The Past ......

..... is a different country.

These buildings formed the terminus of the Liverpool and Manchester Railway, the world's first inter city line. The station opened in September 1830. The Act which allowed the company to operate was only passed in 1826, and the Rainhill Trials at which Stephenson's Rocket won the prize proving that a locomotive could work according to tests set by the judges took place in 1829. By 1844 the station was redundant, as an alternative route took passenger trains to a new station at Hunts Bank - now Victoria. The speed of railway development as the century progressed is pretty astonishing.

The reason that these buildings survived is that this all became part of a large railway goods complex - until its closure in 1975. Otherwise they would no doubt have been swept away as the Manchester terminus expanded. They now form part of the Museum of Science and Industry.

The past collides with the future here. At the eastern end of Liverpool Road the Beetham Tower provides a massive exclamation mark marking modern Manchester - I think very successfully (see extra). At the western end a new tower is emerging on Wilburn Street in Salford, providing a blockier end point - I'll reserve judgement for its completion (see extra). To the west and north the St Johns Quarter in Manchester will further enclose the area. And the Ordsall Chord - which will free up the rail bottleneck at the heart of Manchester which currently constrains the rail network in much of the north of England - will provide another meeting of old and new (subject to current High Court action and outcomes). But that's another story.