A suitably impressive station was required for a thriving town such as Newcastle, and Dobson provided it in his plans. His original plan of 1848 showed an ornate façade with a huge portico having double colonnades and an Italianate tower at the east end. Behind this was an enormous train shed made up of three arched glass roofs built in a curve on an radius. This design won an award at the Paris Exhibition of 1858. Unfortunately, Dobson was forced to alter his plans to produce a much less substantial portico and remove the Italianate tower. The station was completed in 1850 without the planned portico and it was not until 1863 that this was added. John Dobson argued for the role of the architect in building railway stations, and his Newcastle Central is regarded by many as the finest in England. According to Gordon Biddle and O. S. Nock in "The Railway Heritage of Britain": ‘Undoubtedly it would have been one of the finest 19th-century classical buildings in Europe had it been completed... Even so, Newcastle Central today is magnificent inside for its spectacular combination of curves and outside for its sheer size and length.’ The train shed at Newcastle, the authors state, was the first of the great arched roofs and represented a bold step forward which was copied by others.’ It was the first use of malleable rolled iron ribs – indeed the first large glass and iron vault in England, predating the Crystal Palace. In 1830 Richard Grainger proposed to the town council the erection of a corn exchange on a site at the bottom of Pilgrim Street, opposite Mosley Street. This plan was rejected but Grainger decided to go ahead and build a shopping arcade there instead. John Dobson produced the design based on an elegant London shopping arcade and it was completed by 1832. It was designed as two office blocks, one facing Pilgrim Street and the other facing Manor Chare. Connecting the two was a narrow block forming the arcade itself. The front façade had six fluted Corinthian columns. The interior of the arcade was long with an arched ceiling decorated in the Grecian style and with several domed skylights. The whole design was intended as an elegant shopping experience. The Royal Arcade was not a commercial success, as it was positioned too far away from the main shopping areas of the town centre. Although demolition was considered as early as the 1880s, the arcade survived until the 1960s. In 1824 Dobson was commissioned by Richard Grainger to produce designs for Eldon Square.