Legacy in every detail

Home to the Students’ Union, the Engine Shed is a Grade-II listed former railway building that was restored by the University for the Waterside project.

The Victorian Engine Shed was built in the early 1870s for the Midland Railway to service trains on the Bedford to Northampton line. The shed is of historic and aesthetic significance and is a rare and unusual example of Victorian railway architecture due to its small scale and polychrome brickwork.

After the national re-organisation of the railways into four larger companies, Northampton becomes part of the London, Midland, and Scottish Railway (LMS). To save costs, they close the Engine Shed and it becomes a wagon workshop. During the Second World War, the railways help keep the nation fighting by moving soldiers, equipment, and food around the country.

The Engine Shed is converted into a Civil Engineers Welding School by British Rail Engineering Ltd until its closure in 1998. On the 17th July 2000, three men inspired by the film ‘Towering Inferno’ decide to commit arson and the building is destroyed. Later, Railtrack sells the gutted Engine Shed to Avon Cosmetics who decided to close the factory in 2003 and the site was left vacant.

The University of Northampton agrees to restore the Engine Shed to use as the Students’ Union and a £1.3 million Enterprise Grant from the Heritage Lottery Fund, is given to help complete the work and transform it into the inviting student space you see today.