Crown Street Hall

A plain two-storey building, classical in concept with Venetian windows giving on to a single platform covered by a long flat canopy on columns set close to the edge from which sprang wooden queen-post trusses carrying an overall roof to screen wall opposite. This was the first expression as a trainshed, as distinct from a dual-purpose goods shed. The station had all the features now associated with a railway passenger station, ticket office, waiting accommodation, a defined area for boarding the trains, despite there being no precedent to work from. A ladies waiting room with female attendant was provided in March 1831. The station had three lines of rails, the centre one having the tunnel…

The station was accessed by a 291 yd long 15 ft wide and 12 ft high single track tunnel which rises from the deep Edge Hill Cutting to the east. Together with the adjacent 1.26 mi Wapping Tunnel, these were the first tunnels to be bored under a metropolis. The Wapping Tunnel runs under the Crown Street station site. The tunnels were gas-lit from opening. At the Edge Hill end of the tunnels there were three portals, the third (left-hand one looking from Edge Hill) was a dummy added for the sake of symmetry and only penetrated 80 ft. To get to the station trains would arrive at , have their locomotive removed and be attached to a rope which would be wound by stationary steam engines, located…