Birkenhead Woodside railway station

Birkenhead Woodside was a railway station at Woodside, in Birkenhead, on the Wirral Peninsula, Cheshire. It was served by local services in Cheshire as well as long-distance services to southern England, including London. Birkenhead Woodside railway station was opened on 31 March 1878 to replace the increasingly inadequate passenger facilities provided at Birkenhead Monks Ferry station. The terminus was built further inland than originally conceived, in order to avoid demolition of the Mersey ferries workshop, situated on the bank of the river. The station was built on an east–west axis with the lines servicing the station coming from the south. The station was accessed via a half mile tunnel from the south which curved to the east into the station. This fell in line with the Liverpool termini, with only lacking tunnel access. In order to join up with the existing track of the Chester and Birkenhead Railway, the half mile-long tunnel from Woodside to alongside the existing Monks Ferry tunnel entrance, near Grange Lane, was constructed using the cut-and-cover method, with most of its length running under Chester Street. The station was cramped, with Platform 1 being in length, and longer coaching stock was not allowed to be stabled on the curved part of No.3 siding. The station was a grandiose building, with two semi cylindrical roofs covering much of the platforms. However, the size of the station made it have only five short (but wide) platforms, as much of the space was taken up by middle tracks and a roadway. The station building was known to local rail users as "the wrong way round"; for the majority of the station's life, its original rear entrance was used as the main booking hall, and Woodside's 'front' entrance was mainly for handling parcels. The latter entrance, covered in a porte-cochere to allow travelling gentry to avoid inclement weather, faced the graving dock on the south side of the station. It had been intended that passengers disembarking from the nearby ferry terminal of the same name would use this entrance.