Chester railway station serves the city of Chester, in Cheshire, England; it is sited in the Newtown area. It was designed by the architect Francis Thompson and opened as a joint station in 1848. From 1875 to 1969, the station was known as Chester General to distinguish it from . The station is recorded in the National Heritage List for England as a Grade II* listed building.
History Names Prior to 1848, there were two stations opposite each other across Brook Street; both were known as Chester to their respective users. They were superseded by a larger joint station that was also called Chester, although sometimes known as Chester Joint or Chester General. The name of Chester General gradually came more into use from around 1870, to distinguish it from , prior to it opening in 1875; it then reverted to Chester when Northgate closed in 1969.
Early stations The first station at Chester was opened on the north-west side of Brook Street by the Chester and Birkenhead Railway (C&BR), when it opened its line from on 23 September 1840.
One week later, on 1 October 1840, the Grand Junction Railway (GJR) opened a separate station, on the south-eastern side of Brook Street, opposite the station, when it opened its branch from . This line and station had been planned and mostly constructed by the Chester and Crewe Railway (C&CR), but it ran out of capital before completing the line and were taken over by the on 1 July 1840.
Relations between the and the had been cordial and collaborative with joint projects being undertaken. The had arranged to rent offices and other buildings from the ; however, the had been hostile to the from the beginning, seeing them as competitors for traffic to Liverpool, and their takeover of the caused the joint plans to fall through.
This resulted in the initially having no passenger accommodation at their station. In October 1840, their engineer reported that there "was a temporary wooden hut for a booking office but no passenger shed". Six months later "he confessed that a wooden hut had been used for five months, but latterly some houses in Brook Street had been converted into an office and waiting room, a large shed and a landing stage (platform) had been provided for the convenience of passengers."
The and the lines were connected by a through line that avoided both stations. The two stations were connected across Brook Street, but the connecting line was gated and there were no through services, not even for the Royal Mail, whose bags were carried over the road.
To the south-east of Chester, there were two railways that had been authorised in the same parliamentary session in 1844 that planned to use Chester as their terminus. One was the Chester and Holyhead Railway (C&HR), which started constructing a line along the North Wales coast on 1 March 1845. The other was the Shrewsbury and Chester Railway (S&CR) constructing a line to and . This line was planned to connect to the at Saltney Junction and use the line for the final into the station in Chester.
Negotiations between these two railway companies started in November 1844, as the wanted to make sure that the section of line from Saltney Junction into Chester would be open when they were ready to use it. Negotiations continued until May 1846, when it was estimated that the section might be ready by October 1846. A minimum monthly toll of £2,000 (equivalent to £ in ) was agreed until the was finished.
The took possession of the section and started running trains into Chester on 4 November 1846. The retook possession of the Chester to Saltney section when it opened its own line as far as on 1 May 1848. The was operated by the London and North Western Railway (LNWR).
The Birkenhead, Lancashire and Cheshire Junction Railway (BL&CJR) was incorporated by the Birkenhead, Lancashire and Cheshire Junction Railway Act 1846 (9 & 10 Vict. c. xci) on 26 June 1846 and authorised to construct a line from Chester to Walton junction near Warrington where it connected to the . The same act of Parliament authorised the and the to amalgamate, retaining the Birkenhead, Lancashire and Cheshire Junction Railway name.
In the meantime, the amalgamated with several others to become the on 16 July 1846.
Joint station 1848 to 1890 By 1845, there were four railway companies having or planning their lines terminate at Chester and it became "apparent that the separate but adjoining stations would have to be replaced by something better"; a joint station was proposed. A site was selected south of the existing stations and east of Brook Street; it was an area of simple fields and kitchen gardens with a little brooklet, spanned by a rustic bridge, with the odd-sounding name of Flookersbrook.
In December 1846, the four project partners (the , the , the and a joint partnership between the and the ) agreed to share the cost of the land and buildings and a joint committee of one director from each company was set up. Additionally, on 9 July 1847 the Mold Railway was granted parliamentary authority to construct its line which joined the at Saltney Ferry junction and it intended to use Chester as its terminus.
The station was authorised by two acts of Parliament: the (10 & 11 Vict. c. ccliv) and the (10 & 11 Vict. c. cxlvii); both acts put in place the joint responsibility for building and altering access lines from the old stations to the new. Robert Stephenson was appointed as the engineer for the project. The station was designed by the architect Francis Thompson, assisted by C. H. Wild and was constructed by Thomas Brassey. The foundation stone was laid in August 1847. The station was opened on 1 August 1848, having cost £55,000 (equivalent to £ in ).
It was designed with one very long platform, chiefly for departing trains, with two long bay platforms at each end and three shorter ones for terminating trains. The whole area was covered by a train shed, supported by cast iron columns designed by C. H. Wild. On the other side of the through tracks was "a large carriage shed with an iron and glass roof and beyond that a goods shed." A useful sketch of the station layout is in Biddle (1986) and Maund (2000).
The long single platform was used for trains running in opposite directions; it had a scissor (or crossover junctions) installed in the middle to enable two trains to occupy it and leave in either direction. This made the station very long and Thompson designed "a highly ornamental Venetian-style façade long in dark red brick with generously applied stone dressings and sculptured decoration" by John Thomas.
There was a central fifteen-bay two-storey entrance and office building, containing 50 rooms and offices. It was flanked by five bay projecting taller ornate, turreted, balconied sections; the whole was extended in both directions by arcaded screen walls terminating in lower towers. Windows in the central range are adorned with pediment carvings, described by Jenkins (2017) as "Hindu in character". Pedestrian access was protected by an entrance canopy with decorative ironwork.
The interior of the station had the principal passenger accommodation done in wood and plasterwork. The refreshment rooms were better decorated than the waiting rooms, having more elaborate plasterwork, decorated woodwork and a fine coffered ceiling. The refreshment room was run by Mr Hobday, who paid the joint station committee £500 per year for the right (equivalent to £ in ).
The goods station, a substantial red and blue brick building, consisted of a shed long and wide; it has four railway and two cart entrances, at either end, and one railway entrance in front. It is covered by two large roofs, supported down the centre of the building by cast-iron columns and girders, and lighted by two skylights. To the west of the station, there was a triangular junction which allowed some trains to by-pass the station and was used to turn locomotives.
Brook Street needed to be moved to accommodate the station; at the same time, it was converted into a bridge over the station approach tracks. The bridge is of brick and stone, consisting of six girder and fifteen brick arches; the latter of which were converted into stabling.
There was long standing rivalry between the and the over access to the area, in particular to Birkenhead and Liverpool. This came to a head at Chester in 1849. The was the most powerful of the joint committee partners and it had considerable influence over the whose trains it operated, and some influence over the who had so far not objected to the actions. The ranged itself against the and its new partner the Shrewsbury and Birmingham Railway (S&BR) which opened a line from to a temporary station at Wolverhampton on 12 November 1849. These two companies were a possible threat to the by letting the into the area.
After one quarrel over the routeing of passengers, the refused to allow passengers to be booked to Wolverhampton or beyond via , which was a sensible way to go but competed with the route via ; the had the booking clerk forcibly ejected from his office. Connections with trains were deliberately timed to create inconvenience, and when the ran horse buses for the convenience of its passengers they found them barred from the station forecourt.
The Mold Railway opened on 14 August 1849; it ran two services daily into Chester and was operated by the . The main line was connected throughout on 18 March 1850 and trains, operated by the , started running through to .
On 18 December 1850, the opened a line from Chester to Walton Junction, near Warrington, where it connected to the railway running from Crewe to , now part of the West Coast Main Line.
In January 1851, the and the entered into a mutual running agreement with the and they became part of the on 7 August 1854.
In 1858, the agreed to amalgamation with the ; this took effect on 1 January 1859 and included the Mold Railway.
In 1859, the changed its name to the Birkenhead Railway (BR). In 1860 it came to an arrangement with the and the jointly for them to work their railway. A joint committee was formed to do so, this was formalised by parliament in 1861.
The committee decided to improve road access to the station, believing the approach by way of Brook Street was inadequate. The station needed a more direct access from Foregate Street. Unfortunately, the committee had no power to purchase properties for the purposes of road construction or improvement, but it did have some land in front of the station which it could utilise. Negotiations started in 1857 and, in 1860, the Queen Hotel opened opposite the station and connected to it via a covered passage. By 1866, the buildings which obstructed a better road access had been purchased and demolished and City Road, a wide, almost straight approach road was opened; unfortunately, the Queen Hotel blocked the view of the station clock, manufactured by J. B. Joyce & Co, from the new City Road above the station entrance and the clock was moved to an off-centre location closer to the left towered section.
A report in 1861 shows the station having a throughput of two million passengers, using an average of 115 trains daily. This level of traffic was catered for by 58 departing and 57 arriving trains. 44 of the arriving trains were divided and reformed into new trains; this work was done by two horses kept for the purpose. The station had one stationmaster, one inspector, ten clerks, six ticket collectors and examiners, 32 porters (including four foremen), and assorted greasers, police, watchmen, carriage examiners, shunters, waiting room attendants, cleaners and lamp men; a total of 82. There were ten more in the parcels office and 138 in the goods department, who dealt with an average of 130 daily goods trains.