Postcards of the Past
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London Railway Stations
Liverpool Street
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A postcard of Liverpool Street mailed in 1904.
Liverpool Street Station was built on the site of the old Bethlem Royal Hospital for the Great
Eastern Railway. The station opened in February 1874 and was fully operational towards the
end of the following year with 9 platforms in use. It was built so that the company could have
a terminal closer to the city than that of their predecessor,  Eastern Counties Railway, which
was at Shoreditch. Many people were forced from houses which had to be demolished for the
construction of the station - this proved to be very expensive because of the cost of buying up
the necessary land. The Chairman of the Great Eastern in 1870, Lord Salisbury, said that
Liverpool Street was "one of the greatest mistakes ever committed in connection with a
railway."  Given the present passenger numbers, not many would agree with him today !
As with all the major London termini, a hotel
was a necessity, and the Great Eastern Hotel,
designed by Charles Barry and his son Charles
Edward Barry, opened in 1884. It was extended
in 1901.
Liverpool Street Station is one of the four railway
stations on the English Monopoly board.
In 1917, during World War 1, the station was the
first place in London to be hit by German bombs.
In May 1917 it took a direct hit which killed 162
people. During World War II a bomb in Bishopsgate
completely destroyed the glass roofing.
Many Jewish refugee children arrived at Liverpool
Street in the late 1930s. In September 2006 a
bronze sculpture, designed by Israeli artist and
former refugee Frank Meisler, was unveiled at the
station.
The Murder of Sir Henry Wilson.
Field Marshall Sir Henry Wilson was CIGS at the end of WW1 and
later a Conservative MP. He was an eloquent supporter of Anglo-Irish
Unionism. On 22 June 1922, he was at Liverpool Street Station to
unveil the memorial to Great Eastern employees who lost their lives
in the war. He took a taxi home to Easton Place and as he was about
to enter his house he was shot dead by two IRA gunmen - they were
later captured about half a mile away and subsequently hanged.
A plaque was later added to the memorial to commemorate Sir Henry.
Follow this link for more about the murder.
The station features in the film "Mission Impossible". A CIA
"Safe House" (fictional of course !) is situated above the Old
Broad Street entrance to the station, and the film's main
character (played by Tom Cruise) goes down to the main
concourse to use a payphone under the old double
staircase.