So, on a recent jolly to York, i stayed in the hotel that was tradionally the headquarters for the LNER, nice place to stay, but it did get me thinking. As the offices are all now bedrooms and the like, they still have the original office numbers above the doors, is there a list of what departments operated from these rooms? I recall seeing a schematic of the original Hamilton House at Liverpool street many years ago, and the associated drpartments, so just wonder if anyone can shed some light.
Cheers,
Nick
York HQ.
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Re: York HQ.
Hi
I worked in the HQ building in the 70's. It was the HQ of the old North Eastern Railway, and subsequently became the HQ of the British Railways Eastern Region.
I was a telecomm technician in the automatic telephone exchange which was in the basement of the building. British Railways had it's own telephone network with STD (Subscriber Trunk Dialing), and the York exchange had around 5000 subscribers in the York area.
The exchange filled all of the rooms in the north side of the basement of the building, with the telecomm workshop in what was then room K, about halfway down on the right hand side. At the very end of the northside basement was the telegraph room with many teleprinters and also the switchboard with (if I recall correctly) 8 positions for the operators. The southside of the basement was the joiners workshop and various admin stores. The first floor southside was the Eastern Region General Managers floor, with the GM's office right at the end of the floor overlooking Tanner Row. Various offices were on the northside with the old NER boardroom at the end overlooking Station Rise and the city walls. The boardroom had paintings of the original directors of the NER hung around the walls, with a large oak table as the actual board room table quite an imposing room.
I worked in the HQ building in the 70's. It was the HQ of the old North Eastern Railway, and subsequently became the HQ of the British Railways Eastern Region.
I was a telecomm technician in the automatic telephone exchange which was in the basement of the building. British Railways had it's own telephone network with STD (Subscriber Trunk Dialing), and the York exchange had around 5000 subscribers in the York area.
The exchange filled all of the rooms in the north side of the basement of the building, with the telecomm workshop in what was then room K, about halfway down on the right hand side. At the very end of the northside basement was the telegraph room with many teleprinters and also the switchboard with (if I recall correctly) 8 positions for the operators. The southside of the basement was the joiners workshop and various admin stores. The first floor southside was the Eastern Region General Managers floor, with the GM's office right at the end of the floor overlooking Tanner Row. Various offices were on the northside with the old NER boardroom at the end overlooking Station Rise and the city walls. The boardroom had paintings of the original directors of the NER hung around the walls, with a large oak table as the actual board room table quite an imposing room.