Disused Stations: Manchester Central Station
Date of visit:
14.2.2005
Manchester  Central Station was opened by the Cheshire Lines Committee (CLC) railway  company on 1st July 1880. The CLC was a partnership of three railway  companies that had come together in the 1860s, consisting of the Great Northern  Railway (GNR), the Manchester,  Sheffield & Lincolnshire Railway (MSLR) and the Midland Railway (MR).
The  CLC partners had all gained access to Manchester  by the end of the 1860s through a variety of agreements that involved running  over the lines of other companies. The MSLR shared a terminus station with the  London & North Western Railway (LNWR) at Manchester London Road. The MSLR allowed  the MR and the GNR to use their part of the station, but
by the 1870s this  situation was becoming a problem as London    Road was increasingly congested. Outright  hostility to the MR from the LNWR did not help matters.
With  the opening of the CLC main line from Liverpool to Manchester  in 1873, and its purpose-built terminus station at Liverpool Central on 2nd  March 1874, the need for a station in central Manchester became even more pressing. The CLC  had to run its trains from Liverpool and from its mid Cheshire line into Manchester London Road, which once again  meant that there was a reliance on the LNWR.
The  CLC obtained an Act in June 1872, which granted them powers to extend their  line from Liverpool into central Manchester  and create a terminus station of their own. On 9th July 1877 a  station that was known as Manchester Central opened on Windmill Street at the back of the city’s  Free Trade Hall. This station was destined to have only a very short life as, at the time of
its opening, work was well under way on its permanent  replacement.
The  CLC chose its resident engineer Lewis Henry Moorsom, to build the permanent  Manchester Central station, and work on the building commenced in 1875. Areas  of notorious slum dwellings, which inspired the writings of Frederick Engels,  had occupied the land on which the station was built. The city fathers were  pleased to see the area cleared, although it is doubtful that any thought have  been given to the individuals who lived there. Robert Neill & Sons, at a  cost of £124,778, undertook the construction work.
During  the construction of the station the MR had found a way of accessing it from its  main line to London St Pancras. In January 1876 the MSLR had given the MR  notice to quit Manchester London    Road station within three years. The MR took over  a project that had been proposed by the Manchester South District Railway  (MSDR) in 1873, obtained its own
Act to build the line in July 1877, and  started work on it in 1878. The line connected the CLC Liverpool - Manchester route just over  a mile to the west of Manchester Central near Cornbrook, to the CLC Glazebrook  - Woodley route via Stockport Tiviot Dale at Heaton Mersey, thus giving the MR  a route into Central Station.
When  the station opened it consisted of a magnificent arched single-span roof,  constructed by Andrew Handyside & Co. The dimensions of the arch at  Manchester Central were 210 feet wide, 550 feet long and 90 feet high at the  highest point. The frame itself weighed 2,400 tons and was covered using a  combination of slate and glass. Underneath the roof
there were six platform  faces, four of which were situated on two island platforms. The platforms were  served by nine tracks, the extra lines being used by engines to run around  their trains. The running lines and platforms were above street level, and  beneath them were huge brick-built caverns that could be used to store goods.  The lines exited the station via some very heavily engineered bridges and  viaducts that carried the line down to Cornbrook where the Liverpool, Heaton  Mersey and Chester  lines separated. 
For the public the main entrance to the station was at the Windmill Street  end. At the time of opening wooden buildings provided all of the usual  facilities including the main booking office. These facilities were meant to be  a temporary measure, as it was intended that a hotel to be constructed would  form a grand frontage to the station. A large clock face was
provided on the  inside and on the outside of the station.
When the permanent station opened, its temporary predecessor  closed to passengers and was developed as a goods station.
From the opening of Manchester Central trains ran to Liverpool via  the CLC main line, to Stockport and beyond via the South District line, and to  Northwich and Chester via the CLC’s mid Cheshire route. From  Monday 2nd August 1880 the MR began to run express services between  Manchester Central and Buxton, Derby  and London St Pancras. From October
1891 the GNR introduced express trains  between Manchester Central and London Kings Cross. They had opened a new line  that ran from Fairfield, on the MSLR main line  between Manchester and Sheffield,  to Chorlton-cum-Hardy on the South District Line, giving them access to Central  Station. At the same time a local all-stations service was introduced between  Manchester Central and Guide   Bridge.
On 1st July 1897 the MSLR changed its name to the Great  Central Railway (GCR), and a couple of years later, on 15th March  1899, they opened their London Extension Railway to London Marylebone. From  this date trains also ran between the new GCR London terminus and Manchester  Central.
In 1896 the MR purchased land at the front of Manchester Central  station on which to build a hotel. By this time, however, it was decided that  the hotel would not be built onto the front of the station as originally  envisaged; instead it was built a short distance away on the other side of Windmill Street.  The hotel was designed by the MR’s architect Charles Trubshaw assisted by  William Towle. It was a magnificent structure that was the height of luxury. It  opened on 5th September 1903 having taken four years to build. A  covered walkway was built between the station entrance and the hotel so that  passengers could be protected from wet weather. The station’s so-called  temporary wooden buildings were destined to remain in place.
By the time the hotel had opened, passengers were able to travel  between Manchester Central and Buxton, Chester Northgate, Derby,  Hull, Liverpool Central, London Kings Cross,  London Marylebone, London St Pancras, Nottingham  and Southport Lord Street.  Local services radiated out to the south Manchester  suburbs and to such towns as Warrington and Wigan. Because of the intense levels of traffic the  station had to be extended.
In 1906 extra platforms were built outside the  overall roof on the south east side of the station. The platforms were  constructed from wood and were provided with awnings to protect passengers from  the elements. Three platform faces were created in all, one of which, platform  7, was effectively a bay at the end of platform six. The new platforms were  numbered seven, eight and nine.
During the early years of the 20th century the MR made  substantial investments to speed up its services from Manchester  to London in  direct competition with the LNWR. With the construction of a new direct line  between Heaton Mersey and New Mills opening in 1902, MR express trains were  reaching London from Manchester Central in 3 hours and 40 minutes, which
which was  only 10 minutes slower than the LNWR. The MR also provided levels of comfort,  including the introduction of Pullman Coaches, not previously seen in Britain. 
In 1923 the GCR and the GNR became part of the London & North  Eastern Railway (LNER) while the MR became part of the London Midland & Scottish Railway (LMS). The CLC remained independent, but it now had only two  partners, the LMS and the LNER; the LNER had two thirds of the shares and the  LMS one third.
After 1923 competition between the former LNWR and MR routes was  no longer an issue as they both belonged to the LMS. Express services out of  Manchester Central did not suffer, though, because the LMS considered the MR  route to be important as it took the strain off the former LNWR line. During  the 1930s two of the services between London St Pancras
and Manchester Central  were named trains: the ‘Peak Express’ and the ‘Palatine’.  The Peak Express covered the journey in 3 hours and 35 minutes.
In 1935 the signalling at Manchester Central was modernised using  the latest technology. Colour light signals replaced semaphores that had served  the station since its earliest days.
During the Second World War passenger services were reduced both  in number and in speed. At the end of hostilities it took many years for  timings to reach anything like their pre-war levels.
From 1st January 1948 Manchester Central became part of  the nationalised British Railways (London Midland Region) and the CLC was no  more. In the early 1950s service patterns from Manchester Central were fairly  familiar, but competition from road was having an effect on some of the more  local services. The South District services which at this time were
running  between Manchester Central and Stockport Tiviot Dale or Cheadle Heath, and  which had once built up to a ten minute frequency, were down to twenty-three  per weekday by 1954. In 1952 the Southport    Lord Street service was cut back to Aintree, and  in July 1958 the Guide   Bridge service ended.
A regular service between Liverpool Central and Manchester Central  continued to run, and from 1958 Manchester Central found itself handling an  increase in express services to the south. This was because British Railways  had decided to electrify the former LNWR route from Manchester London Road, which was renamed  Manchester Piccadilly, to London Euston. As the electrification work would  cause delays it was decided to concentrate services at Manchester Central.
From 4th July 1960 a new train that had been developed  by British Railways, a diesel Pullman,  which became known as the ‘Blue Pullman’, began to operate between Manchester  Central and London St Pancras. The train was both modern and luxurious, completed  the journey in 3 hours and 13 minutes, and proved very popular with business  travellers. Sleeping
car services were also concentrated into Manchester  Central at this time, but they were routed over the former GCR main line to  London Marylebone. Also in 1960 new four-car Diesel Multiple Units (DMUs) were  introduced onto the Liverpool service. In 1961  DMUs also started to operate on the South District line and on services to Chester and Buxton.  However, despite the modernisation, steam-hauled services could still be seen  at Manchester Central during this period.
The years between 1960 and 1966 were very busy at Manchester  Central, but they were to prove to be a swansong. In April 1966 electrification  of the LNWR route was completed and services were concentrated onto that route.  The Blue Pullman ceased to operate in 1966, and on 1st January 1967  the South District service ended. As early as September 1966 British
British Rail, as  it had then become known, was considering how they might close Manchester  Central and divert the remaining services. A target date for closure was  eventually set for June 1968 with an estimated cost of £539,000. The costs were  associated with junction remodelling that was needed to allow Liverpool and Chester trains to run  towards Piccadilly.
From the 1st January 1968 express services were  diverted to run into Manchester Piccadilly. The last express services had run  between Central Station and Nottingham and  London St Pancras. From this date the only trains that served Manchester  Central were the Liverpool and the Chester  services along with a Sundays-only service that ran between Liverpool Lime Street and Sheffield  Midland.
The intended closure date of June 1968 was not met, and a new date  was set for 5th May 1969. The last trains ran out of the station on  Saturday 3rd May 1969. Following its closure the station was sold to  the NCP Car Parking empire in 1972. It slowly decayed, acting not only as a  symbol of the decline of Britain’s  railways but also of the country’s northern industrial towns. It
was purchased  by the Greater Manchester Council in 1978. Thankfully, as Manchester began to resurrect itself from its  decline in the early 1980s, the city officials focussed their attention on the  station. In 1983 it was given Grade II* Listed status, then work began on converting  it to an exhibition hall. On 7th March 1986 it re-opened to the  public as the GMEX exhibition hall. For over 20 years the GMEX hosted shows,  exhibitions and concerts.
In January 2007 the venue was renamed as Manchester Central , once  again taking on its historic name.