Site of Birkenhead Woodside Station

Image: © Tiger Taken: 7 Apr 2010

Looking towards the site of the buffer stops nearly 49 years after Ben Brooksbank's photo from the same viewpoint Image See also Alan Murray-Rust's evocative nocturnal view taken on the station's last evening of operation Image Nothing remains of the Birkenhead Joint Railway's terminus except the base of the left-hand retaining wall to Chester Street. The line from Chester was a rare example of co-operation between arch-rivals the Great Western and the London & North Western companies, competing for the Wirral traffic against the Cheshire Lines Committee (an equally odd joint enterprise involving the Great Central, Great Northern and Midland railways). Opened in 1878 and demolished in 1968 (after which the remaining services from Chester and beyond terminated at Rock Ferry for connections to central Birkenhead and Liverpool, until the Merseyrail electrification was extended first to Hooton in 1985 and ultimately to Chester in 1993) the Woodside station was Robert Edward Johnson's architectural masterpiece and was regarded by Pevsner and Hubbard as "one of the few really good main-line termini outside London". Its surprisingly grand scale reflected its role as effectively the Great Western's Liverpool terminus, with passengers being ferried across the Mersey to arrive in some style at the Pier Head while those travelling with the less fortunate companies were plunged into the Stygian gloom of Lime Street. The platforms where the expresses from London and Birmingham drew up have been replaced by a makeshift car park and Arriva bus depot. The new building on the right, appropriately called Great Western House (the name chosen after a vote among the staff), was built in 1993 specifically to host the Child Support Agency (now the Child Maintenance Service). The tower-like structure left of centre provides ventilation for the Queensway road tunnel under the Mersey. Disused Stations http://www.disused-stations.org.uk/b/birkenhead_woodside/index.shtml Update: Alan informs me that in 2021 the car park was being used as a drive-in cinema.

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