Plaque commemorating Liverpool & Manchester Railway Centenary

Plaque commemorating the centenary of the Liverpool and Manchester Railway (1830-1930); the plaque was unveiled at Liverpool Road Station by the Lord Mayors of Manchester (Robert Noton Barclay) and Liverpool (Lawrence Durning Holt) on 15 September 1930.

The 15 September 1930 was the centenary of the opening of the Liverpool Road Station and the Liverpool and Manchester Railway (LMR). Liverpool Road Station was the Manchester terminus of the LMR and is world’s oldest surviving world’s first purpose-built passenger railway station.

The centenary visit to Liverpool Road Station included the mayors of Liverpool and Manchester, along with municipal and railway officials who had traveled by railway from Liverpool. As Liverpool Road Station had not received passengers since May 1844, the party travelled along the original line but then diverted at Ordsall Junction to arrive at Victoria Station. From there, a procession of cars, adorned with bunting and Union Jacks, travelled across the city to Liverpool Road Station.

The commemorative plaque was ceremonially mounted to the station’s street level façade. The Liverpool Echo indicated that a large crowd witnessed the unveiling, whilst the Manchester Guardian presented it as a more subdued, ‘brief’ affair. Employees of the station, interviewed in 1980, recalled that it was ‘regarded as an ordinary working day’, although office staff were permitted to view the unveiling of the plaque.

At the plaque unveiling, mayor of Manchester Robert Noton Barclay declared, ‘It is only fitting in this celebration that we should take the opportunity of placing on the walls of this building – the first railway station in Manchester – a tablet which will be a reminder to all of this unique occasion.’