The Architecture the Railways Built

Railway historian Tim Dunn is in Sheffield, at the city’s glori-ous Midland railway station, built in 1870 but under-appreciated down the years according to one expert.

His theory is that there was civic embarrassment at the sur-rounding insalubrious area, which included slums and found-ries.

But the station has been dramatically and extensively re-vamped to include a new pedestrianised area outside and a massive shiny artistic installation.

Dunn is guided through tunnels beneath the station and dis-covers evidence of Sheffield’s past, and some recent visitors, crayfish.

He also pays a return trip to the extraordinary Bennerley Via-duct in the Erewash Valley, which is being lovingly restored by an army of volunteers.