Remembering Liverpool Structures - The Moorish Arch

 

The old Moorish Arch was located within the Cavendish railway cutting at Edge Hill built over the line at the eastern side of the first Edge Hill station, the oldest passenger railway station in the World, where the locomotives were originally attached and detached from trains. This was the point where cable haulage changed to locomotive power. With George Stephenson's buildings being very plain on the Stockton & Darlington line, the directors of the Liverpool & Manchester Company suggested to George Stephenson that they would like something more ornate on their line. The resultant arch, designed by the Liverpool architect John Foster, responded to the railway directors' desire for a monumental ornate structure to mark the entrance of the railway into the city. The arch was functional as it served as a bridge connecting the two steam engine houses across the deep cutting with Stephenson using the Moorish Arch as camouflage for the stationary engines which powered both inclines. He situated them at the end of the station area in the form of towers on either side of the line, spanned at this point by an Arch, which was decorative with two battlemented towers and decorated masonry forming a grand and impressive entrance to Liverpool. Steam and smoke from the engines was ducted through flues in the rock face on either side to two tall chimneys, nicknamed 'the Pillars of Hercules'. The two steam engines powered the cable railway apparatus which was used to haul wagons with goods from the docks up to Edge Hill through the Wapping tunnel and passenger carriages up the final stretch from Edge Hill to the railway terminus at Crown Street. The oldest railway tunnel in the world under city streets, Stephenson's 1829 Crown Street tunnel is a single track tunnel running from the site of the old Crown Street station to the Moorish Arch and back again. First class passengers could also join the trains here, conveyed by horse-drawn carriages from Dale Street in the city centre.

Liverpool & Manchester Railway - engraving by I. Shaw showing the inauguration of the railroad line. The official convoy is stopped in front of the Moorish Arch in Liverpool Station

It was opened by the Duke of Wellington, who was the Prime Minister at the time, in a grand opening ceremony attended by thousands of people who came from all over the world to witness the spectacle. It was also the site of where, on the 15th of September 1830 whilst attending the opening of the Manchester and Liverpool railway, William Huskisson, MP for Liverpool, was killed at the opening ceremony. Huskisson was with a number of other dignitaries, and while his train, the steam locomotive Northumbrian, was stopped for water he decided to go to greet the Duke of Wellington, who was riding in another part of the train. However herald sounds warned of The Rocket, which was running on the adjoining level, approaching them. Everybody scrambled out of the way, or attempted to reboard the first car. Huskisson was was slow and awkward and was knocked over causing severe bleeding to his leg. He was placed back on the Northumbrian and driven to the home of the Vicar of  Eccles, where he was attended by an eminent Manchester surgeon. Despite these attempts to save him, Huskisson died later that day. He was 60 years old and became the first person ever to be killed by a train.

The Liverpool & Manchester line was so successful that in the the 1860s it needed a wider line to give additional access to Crown Street Station. Unfortunately, this meant that the Moorish Arch had to be demolished in 1864, when the right hand (south) side of the cutting was widened out..

Some say when Stephenson's Rocket left Edge Hill for Manchester on the 15th September 1830 it marked the beginning of the modern world. 

 see also:- http://www.thefootballvoice.com/2022/01/remembering-liverpool-structures-st_12.html