Manchester Central railway station is a disused railway station in Manchester City Centre, England. One of Manchester's main railway terminals between 1880 and 1969, it now houses an exhibition and conference centre named Manchester Central.

History

The station was built between 1875–80 by the Cheshire Lines Committee (CLC), being officially opened on 1 July 1880. The engineers were Richard Johnson, Andrew Johnston and Charles Sacré for the three companies which formed the CLC.

Whilst the main station was being built, a temporary facility (called Manchester Free Trade Hall station, after a landmark building nearby) was opened on 9 September 1877. This consisted of two wooden platforms serving four tracks. When Central opened, the temporary station was converted to become Manchester Central Goods.

Construction details

The train shed is covered by a huge wrought-iron single-span arched roof, spanning , long and high at the highest point, constructed by Andrew Handyside and Co.. The substructure and masonry partition was provided by Robert Neill and Sons of Manchester. The roof was originally covered in a mixture of slate and glass. Underneath the train shed there is a large brick undercroft with intersecting tunnel vaults. This was used for storage and was connected to the adjacent goods sidings by a carriage lift.

A wooden building was erected at the front of the station, housing ticket offices, waiting rooms etc. This was planned to be a temporary structure, to be replaced by a grander edifice, for example a hotel and railway offices like at London St. Pancras, but the provisional construction remained in use until the station closure. The Midland Hotel was built by the Midland Railway in 1898-1903 on an adjacent site.

Railway usage

The Midland Railway, one of the CLC's partners, at last had a secure Manchester terminus for its services, including its expresses to St. Pancras. Beginning in 1938, it ran two prestige expresses, The Palatine and the Peaks, the former stopping at at Chinley, Millers Dale, Matlock, Derby and Leicester.

Between 1960 and 15 April 1966, during the electrification of the West Coast Main Line, Central station was the terminus for the Midland Pullman, a streamlined blue six-coach diesel multiple unit. This stopped only at Cheadle Heath (now closed), before running fast to St Pancras.

Services through Millers Dale finished in 1968 when the line was closed. The station continued to provide local services for a while, but finally closed to passengers on 5 May 1969, when remaining services were switched to Manchester Piccadilly station.

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Post-railway era

In 1982 work commenced on converting the abandoned building into an exhibition centre, which opened in 1986. The undercroft was converted into a car park, serving also Bridgewater Hall nearby.

The former railway viaduct leading to Central is now used by Metrolink trams.

Gallery

See also

• The Great Northern Warehouse A former railway building nearby, now a leisure/shopping complex
• Grade II* listed buildings in Greater Manchester

References

• A Guide to Civil Engineering in Manchester
• The Lincolnshire & East Yorkshire Transport Review.

Manchester Central (Formerly known as the GMEX centre and Manchester International Conference Centre (MICC)) is an exhibition and conference centre housed in a former railway station in Manchester in England. The building was granted Grade I listed building status in 1963, but has since been downgraded to Grade II* status.

History

Manchester Central railway station

The complex started life as Manchester Central railway station, one of the city's main railway terminals. It was built between 1875–80 and closed to passengers on 5 May 1969.

The G-Mex Centre

In 1982 construction work undertaken by Alfred McAlpine commenced to convert the former railway station into an exhibition centre, and the G-Mex opened in 1986. G-Mex stood for the "Greater Manchester Exhibition Centre".

In 2001 the Manchester International Convention Centre (MICC) was added to the complex, with an 804 seat auditorium plus breakout rooms and Great Northern Hall. During 2005 the company running the G-MEX and MICC was bought by Manchester City Council. In January 2007 the venue regained its old name of Manchester Central. Plans are currently being drawn up to extend the frontage down to the road boundary on Windmill Street.

Notable events

The G-MEX Centre used to host high profile rock concerts, e.g. Factory Records Festival Of The Tenth Summer in July 1986 celebrating the 10th anniversary of Punk (appearances of The Smiths and New Order) and Manchester's own James in a 1990 performance. In June 1992 Irish band U2 played the final indoor show of their elaborate Zoo TV Tour at the G-MEX Centre. The concert also doubled as an event to close down the Sellafield Nuclear Plant. G-MEX had a seating capacity for 9,500 people for end stage concerts. However it was expandable up to 17,500 for standing events. The G-MEX centre stopped hosting concerts in 1997 (the last one being performed by Oasis in December 1997), due to the popularity and size of the nearby MEN Arena which is Europe's biggest indoor concert venue. After a 9 year break, the venue was once again used as a concert venue in December 2006 with 2 shows by Snow Patrol, followed by 2 homecoming shows by Morrissey. Bloc Party and Hard Fi also held gigs there in December 2007

The G-Mex was also the venue for gymnastics, weightlifting, judo and wrestling during the 2002 Commonwealth Games. In September 2006 it was used by the Labour Party for their Annual Conference, moving away from the traditional seaside venue of Blackpool, Bournemouth or Brighton. In addition to the Labour Party, this venue has hosted such prestigious clients as the CBI, Ecofin, Lib Dem Party and, in April 2006, the Conservative Party.

See also

• The Great Northern Warehouse - Neighbouring leisure complex that is also a former railway building
• Manchester Conference Centre - also known as MCC

References

• Radford, B. (1988) Midland through the Peak, Paddock Wood : Unicorn, ISBN 1-85241-001-9

External links

• Manchester Central
• Manchester Conferences - The official tourism venue finder of Greater Manchester.