UX: Manchester Mayfield Street Station, Manchester

Earmarked for demolition last year which has now been postponed due to the Tory cuts. Someone should surely see sense to referb and reopen it. Piccadilly has been running at capacity for the last few years, Mayfield would be a wonderful (and much needed) overflow terminus. As it stands, it's one of the great ghosts of Manchester.

The London and North Western Railway’s (LNWR) busiest station in Manchester was London Road station. By the first decade of the 20th century it had become so busy that it could hardly cope with the levels of traffic being carried on the LNWR network. In particular the LNWR had great difficulty accommodating both main line long distance trains with local suburban services.

The answer was to build a new station to the south of Manchester London Road. This new station opened as Manchester Mayfield Station opened on the 8th August 1910. In effect it was really an overspill station for Manchester London Road (renamed Manchester Piccadilly in 1960).

The station was situated above street level the lines leading into it coming off a brick built viaduct. It was built out of red brick and had an imposing two storey frontage building that provided access from street level. Three platforms were provided which gave five platform faces, two of the platforms being island platforms. On the north site of the station a ramp led up from street level which allowed vehicular access to the platforms. An overall roof supported on iron columns was provided which covered all of the platforms. A footbridge connected

Manchester Mayfield station to Manchester London road to facilitate passengers who needed to change trains. Train services from the station operated to various destinations on the Buxton, Crewe and Macclesfield lines.

Mayfield Station became part of the London Midland Scottish Railway (LMS) in 1923 and that companies 18th July 1932 to the 11th September 1932 Summer timetable shows thirteen weekday departures from the station which called at all stations to Stockport. The weekday services ran mostly in the morning and evening rush hour. The situation seems to have altered on Saturday’s as more Stockport services appear to have operated from Mayfield throughout the daytime period. It is possible that this would have been because there would have been numerous holiday specials running from Manchester London Road on Saturday’s. The same 1932 timetable also shows a number of long distance arrival’s used Mayfield Station. 

For many years the station served Manchester’s commuters well but following electrification of many of the local lines in 1960 the station closed on 23rd August of that year. It lay derelict for nearly a decade but eventually it was converted into a parcel’s depot opening on 6th July 1970.

The parcels depot closed in the late 1980s and since then the station has stood idle.

The derelict interior was used in the Television Drama Prime Suspect 5 as a drug dealers haunt. As Manchester Piccadilly Station (formerly London Road) is once again running out of capacity there has been a proposal to reopen Mayfield Station. It will either be as terminus, as it was before, or lines will be extended through the station and join up with the existing line to Oxford Road.