With over 150 heritage railways across the nation, Britain boasts a centuries-old railway heritage, ranging from Victorian steam trains to modern electric fleets.
Given Britain’s deep cultural connection to trains, it’s unsurprising that the country is home to the world’s oldest surviving railway station, which is still open for visitors.
Liverpool Road Station, constructed in Manchester in September 1830, is recognised as the planet’s oldest surviving terminal railway station, according to Guinness World Records.
As a fundamental component of the pioneering Liverpool and Manchester Railway, it would go on to reshape the region’s entire transport system in regards to travel and connectivity.
The station represented the world’s first steam-powered inter-city railway, created to link Liverpool and Manchester during the Industrial Revolution.
After almost 14 years serving passengers, Liverpool Road Station closed in 1844, when the nearby Manchester Victoria station opened in the same year.
Despite this, the site remained active as a freight depot for over 130 years before its permanent closure in 1975.
Since then, the station has been preserved and now holds Grade I listed status as part of the Science and Industry Museum.
In its prime, however, it played a crucial role in shaping Britain’s early railway network.
The station itself was a substantial complex that included canal-style warehouses, a brick viaduct and one of the earliest examples of a modern girder bridge, which carried trains across Water Street in Manchester city centre.
Passengers typically arrived by horse-drawn carriage, and First and second-class travellers purchased their tickets in separate booking halls, with luggage hoisted onto the roofs of the carriages.
Those boarding the train were only permitted to do so once a bell was rung – the same bell that remains on display in the station building today, according to the Mirror.
From 1923 until 1948 the site operated as a goods yard, and after the nationalisation of Britain’s railways in 1948 it came under the control of British Railways.
Following its closure in 1975, part of the complex was purchased by Granada Studios, which used one of the warehouses as a section of the Coronation Street television set.
The remaining buildings were preserved and later incorporated into the Science and Industry Museum, where the station now holds Grade I listed status.
Although Liverpool Road is recognised as the world’s the oldest terminal railway station, Heighington Station, located between Shildon and Darlington, Co. Durham, dates from 1826, when it was part of the Stockton and Darlington Railway, making it four years older.
However, the station isn’t a terminus, and little of the original structure remains for visitors to see.