Crown Street Station was located on Crown Street, Liverpool, England. The station opened on 15 September 1830 as the Liverpool passenger terminus of the Liverpool and Manchester Railway, the world's first public passenger line. This gave it the distinction, along with Manchester's corresponding Liverpool Road station that opened on the same day, of being the world's first two dedicated intercity passenger railway stations.
The architecture is attributed to George Stephenson. The station was accessed by a 291 yard long single track tunnel from the deep Edge Hill Cutting to the east, sometime known as the Cavendish Cutting. Together with the adjacent 1.26 mile Wapping Tunnel, these were the first tunnels to be bored under a metropolis. Stationary steam engines, located in the cutting, operated a continuous rope system to haul wagons up inclines from Edge Hill station and up the 1.26 miles long Wapping Tunnel from Park Lane Goods Depot, earlier known as Wapping railway goods station, at Liverpool's south end docks. The Wapping Tunnel runs under the Crown Street station site.
Crown Street station was too far from Liverpool city centre. Its use as a passenger station ended after only six years of use in 1836 when Lime Street Station was opened. The site of the Crown Street station was converted to a goods yard. An additional twin track tunnel was built from the Edge Hill cutting in 1846 to improve throughput to the goods yard. The goods yard closed permanently when services through the two tunnels ended in 1972. The Wapping Tunnel along with the original Crown Street tunnel also ceased to be used in 1972.
The area has been landscaped as a park with the original 1830 single track tunnel's western portal covered over. The 1846 Crown Street tunnel is now used as a headshunt for trains. Student accommodation for the nearby University of Liverpool has been built on a part of the old goods yard site. The site of the station itself is landscaped.[1] The Wapping Tunnel's ventilation tower and plaque mark commemorates the station's place in history.
| Preceding station | Disused railways | Following station | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Edge Hill | Liverpool and Manchester Railway | Park Lane goods | ||