Crown Street railway station was the Liverpool terminus railway station of the Liverpool and Manchester Railway in Liverpool, England, it opened on 15 September 1830. The station was one of the world's first on an inter-city passenger railway in which all services were operated by mechanical traction.
The station was only used for passengers for six years before being replaced by which was closer to Liverpool City centre.
The station was demolished as the site was converted into a coal and goods yard which remained in use until 1972. The location of the station is now a park with little trace of any railway facilities.
Passenger station
Opening
The station was opened to the public on 17 September 1830, it a ceremonial opening as part of the opening of the railway on 15 September 1830, and there had been a charter train to Manchester and back for the Society of Friends to and from their quarterly meeting on 16 September 1830.
The station was the Liverpool terminus of the world's first inter-city double-track mainline public railway on which all services were operated by mechanical traction, the Liverpool and Manchester Railway. It was also one the first buildings to be expressly designed and purpose built as a railway "station". The station was only ever known as Liverpool during its working life, Crown Street was only used in explanatory text.
Access
The station was accessed by a long wide and high single track tunnel which rises from the deep Edge Hill Cutting to the east.
Together with the adjacent Wapping Tunnel, these were the first tunnels to be bored under a metropolis. The Wapping Tunnel runs under the Crown Street station site. The tunnels were gas-lit from opening. At the Edge Hill end of the tunnels there were three portals, the third (left-hand one looking from Edge Hill) was a dummy added for the sake of symmetry and only penetrated .
To get to the station trains would arrive at , have their locomotive removed and be attached to a rope which would be wound by stationary steam engines, located in the Edge Hill cutting, and pulled up to Crown Street, here the rope would be detached, attached to a small four-wheeled carriage called a pilot and returned to Edge Hill by horse-power ready for the next train. The train at Crown Street would then be man or horse powered around the station. Departures would be manoeuvred to the tunnel entrance and descended by gravity.
Passengers from Liverpool had to get to Crown Street before boarding the carriages, first class passengers had the option of taking a horse-drawn omnibus from the company's office in Dale Street, other classes had to find their own way. The omnibuses could carry sixty-eight first class passengers and their luggage and operated on a first-come first-served basis, the journey was timed to take twenty minutes and was often late.
Description
A plain two-storey building, classical in concept with Venetian windows giving on to a single platform covered by a long flat canopy on columns set close to the edge from which sprang wooden queen-post trusses carrying an overall roof to screen wall opposite. This was the first expression as a trainshed, as distinct from a dual-purpose goods shed. The station had all the features now associated with a railway passenger station, ticket office, waiting accommodation, a defined area for boarding the trains, despite there being no precedent to work from. A ladies waiting room with female attendant was provided in March 1831.
The station had three lines of rails, the centre one having the tunnel rope, they were connected by points at the tunnel end and wooden turnplates (turntables) at the other. Alongside the passenger station, but screened from it were the goods and coal yards as well as access to Millfield Works.
John Foster, the younger, with his partner John Stewart designed the station roof, and possibly the whole station. The roof may not have been in the original station design as Dawson (2020) notes that an order was placed for such a roof in November 1830.
The company directors soon realised that Crown Street station was too far from Liverpool city centre, and the use of expensive, time consuming buses to get passengers to and from the city centre was inefficient. They got permission from Parliament to provide a new terminus station in the city centre and in 1836 opened .
Operations
The station was staffed by one clerk until a second was added in March 1835, to be closely followed in April 1835 with an assistant boy, who happened to be the original clerk's son.
After a few weeks of settling in, a new timetable was issued effective from 4 October 1830, there were six trains in each direction, first-class trains leaving from both terminals at 0700, 1000, 1300 & 1630 and second-class trains at 0800 & 1400.
Goods station and coal yard
thumb|Liverpool RJD 42
It was planned from inception that the station would have a coal yard, indeed Colonel George Legh of Newton had requested space for his coals in 1828. The coal trade was immediately successful and the facilities at Crown Street had to be expanded in 1831 and 1832 with more turntables provided. In 1832 Thomas Legh arranged for his own coal-yard to be laid out to the north of Crown Street, the railway allowed access provided it was only used as a coal-yard and they retained the right-of-way.
The station closed to passengers when opened on 15 August 1836. The buildings were demolished soon after closure, it is not known when, and the site was used to enlarge the goods yard and in particular the coal depot.