Manchester Piccadilly pre-2002

[itsjamierawr]

I've tried searching both here and on google but what was Manchester Piccadilly like before the 2002 refurbishment, what was the concourse area like, the bridge over to Platforms 13/14 and does anyone have any photos of it? It was before I moved up north and I would've only been young then anyway I'm just intrigued by it's history

 

[northwichcat]

Found a couple of pictures from the 1980s via Google:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/cookephotography/5187110095/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/98587546@N00/3487043330/

And one from 2000:
http://www.philt.org.uk/UKModernRai...49/1429850257_shhM5xN#!i=1429850257&k=shhM5xN

But none showing the concourse.

 

[table38]

This thread might help: http://www.railforums.co.uk/showthread.php?t=85134

Also:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/smallritual/7033046625/

If you want to go way back, here's one I've not seem before of the old and new links to P13/14 and Mayfield

Actually loads of fab stuff here if you search for London Road Station or Piccadilly Station, eg:

Found this as well: NRM Manchester Piccadilly a Visual History

 

[itsjamierawr]

Ah thanks, quite a change for the better today then! Interesting to see how it was back then!

 

[breadfan]

13/14 used to have toilets and steps down to near the Bull's Head/ Star & Garter. I think.

 

[table38]

13/14 used to have toilets and steps down to near the Bull's Head/ Star & Garter. I think.

It certainly did, very handy for dropping people off if they were heading north!

There were also steps down from the Little Chef onto Store Street (Store Street is the road that runs under the old Station Approach):

 

[theblackwatch]

13/14 used to have toilets and steps down to near the Bull's Head/ Star & Garter. I think.

I recall the toilets on the concourse used to be at below ground level (for the Gents at least). This thread has made me realise how good it is to photograph station concourses to look back in years to come - glad I got a few at Birmingham New Street a few months back!

 

[MidnightFlyer]

13/14 used to have toilets ... I think.

It did, you can still see quite obviously where they were. I'm not sure when they closed but it might have been around the same time the buffet in the waiting room did a few years ago.

 

[table38]

I recall the toilets on the concourse used to be at below ground level (for the Gents at least). This thread has made me realise how good it is to photograph station concourses to look back in years to come - glad I got a few at Birmingham New Street a few months back!

Agreed; I wish I'd taken some pictures of the temporary ticket hall they created during the changes at Manchester Piccadilly, the Barbers shop half way down the stairs to the gents, and the kiosk that sold lighters and bits shavers. We also had two W H Smiths for reasons I never quite understood!

I even remember getting our first ticket machine which IIRC just had loads of buttons for each destination. No fancy touch screens in those days.

The Little Chef was fab as well; who cares if there was only a train every hour to London when you could go and "have a Little Chef"* if you missed one!

I guess I didn't have a camera phone in those days

* © Lilly Savage

 

[northwichcat]

I even remember getting our first ticket machine which IIRC just had loads of buttons for each destination. No fancy touch screens in those days.

They were only for popular destinations though so fine for a return to Bolton but wouldn't be able to issue a ticket to somewhere like Sugar Loaf.
--- old post above --- --- new post below ---

who cares if there was only a train every hour to London

I'm sure there were plenty of journey options for London involving a change even if there was only 1 direct train per hour.

 

[edwin_m]

I can remember visiting Piccadilly several times at the age of six or seven (early 70s) and being impressed by how huge it was compared to any other station I had been to. The ticket seller would ask what you wanted then turn round to go to a huge machine where there was some sort of slider that went up, down and across to select the ticket from (I presume) one of a large number of small pigeonholes behind. I also remember the barbers and the subterranean exit to Store Street.

I didn't visit from 1978 to around 1988, when I was surprised how small and grotty the concourse actually was - by far the worst of the large WCML station rebuilds of the 60s in my opinion. I'm glad the original trainshed survived and has now been paired with a much better concourse which seems to be standing the test of time.

 

[northwichcat]

I can remember visiting Piccadilly several times at the age of six or seven (early 70s) and being impressed by how huge it was compared to any other station I had been to.

The first time I went to Piccadilly I alighted a train at platform 13 and boarded another from the same platform. The next time I arrived on the concourse by foot and thought it was a completely different station.

It looks big if it was the first large station you saw but it's smaller than other UK stations and compared to Munich Hbf it seems tiny.

 

[Signal Head]

Agreed; I wish I'd taken some pictures of the temporary ticket hall they created during the changes at Manchester Piccadilly, the Barbers shop half way down the stairs to the gents, and the kiosk that sold lighters and bits shavers. We also had two W H Smiths for reasons I never quite understood!

One of them was originally a John Menzies (the one directly facing the barrier line IIRC). The newsagent part of this business was sold to WHS at some point, after which the JM shop was presumably rebranded.

 

[Mugby]

I can remember visiting Piccadilly several times at the age of six or seven (early 70s) and being impressed by how huge it was compared to any other station I had been to. The ticket seller would ask what you wanted then turn round to go to a huge machine where there was some sort of slider that went up, down and across to select the ticket from (I presume) one of a large number of small pigeonholes behind.

I remember those machines too but I thought that when your destination had been selected with the slider, the machine actually printed the ticket.

Someone must know the name of them?

 

[edwin_m]

I remember those machines too but I thought that when your destination had been selected with the slider, the machine actually printed the ticket.

Someone must know the name of them?

May well be, as I said I was only around seven years old! Maybe the slider thing was selecting the correct printing block?

 

[Welshman]

Yes, I too remember those machines.

As Mugby says, they printed tickets on demand.

The operative would use the slide to line-up the station required, and then insert a blank card, the same size as the old Edmundson ticket, but with a different colour, depending whether you wanted 1st Class, 2nd Class, etc. They always looked a bit lop-sided when printed, for the outward portion was smaller than the return portion.

I seem to remember they were introduced along with the electrification of the Manchester/Liverpool to Euston main line in the 1960s, and I think Euston and other LM stations on that line had them installed also.

I can only remember seeing them on the LMR though.

 

[itsjamierawr]

Wow, this is fantastic stuff - these sorts of ticket machines and anecdotes are from well before my time given I was born in 1994! I wonder if lopsided printed tickets would be accepted in that kind of state today?

 

[61653 HTAFC]

Wow, this is fantastic stuff - these sorts of ticket machines and anecdotes are from well before my time given I was born in 1994! I wonder if lopsided printed tickets would be accepted in that kind of state today?

Avantix machines used by Northern staff seem to have a habit of being slightly mis-aligned, but still readable either by humans or the ticket barriers at Huddersfield.

 

[Solent&Wessex]

13/14 used to have toilets and steps down to near the Bull's Head/ Star & Garter. I think.

They still do, just out of use. If you go down to Fairfield Street you can see through the locked doors / gates into the stairway. Ditto on the platforms. The toilets are still there just locked. On wet and windy days you often see people sheltering in the doorway. They really ought to do something about these two platforms, they do somewhat let the station down as they are dirty, tatty and run down.

 

[AJP62]

May well be, as I said I was only around seven years old! Maybe the slider thing was selecting the correct printing block?

Yes I think it was just the prining block that was being selected. I remember as a youngster in the 70s/early 80s Carlisle had a different version where the print block was manually taken from a rack and inserted into a machine. There was a handle on the side that was turned (bit like an old bus ticket machine) and a yellow ticket was printed, two bits if a return. Was a similar size to a credit card but portrate from memory and always curled. Never saw these anywhere else though I rarely bought tickets anywhere but Carlisle then I suppose!