North Bridge

North Bridge, Victoria Street, Manchester

This is a bridge built in 1893 using iron plate girder construction with a cast iron parapet. The girders are haunched at the sides to allow traffic to pass beneath while drawing sufficient support from brick abutments on either side. The cast iron parapet is decorated with bands running from the base, comprising continuous arches, key patterns, raised panels divided by Ionic pilasters, and foliage swags.

The bridge forms part of Manchester's complex railway development. Victoria Station was established as the western terminus of the Manchester & Leeds Railway Company's trans-Pennine line in 1844, designed by George Stephenson, with a bridge across Victoria Street constructed at the same time. This 1844 bridge is the earliest of three bridges that would eventually serve the station.

Around 1864, a second bridge was built immediately to the north, serving a line to Bolton and Wigan developed by the Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway Company. By the 1880s Victoria Station had grown into one of the largest passenger stations in the country. Manchester Exchange Station opened to the west in 1884 across the River Irwell to address interconnection problems, and the 1844 bridge was widened at this time to provide access between the two stations. This linkage created what was then Europe's longest passenger platform, partly carried on the bridge and extending through the original 1844 section of Victoria Station with a canopy over the platform and track.

The 1893 bridge described here was the third to be constructed, built north of the 1864 bridge to carry further track between Exchange and Victoria Stations. Between 1903 and 1908, Victoria Station was further extended with a new facade by architect William Dawes. Exchange Station was severely damaged by bombing during the Second World War and closed in 1969. The 1893 bridge became redundant in 1992–4 when the new Arena was built into the north side of Victoria Station. The train shed roof was demolished in 1982, though the canopy survived until 1994 and remnants of the platform remain on the 1844 bridge.