Description

SJ 8397 NE, 698-1/31/432

MANCHESTER,
WATSON STREET (West side),
Deansgate Goods Station and attached carriage ramp

04/05/79 (Goods Station);
23/11/79 (attached Carriage Ramp)

II*

Goods station and warehouse, and attached carriage ramp, now car park. 1885-96, and 1899, for Great Northern Railway Company. Steel-framed construction, cladding of red brick with blue brick bands, slate roof. GOODS STATION: Rectangular plan, 267 feet long and 217 feet wide. Five storeys, with 27-window east and west sides and 17-window north and south ends; segmental-headed windows with cast-iron glazing bars; frieze with lettering in white brick:"GREAT NORTHERN RAILWAY COMPANY'S GOODS WAREHOUSE" (on all four sides); and brick bracketed painted cornice with blocking course. The east facade (to Watson Street) has five wide cart entrances at ground floor with deep iron lintels, and the north end has three similar entrances. The west side and south end have similar entrances at 1st-floor level: two where the carriage ramp enters at the north end of the west side, and three offset to the left in the south end where the former railway viaduct enters. In addition, the west side has four bays of tiered segmental-headed loading doorways with cast-iron surrounds, separated by two pairs of windows. The interior is of brick jack arch, fire-proof construction. To the west side at its north end, CARRIAGE RAMP to the upper floor of the goods station completed 1899. Brick, iron and steel, and paved with granite setts. 3-sided ramp extends west, then north, then east. The lower portion is carried on four semicircular vaults of blue engineering brick. The western portion and short return to the building has an iron deck supported on the open side by four steel stanchions with a blue brick parapet. Forms groups with nos. 235-92 Deansgate (q.v.).

For the original construction and full details of its working see "The Railway Engineer" for January 1899 and "The Engineer" for September 2nd, 1898. A unique survival of a 3-way railway goods exchange station, serving the railway, canal and road networks of the Manchester region, incorporating a complex system of hydraulic haulage between the subterranean canal access to the building, the street level access, and the other storage levels. Built to be fully fireproof, it was considered in its day to be one of the most advanced railway goods exchanges in the country.

Listing NGR: SJ8356597867

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Great Northern Warehouse at Wikipedia
• Great Northern Warehouse official website
• Wikidata Q5599692

External links are from the relevant listing authority and, where applicable, Wikidata. Wikidata IDs may be related buildings as well as this specific building. If you want to add or update a link, you will need to do so by editing the Wikidata entry.

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