Glasgow Central Station - Times Past

In partnership with the Glasgow Times, our archivists are exploring Glasgow's fascinating history. This week, Nerys Tunnicliffe writes about Glasgow Central Station.

Today Glasgow Central Station is one of Scotland’s busiest railway stations. Built by the Caledonian Railway Company, its used by 38 million people annually according to Network Rail. Now an A listed building, with 15 high level and 2 low level platforms, it is hard to imagine that it took huge determination to get the station built at all.

Building a large passenger station in the city centre became part of a power struggle stretching back to the 1840s, between several rival railway companies. Since 1846 the Caledonian Railway Company had tried to get permission to build a station on the north bank of the river.

At that time the nearest mainline station was Bridge Street Station on the south side of the Clyde. This was Glasgow’s first custom built passenger railway terminal. Opened in 1841 with a grand Doric portico fronted booking hall, five tracks and four platforms, Bridge Street was operated by several railway companies. It’s estimated that during its first year over the Glasgow Fair Week around 21,890 passengers used the station. Over time with various mergers the station became jointly run by Caledonian Railway Company and their main rivals the Glasgow & South Western Railway Company. The city’s growth in population and industry soon meant that a larger passenger terminus was really needed to deal with increased travellers, but getting across the Clyde wasn’t easy for either railway company.

The Clyde Navigation Trust and the Admiralty opposed any railway bridges that might restrict river traffic and trade. Glasgow Corporation objected citing poor station premises in other cities, and other railway companies moved to block any plans for a new city centre station.

The Glasgow & South Western Railway Company left Bridge Street Station first, when St Enoch’s Railway Station was built in 1876, and in 1883 made St Enoch’s their headquarter.

However, finally in 1873 the Caledonian Railway Company obtained an Act of Parliament to construct a grand new station, with a bridge over the river leading from Bridge Street station. Originally, they planned to build a double-decked bridge for trains and road traffic (like that at Newcastle), but this was dropped in favour of single deck viaduct with four tracks in 1875.

10 million bricks and 14,000 tons of cast iron were used in the building of Central Station. It was built over the old site of Grahamston village, demolishing Alston Street which had been the village’s central throughfare. This later led to claims of that the street lay untouched under the station’s foundations.

Central Station opened on 1 August 1879 with 8 platforms. The low-level station was a later addition with two platforms, opening in August 1896, initially so that freight traffic from the then booming docks and shipyards could travel underground. Despite closing in 1964 the low-level was reopened successfully in 1979 after electrification.

Such was Central Station’s success, that not long after opening overcrowding became an issue. A ninth platform was constructed, and the bridge expanded in 1890 to help ease congestion. This worked until 1900 when ever increasing passenger numbers meant more expansion was essential. Between 1900 and 1905 much of the original station was rebuilt under the design of architect James Miller. Bridge Street Station was finally closed during the new station’s expansion, and in the 1950s its old booking office torn down.

The famous ‘Hielanman’s Umbrella’ (so called as it became a regular meeting place for Highlanders living in Glasgow) was erected over Argyle Street, extending the station overhead. Wooden concourse buildings were also designed during this period by chief engineer Donald Matheson, who created a curved design as he thought this eased bottlenecking. By 1905 Central Station had 13 platforms, and a new 8 track bridge. Various modernisation has since taken place since, keeping the station up to date and running, when many other stations such as St Enoch’s no longer survive.

The collections discussed in this article are held by Glasgow City Archives. Please email archives@glasgowlife.org.uk if you have any questions. 

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