The National Railway Museum has completed a £10.5m refurbishment of its historic Station Hall gallery.
After two years of closure, the Grade II-listed building has reopened in time for the York museum’s 50th birthday.
Built in the 1870s, the hall was once home to York’s main goods station and was a working part of the railway until the 1960s. It now comprises around a third of the National Railway Museum’s exhibition space, which opened in 1975.
The museum showcases more than 200 years of railway history. Items on display include station signage and the first on-train toilets, plus testimony from railway workers and passengers.
Some of the most popular exhibits include lavish royal carriages. Among them is an opulently-decorated example belonging to Queen Victoria, and King Edward VII’s, which features a bathtub.
A wreath placed on the Queen Victoria’s funeral train in 1901 is now also on display.
Also new to the exhibition is a WH Smith bookstall from 1921, a passimeter (or ticket kiosk) from Winchmore Hill station and photographs of Windrush migrants setting out on journeys from London Waterloo.
The hall will also host a brand-new dining experience, with visitors able to book afternoon tea aboard a former London and South Western Railway dining saloon carriage, built in 1907 and restored by the museum.
The building has also been fitted with a new thermally-efficient roof with solar panels to protect the collection.
The renovation of the hall was funded by the Department for Culture, Media and Sport, alongside donations from the Friends of the National Railway Museum.
Further improvements have also commenced in Central Hall, the museum’s new welcome building, gallery and café. Its renovation will be the most significant part of a wider, £100m improvement scheme.
Craig Bentley, interim director of the National Railway Museum, said of the hall’s reopening: “Station Hall is one of the National Railway Museum’s most memorable spaces, alive with authentic railway history and special memories made over the years.
“To see it restored and reopened with new stories to tell is the perfect 50th birthday gift for our visitors.”
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