Station Name: BRADFORD EXCHANGE

[Source: Chris Armour]
Date opened: 9.5.1850
Location: On the south side of Hall Ings
Company on opening: Lancashire & Yorkshire Railway/Great Northern Railway (joint)
Date closed to passengers: 14.1.1973
Date closed completely: 14.1.1973
Company on closing: British Railways (North Eastern Region)
Present state: Demolished, but the part of the perimeter wall and the former entrance steps still remain.
County: Yorkshire
OS Grid Ref: SE166330
Date of visit: January 2005
Notes: The original Lancashire & Yorkshire Railway terminus in Bradford was situated at Adolphus street, but the facilities were inadequate and inconveniently sited. The station was closed to passengers in 1867 and the line was extended into Exchange station situated closer to the city centre near to the wool exchange, after which it was named.


The new station was opened by the joint efforts of the Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway and the Great Northern Railway on 9 May 1850. In 1867, the Leeds, Bradford and Halifax Junction Railway, which had previously used Bradford Adolphus Street, built a link to the tracks into Exchange station to join the two existing companies; Adolphus Street station was then closed to passengers.

By the end of the 1870s, the station could not cope with the influx of passengers and it was completely rebuilt on the same site in 1880, with ten bay platforms and two arched roofs. Constructed of wrought iron, these rested at the outer sides on plain stone walls and classical corinthian style columns down the middle. Glass covered the middle half and timber (inside)/slate (outside) covered the outer quarters of each span. The four end screens were glazed in a fan pattern with decorative timber outer edging. The dimensions were a length of 450 feet , a width of 100 feet for each arch and a height of 80 feet, track to apex. The station never had a formal frontage; instead, passengers entered by an opening in the northwest side.

Each company had five platforms which were operated independently from each other; crossing over meant using Mill Lane junction half a mile up the 1 in 50 gradient out of the station. There were two separate booking offices, an arrangement which continued until January 1940.

Passenger numbers dropped dramatically after WW2 and by 1973 the station, with its 10 platforms was deemed too large for the volume of transport using it. In 1973 the Bradford Exchange was closed and replaced by a smaller four platform station fifty yards south on part of the site of the Bridge Street goods depot which was demolished at the same time. The old Exchange station was demolished in 1976 and the site was used as a car park. In 1977, a bus station was built alongside the new station, and, in 1983, it was renamed Bradford Interchange to link buses and trains in a covered environment.

The site of Bradford Exchange now houses Bradford Crown Court and is due to be developed as a 'Justice Quarter' with new Magistrates' and Coroner's Courts.

During the 1970s and 1980s, Bradford Interchange was considered the mainline station for Bradford with express services to London King's Cross, Trans-Pennine services to Liverpool and Newcastle and summer Saturday services to the South-West. The Inter-city services were moved to Forster Square station in 1992 when the line was electrified.


Tickets from Michael Stewart

Bradford Exchange station c. 1912



1893 1:2,500 OS map.

Bradford Exchange station and Bridge Street goods station in 1951. Click here for a larger version.
Photo received from Phill D

Looking north towards buffer-stops at Bradford Exchange station in April 1961.
Photo by Ben Brooksbank

B1 4-6-0 no 61173 is about to take a train out of Bradford Exchange in the 1960s.
Photo by Robin Barbour courtesy of Bruce McCartney

Bradford Exchange in the 1960s.
Photo by Robin Barbour courtesy of Bruce McCartney


An unusual view of Bradford Exchange during a roof inspection in the mid-1960s.
Photo by Mike Collins

Bradford Exchange Station in spring 1967
Photo by Gary Miller

Bradford Exchange station seen from Bridge Street in the late 1960s
Photo by Nigel Cross

Bradford Exchange station looking south in June 1970
P
hoto by Andy Rukin

Bradford Exchange concourse in January 1973, shortly before closure.
P
hoto by Alan Longbottom. Reproduced from Geograph under creative commons licence

Bradford Exchange Station in June 1973, shortly after the track was lifted
P
hoto by Nigel Brassington

Bradford Exchange Station c. June 1973 seen from the new Exchange station


Demolition of Bradford Exchange station quickly followed the lifting of the track. This
view is summer 1973.
P
hoto by Alan Longbottom. Reproduced from Geograph under creative commons licence

An entrance to Bradford Exchange Station still extant in January 2005. Bradford crown court is seen above occupying the site of the station.
P
hoto by Chris Armour

Click here for more pictures of Bradford Exchange


 

 

 

[Source: Chris Armour]





Last updated: Tuesday, 16-Apr-2019 11:28:11 CEST
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