Edge Hill – the First Ever Passenger Station

Edge Hill has had two stations in its history. The earlier of these was the first passenger station in the world, along with Liverpool Street in Manchester.

The first station opened in 1830, in a sandstone cutting with three tunnels at one end. The passenger terminal at Crown Street lay at the end of one of these tunnels, but was rarely used. At the other end of the station was a stationary steam engine. This powered the system which brought trains up the hill from Wapping Dock station.

The new Edge Hill station

The later station opened in 1836, further north-east than the original. This was to allow the extension of the line to Lime Street Station. The terminus at Crown Street was too far from the city centre to be useful. The original Edge Hill Station was too far south to easily adopt the line.

A tunnel ran from the new station to Lime Street, having originally been planned to go right into Haymarket.

The remains of the Station

The fascinating ruins of the Wapping cutting are the only ‘surface’ traces. A small stretch of track still sticks out into the green space between Overbury Street and Smithdown Lane. Below ground the new tunnel still takes passengers from the new Edge Hill Station to Lime Street. The tunnel and cutting now blaze an impressive streak across the inner city.

Recommended reading

There is a large and comprehensive website dedicated to Edge Hill Station: http://www.edgehillstation.co.uk/. It has all kinds of historical articles but its content goes right up to date, including memories from those who worked on the railway.

A book I’ve very much enjoyed is one of the classic Shire histories – Stephenson’s Rocket and the Rainhill Trials by Richard Gibbon (available from Hive and Amazon). Edge Hill Station was on the first passenger railway line in history, built in the wake of the Rocket’s victory at the trials.