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Oldham
Road
Goods Station
 The map above is shown with the permission of Eric Rowland of Artus Genealogy Resources The Oldham Road
Goods Station occupied a site north of Oldham Road
and east of Lees Street for 132 years. The
aerial photograph below shows the complex of
warehouses that occupied the site, outlined by a red
line.
 It began life as a
passenger station in 1839 but closed to passengers 5
years later and was transformed into a goods
terminous. The map below, from 1844, shows the
extent of the station in its early years. The
line came into the station by way of a viaduct that
stood 30 feet above the surrounding streets.
It is said that, "a flight
of
spacious
stairs
was
used
by
passengers
to
reach
the very commodious station building."
 It soon became
apparent that the station was too far from the
centre of the city, so a new station, called
Victoria Station, was built on Hunts Bank and the
line was extended to it.
 The transfer of
passenger traffic to Victoria resulted in the
conversion of Oldham Road to the trans-shipment and
storage of goods. An elaborate system of lifts
and turntables facilitated the unloading and loading
of goods. A number of warehouses were built on
the site dedicated to the storage of a variety of
products including fruit, fish, cloth, grain and
potatoes.
Below are two views of
the activity inside the station on April 23,
1924. The images are shown with the permission
of the Science & Society Picture
Library website. Both images are
copyright the National Railway Museum.
Eventually the
location of the station became a problem. The
cost and inconvenience of trans-shipping goods
destined for Smithfield Market challenged its
viability. The station closed in 1968.  If you visit the
site today there are few signs that the station was
ever there. You can see fragments of the wall
that enclosed the site, including the section along
Rochdale Road, shown below.
  The rough ground, on the left of the photograph below, marks the viaducts' former route along New Allen Street as it approached the station.  This segment of the viaduct remains.  Much of the
station site is now occupied by a large postal
sorting office (seen below) and the Wing Yip
Chinese Superstore.
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