Manchester Exchange Station

In 1844 the then Liverpool and Manchester and Manchester and Leeds Railway Companies opened a joint station (Victoria Station) at Hunts Bank. As part of this arrangement the Liverpool and Manchester Railway (later LNWR) owned the western half of the station as far as the bridge over Ducie Street. Over the next thirty years the Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway by a series of land acquisitions to the east, expanded their operations at Victoria considerably. However, the London and North-Western Railway had no similar opportunity to expand their capacity on the Victoria Station site. A radical solution was required and in 1876 the LNWR decided to build a new station to the west, on the Salford side of the River Irwell.

Manchester Exchange Station was opened with little fanfare on 30 June 1884, at which time the 1844 bridge was widened to provide access between the two stations. This linkage formed what was the longest passenger platform in Europe, part of which was carried on the bridge and extended through the original 1844 section of Victoria Station, with a canopy over the platform and track. Further development took place in 1893, when a third bridge was constructed to the north of the 1864 bridge, taking further track between Exchange and Victoria Stations.

Its main entrance was to the south of the lines and comprised a four-storey stone building facing Cathedral Approach and flanked by smaller structures on each side. Within the main building were offices and refreshment rooms; cloak rooms, toilets. Further offices were in the other buildings. The station had five platforms, two of which were terminus platforms and three had through lines. The terminus platforms were numbered 1 and 2 with lines out to the west. They were located on the southern side of the site directly to the left of the main entrance.  Immediately east of the buffer stops, at the end of the terminus platforms, was the booking office. Platform 3 was to the north and was longer than the two terminus platforms. Platforms 4 and 5 were on a long and wide island platform. A footbridge linked it to the terminus platforms and platform 3, but it also had a cab road that tunnelled under the line at the eastern end of the station and reached the platform by a sloping roadway. At the eastern end of the island platform, adjacent to the footbridge, were a parcels office and a ladies’ waiting room. The train shed roof of three arched sections extended to almost the entire length of the platforms.

In December 1940 Manchester Exchange Station was severely damaged by enemy bombing. The station building was almost completely destroyed, and what remained had to be demolished. The station was patched up and brought back into use but no attempt was made to replace the main building. By the mid-1960s Exchange Station was a dismal and gloomy place. It was closed to all traffic on 5 May 1969, and the 1893 bridge became redundant in 1992-4 when the new Arena Stadium was built into the north side of Victoria Station, closing off the east side of the former track. The platform on the 1844 bridge also became redundant when Exchange Station closed, and the train shed roof was demolished in 1982. The canopy survived until 1994, though there are still remnants of the platform on the bridge.

THE NEW EXCHANGE STATION – The London and North Western portion of the Victoria Station extension will be opened for traffic on Monday next. The new approach, opposite the Cathedral will also be opened, and all passengers and vehicles will enter and leave the station by this road. All the trains which hitherto run to and from the London and North Western portion of Victoria Station will arrive and depart from the new station which is, for the future to bear the name of the Exchange Station. [Manchester Guardian 26 June 1884 page 5]

 THE MANCHESTER EXCHANGE STATION - The new station of the London and North-Western Railway Company at Manchester, to be called the Exchange Station, was opened for traffic yesterday. Although very far from being completed, sufficient accommodation is available to allow the trains formerly despatched from the Company's portion of the Victoria Station being sent from the new station. Trains for Liverpool, Chester, and North Wales, and for Yorkshire and the North, were despatched without confusion, and in about a week it expected that everything—so far as the completed portion the station is concerned —will be in perfect order. Of the three spacious bays of which the station is composed, two are so nearly completed as to permit of their being brought into use, the remaining one which is not yet covered in, being temporarily divided from them by a wooden hoarding. The main entrance to the station is by the newly constructed bridge across the Irwell facing the Cathedral and it is of sufficient width to allow of a very large traffic. There is, however, to be a second entrance. The booking offices are conveniently arranged in a block near the main entrance, and facing these are various departmental offices and waiting rooms.  The refreshment rooms, which are on that side facing Victoria Street, are large and well appointed, and the necessary licences having been obtained are already opened. Men are still at work upon both the arrival and departure platforms, and for a time it will be convenient for passengers to consult the notices and indicators. Until further notice parcels will be received at the Victoria Station. Communication between one platform and another is provided for by means of an iron bridge, but this is not yet completed, and in the meantime a temporary wooden structure has been thrown across the lines. Viewed from Victoria Street, the new station—the front of which is of white stone - has a handsome appearance. The general arrangements will, when everything is in working order, be very complete, though to thy ordinary observer there would seem to be room for improvement in the matter of the connection with the Lancashire and Yorkshire Company's platforms at Victoria Station. In connection with the opening of the Exchange Station a new service of trains has been organised by the London and North-Western and the North-Eastern Railway Companies between Liverpool and Manchester and Newcastle-upon-Tyne commencing today. [Manchester Guardian 1 July 1884 page 5]