Poster, British Railways (London Midland Region), Manchester’s New Station, by Claude Buckle, 1960
As a regular visitor passing through Manchester Piccadilly train station, I’ve been interested by some of the paintings and photographs in the collection which give a few insights into its history. I’ve selected some of my favourite images to show the story of the station’s fantastic transformation over the years.
Manchester London Road station and forecourt, 1913
The station was originally built as Store Street Station by the Manchester and Birmingham Railway in 1842, before being renamed London Road Station in 1847. It was shared by the Sheffield, Ashton-under-Lyne & Manchester Railway and it has been rebuilt and added to a number of times, with two news spans added to the train shed roof in 1881 and island platforms added linking to Manchester Oxford Road in 1882 (replacing two old Manchester, South Junction and Altrincham Railway platforms which were built next to the station).
Trains waiting at Manchester London Road station, 1913
Manchester London Road station dining room, about 1956
In 1960, under nationalised control by British Railways, the London Road Station became Manchester Piccadilly and reopened in 1962. The painting below (and the poster it became, at the top of this blog post) shows the huge contrast with the old station buildings.
Painting, oil on canvas, Manchester’s New Station, Piccadilly, by Claude Buckle, 1960
In 1992, the vaults below the station, formerly a goods depot, were transformed to incorporate the MetroLink tram service. The station was once again modernised in the run up to the 2002 Commonwealth Games in the city, with dramatic results. I haven’t been able to find a photo of the current building among our collection, but here is one of the MetroLink instead.
You can now browse 1000s of photographs from our collection on the new photos section of our main website.
For more on the history of the station check out the Network Rail Archive, which has further details and plans of the buildings.
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