Deansgate Goods Station and Attached Carriage Ramp

DEANSGATE GOODS STATION AND ATTACHED CARRIAGE RAMP, WATSON STREET

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Overview

Heritage Category:
Listed Building
Grade:
II*
List Entry Number:
1268529
Date first listed:
04-May-1979
List Entry Name:
Deansgate Goods Station and Attached Carriage Ramp
Statutory Address:
DEANSGATE GOODS STATION AND ATTACHED CARRIAGE RAMP, WATSON STREET
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Date:
2001-09-24
Reference:
IOE01/05791/31
Rights:
© Mr Neil Short. Source: Historic England Archive

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Official list entry

Heritage Category:
Listed Building
Grade:
II*
List Entry Number:
1268529
Date first listed:
04-May-1979
Date of most recent amendment:
02-Apr-1996
List Entry Name:
Deansgate Goods Station and Attached Carriage Ramp
Statutory Address 1:
DEANSGATE GOODS STATION AND ATTACHED CARRIAGE RAMP, WATSON STREET

The scope of legal protection for listed buildings

This List entry helps identify the building designated at this address for its special architectural or historic interest.

Unless the List entry states otherwise, it includes both the structure itself and any object or structure fixed to it (whether inside or outside) as well as any object or structure within the curtilage of the building.

For these purposes, to be included within the curtilage of the building, the object or structure must have formed part of the land since before 1st July 1948.

Understanding list entries

Corrections and minor amendments

The scope of legal protection for listed buildings

This List entry helps identify the building designated at this address for its special architectural or historic interest.

Unless the List entry states otherwise, it includes both the structure itself and any object or structure fixed to it (whether inside or outside) as well as any object or structure within the curtilage of the building.

For these purposes, to be included within the curtilage of the building, the object or structure must have formed part of the land since before 1st July 1948.

Understanding list entries

Corrections and minor amendments

Location

Statutory Address:
DEANSGATE GOODS STATION AND ATTACHED CARRIAGE RAMP, WATSON STREET

The building or site itself may lie within the boundary of more than one authority.

District:
Manchester (Metropolitan Authority)
Parish:
Non Civil Parish
National Grid Reference:
SJ 83565 97867

Details

SJ 8397 NE, 698-1/31/432

MANCHESTER,
WATSON STREET (West side),
Deansgate Goods Station and attached carriage ramp

04/05/79 (Goods Station);
23/11/79 (attached Carriage Ramp)

II*

Goods station and warehouse, and attached carriage ramp, now car park. 1885-96, and 1899, for Great Northern Railway Company. Steel-framed construction, cladding of red brick with blue brick bands, slate roof. GOODS STATION: Rectangular plan, 267 feet long and 217 feet wide. Five storeys, with 27-window east and west sides and 17-window north and south ends; segmental-headed windows with cast-iron glazing bars; frieze with lettering in white brick:"GREAT NORTHERN RAILWAY COMPANY'S GOODS WAREHOUSE" (on all four sides); and brick bracketed painted cornice with blocking course. The east facade (to Watson Street) has five wide cart entrances at ground floor with deep iron lintels, and the north end has three similar entrances. The west side and south end have similar entrances at 1st-floor level: two where the carriage ramp enters at the north end of the west side, and three offset to the left in the south end where the former railway viaduct enters. In addition, the west side has four bays of tiered segmental-headed loading doorways with cast-iron surrounds, separated by two pairs of windows. The interior is of brick jack arch, fire-proof construction. To the west side at its north end, CARRIAGE RAMP to the upper floor of the goods station completed 1899. Brick, iron and steel, and paved with granite setts. 3-sided ramp extends west, then north, then east. The lower portion is carried on four semicircular vaults of blue engineering brick. The western portion and short return to the building has an iron deck supported on the open side by four steel stanchions with a blue brick parapet. Forms groups with nos. 235-92 Deansgate (q.v.).

For the original construction and full details of its working see "The Railway Engineer" for January 1899 and "The Engineer" for September 2nd, 1898. A unique survival of a 3-way railway goods exchange station, serving the railway, canal and road networks of the Manchester region, incorporating a complex system of hydraulic haulage between the subterranean canal access to the building, the street level access, and the other storage levels. Built to be fully fireproof, it was considered in its day to be one of the most advanced railway goods exchanges in the country.


Listing NGR: SJ8356597867

Legacy

The contents of this record have been generated from a legacy data system.

Legacy System number:
461733
Legacy System:
LBS

Sources

Books and journals
Engineer in 2 September, (1898)
Railway Engineer in January, (1899)

Legal

This building is listed under the Planning (Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas) Act 1990 as amended for its special architectural or historic interest.

Ordnance survey map of Deansgate Goods Station and Attached Carriage Ramp

Map

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© Crown copyright [and database rights] 2026. OS AC0000815036. Use of this mapping is subject to Terms and Conditions.

End of official list entry

All text content is available under the Open Government Licence v3.0 , except where otherwise stated. Any supplied maps are © Crown Copyright [and database rights] 2026 OS AC0000815036 and may not be reproduced without permission.

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