Central Station, (now GMEX) Windmill Street Manchester

Built by the Cheshire Lines Committee, a consortium of the Midland, Manchester and Lincolnshire railway, and Great Northern at a cost of £58,032 13s 1d. Permission for the building of Central Station was given in 1874. A temporary station opened in Windmill Street behind the Free Trade Hall in 1877 and the new station finally opened on 1 July 1880. The single span glass roof of 210 feet, rising to 90 feet above ground level was exceeded only by that of St Pancras in London (240 feet). The original design for the station was never completed. The booking hall, station master’s office and waiting rooms were built of timber as temporary accommodation. They remained in use for the life of the station. Central was the largest station in the Cheshire Lines system and became one of the busiest in the North of England. By 1940 it handled an average of 400 trains a day and even in 1967 it was handling 12,000 passengers. The decision to close Central Station was announced in 1965, the Minister of Transport giving consent in 1967. After many arguments and protests the station finally closed on 5 May 1969.

The First Contract for the erection of the new Manchester Central Station of the Cheshire Lines Committee has been let to Messrs. Robert Neill and Sons. The site of the new station is bounded by Windmill Street, Lower Mosley Street, Watson Street, and Great Bridgewater Street, and comprises an area of about ten acres, or more than double that of the new Town Hall and Albert Square together. [The Architect 6 November 1875 page 264]