Iron Colonnade, New Bailey Street, for Manchester and Salford Junction Railway

By the arrangement ultimately made between the several railway companies interested in the proposed line on the north side of Manchester, to connect the Liverpool to Manchester Railway, and Manchester and Bolton Line, with the Manchester and Leeds Railway, at the joint station at Hunt’s Bank, it was agreed that the Leeds Railway company should continue their line to Hunt’s Bank and erect a joint station there; and that the Liverpool Railway Company should continue the work from the point where the junction line crosses the Irwell, from Strangeways to Salford, and thence to the point where the junction line enters the Liverpool Railway, with the exception of a viaduct carried along Booth Street, at the back of the New Bailey prison, adjoining and parallel to the Manchester and Bolton Railway, at its Manchester terminus and station, the erection of which was undertaken by the Manchester and Bolton Railway Company for the Liverpool and Manchester Railway. For various reasons, it was deemed desirable to carry the viaduct on an iron colonnade, in preference to the more usual mode of arches of brick or stone. The design, both as to construction and architectural form was entrusted to Me John Hawkshaw, the able engineer of the Manchester and Bolton Railway; and the massive solidarity of the structure, which is now fast approaching completion, combined with its architectural fitness and elegance, reflect the highest credit upon the talent and taste of that gentleman.

The colonnade is 733 feet in length and 24 feet wide, and is supported on 52 cast iron columns, each weighing about four tons. These carry 46 main girders, averaging six and a half tons each; and upon the latter rest the ends of the longitudinal girders, of which there are 86, varying from 3.25 to 5.5 tons in weight. The columns stand in pairs at intervals of 28 feet; and the height of the main girders from the street below is 18 feet. The columns are of elegant proportions, and by no means so squab and thick of the ancient Egyptian temples. Each column rises from a strong base, about a foot high, and has a button, or mushroom formed head; from which springs the favourite reeded or fluted capital of the Egyptian architecture. In the upper work (consisting of the girders and parapet), which forms a noble freeze or entablature above the columns, is placed over each pillar a panel containing two figures of a species of winged serpent, one of the favourite embellishments of Egyptian architecture; and by this sparing but judicious use of ornament, the general effect is heightened of the chasteness of the design and the massiveness of the structure. The whole will be fenced off on the side next to the New Bailey prison by a cast iron screen, eleven feet in height; the top of which will be seven feet above the rails when they are laid. The necessity for this high screen (to shut out the prison) requires great massiveness in the whole structure; and the style which has been adopted, as most in accordance with this requirement, is a modification of the Egyptian; which was also the most requisite in consequence of the columns standing along the centre of the street, - a position which would not be adapted to the plainest of the Grecian orders. The columns stand upon stone basements, which project about one foot above the pavement, and give firmness and solidity of appearance to the structure.

Messrs Richard Ormerod and Son furnished the iron work, and the castings are such to do them much credit. There will be about 1,020 tons of iron work in the whole. The spaces between the longitudinal girders will be filled in with brick arches, and on the ballast over these the rails will be laid. The whole is rapidly progressing towards completion, and will probably be finished in about two months. The colonnade is intended to extend from the west side of Irwell Street to the east side of New Bailey Street, so that it will cross both streets. The whole, when finished, will be painted stone colour. [Manchester Guardian 25 March 1843 page 6]

Railway viaduct. 1844. By Sir John Hawkshaw, engineer, for the Liverpool and Manchester Railway. Cast-iron columns support   I-section girders and cast-iron parapet. Massive cast-iron columns have Egyptian lotus flower capitals. The parapet,   plain for most of the length of the colonnade, is enriched in    the section forming bridge over New Bailey Street: divided by fluted pilasters with acanthus capitals and frieze. [ (Biddle G and Nock OS: The Railway Heritage of Britain:    London: 1983-: 101)].