton Low Level as an important one to stay open, however the London Midland region didn't want to have a line duplicate to their own from New Street to Wolverhampton High Level. The reason the station was re-opened so soon after its closure was because the
West Midlands Passenger Transport Executive (now
Transport for West Midlands) had been formed a few years earlier, but it did not have the necessary powers to prevent the station's closure. As soon as the WMPTE gained these powers, they set to work re-opening Snow Hill and managed to safeguard the trackbed to Wolverhampton Low Level for a possible future re-opening: this would become the West Midlands Metro line in 1999.
Rebirth The
West Midlands Passenger Transport Authority had adopted a policy to restore cross-city rail services through Snow Hill since the 1970s, a project which was completed in two phases. The first phase was completed on 5 October 1987, when the newly rebuilt station opened for services to the south, along with
Snow Hill tunnel. The new station is on a smaller scale than its Edwardian predecessor, with just two
island platforms, giving four platform faces. The station's architecture is functional rather than ornate. A
multi-storey car park stands over the main platform area, meaning artificial lighting is required on the platforms. Like its predecessor, the main entrance is on
Colmore Row. Some parts of the original station are still visible (notably the now-sealed entrance, with GWR crest, in Livery Street). Initially only local stopping services to and used the new station. Services at Moor Street, where these services had previously terminated, were switched from the former terminal platforms, which then closed, on to two newly built through platforms, at the southern mouth of Snow Hill tunnel, making it a through station for the first time. In May 1993
Network SouthEast reintroduced limited-stop services to London, initially on a two-hourly frequency, routed to Marylebone instead of the pre-closure destination of Paddington. The service proved popular and was increased to an hourly frequency the following year. Chiltern Railways took over the service after privatisation. The second phase of the Snow Hill reopening project was completed on 24 September 1995, when the
Birmingham to Worcester via Kidderminster Line was reopened to Snow Hill. This allowed the resumption of services to Worcester Shrub Hill via Stourbridge Junction and Kidderminster. The "Jewellery Line" project involved reopening the line between Smethwick West and Snow Hill, along with three new stations (
Jewellery Quarter,
The Hawthorns and ). In 1999, the line to Wolverhampton was reopened as a light rail (tram) line, the
Midland Metro. Work began on a new entrance on Livery Street in 2005, to serve the lower Snow Hill and
Jewellery Quarter part of the city centre, but it did not open until March 2011. It had a projected cost of £9.94 million, but due to
Centro's failure to apply for planning permission, and severe technical difficulties, the cost rose to at least £17 million. Although construction and interior finishing were largely complete by December 2010, legal disputes between London Midland, Network Rail and Centro caused delay to the opening of the entrance by over a year. However as of September 2020, little work had been conducted other than disconnecting and partial lifting of the former tram line. The fourth platform is now expected to be completed during 2026.
Station cat memorial In remembrance of a cat kept at the station before its closure, a memorial tile was installed during the works for the reopening. During later refurbishment works in 2014 care was taken to protect it. ==Services==