[3] Victorian civil engineer Francis Whishaw described the station as: "The elevation next to the road to Nottingham is of plain but neat design.

In the left-wing is the boardroom and clerks offices; and in a building projecting towards the passenger shed in the rear is a waiting room for ladies.

The [train] shed is covered with a light iron roof in two spans, which is supported on the departure side by a brick wall, in which there are eight windows; and on the arrival side, and along the middle line, by two rows of cast iron columns, nine in each row.

As was usual in those days there were "as many turntables without the shed; the cross line intersecting which communicates with the carriage wharf or landing, which is on the arrival side".

However, by the time the Nottingham and Lincoln Railway opened in August 1846, it was clear that the station could not cope.