Lime Street Station

1867- 1879
Grade II

The present station comprises two parallel sheds each covered by a wide curved iron and glass roof. The north shed was begun in 1867 and, at the time, was the widest in the world with a span of 200 feet. 

The engineers were W. Baker and F. Stevenson. It replaced successive earlier sheds on the same site, the first built in 1836 and its replacement in 1851. The almost identical south shed was completed in 1879. 

The earliest terminus at Lime Street, erected by 1836, offered the opportunity to create a suitably dramatic point of arrival in Liverpool and the Town Council contributed £2000 towards the construction of its two storey classical façade by leading Liverpool architect John Foster Jnr. 

This building seems to have set the stage for the subsequent developments in the immediate area: St. George's Hall on the plateau in front of the station and the collection of civic and cultural buildings on William Brown Street, which are also in the classical style. Together these have become the forum of Liverpool.