If you’re a fan of the Night At The Museum films, you’ll be interested in this. How about a long weekend stay at one of the Museum of Science and Industry buildings, that was actually the site of theworld’s first passenger railway?
During a time of industrial revolution, this handsome property in the heart of Manchester became home to the Station Agent of the world’s oldest surviving passenger railway station. Now the Landmark Trust will carefully restore The Station Agent’s House to meet the needs of our own time, creating an environmentally sustainable and accessible eight-bed Landmark.
In 1828, the property’s site was identified by the Liverpool & Manchester Railway as being well placed for what would be Liverpool Road Station. The house became the dwelling of the first Station Agent, Joseph Green and was the hub around which Liverpool Road Station was developed. Here, so much that would characterise train travel was first seen, such as waiting rooms, signals, tickets, ticket offices, and the Station Agent’s house.
The small station at Liverpool Road couldn’t keep up with the huge popularity of passenger travel and the line was soon extended. By 1844 it existed solely as a goods and freight station and later simply a goods depot. When the station closed in 1975, the significance of the site was already understood and in 1983 it was converted into the Science and Industry Museum as part of a globally significant industrial heritage site, with the Station Agent’s House becoming museum offices.
Now, in partnership with the Science & Industry Museum, the project to make the Station Agent’s House accessible to the public and be used as a residence for the first time in over 100 years, will mark a key milestone in the Museum’s plans to enable visitors to experience every part of the globally significant industrial heritage site’s seven acre footprint.
Work is due to begin once the trust has raised the last bit of funding, to which you can donate here, and hopes to welcome visitors by 2024. Watch this space for the opportunity to live a piece of history, just for a few days.