The Great Eastern Railway - Liverpool Street Station

Arthur H. Beavan had the following to say in Imperial London, published in 1901, about Liverpool Street Station:

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In order of length, 1102 miles, the Great Eastern Railway comes next to the Midland.

It does not belie its name, for it deals exclusively with the eastern counties, which are honeycombed by its lines.

Originally at Shoreditch, one of the most inconvenient and uncomfortable stations it is possible to imagine, the Great Eastern at Liverpool Street is now the largest terminus, not only in London, but in the kingdom, and covers about fifteen acres.

Under five spans - four parallel, and one transverse - of glazed roofing, are eighteen "arrival" and "departure" platforms, with ample space for the movement of passengers, who to the number of over 110,000, pass in and out of the station daily.

For the working of this gigantic traffic, no fewer than 376 siganalling-levers are in use - 136 in one box, and 240 in another.

A feature in the Great Eastern locomotive department, is that a large number of their engines are constructed to burn either solid or liquid fuel.

The Great Eastern Railway at their London goods-station deals with about 500,000 tons of merchandise per annum, of which one special branch - the green pea traffic - represents during the season as much as 11,600 tons.

This tremendous bulk of produce is brought to London by special trains, and has reached as heavy a weight as 950 tons in one night; the delivery of it to the various markets, Spitalfields, Covent Garden, etc, beginning as early as 9.30 pm, and continuing up to 8.30 the following morning.

The Company also conduct the collection and delivery of a heavy parcels traffic, amounting in the course of the year to about 2,500,000 parcels in London, and an additional 600,000 at the suburban stations.

The Great Eastern Railway employs some 160,000 men, its passenger-guards receiving up to as much as £2 per week; the engine-drivers of the first grade, an average of 8s. per day, with an annual bonus and overtime; the porters from 17s to 20s; and the signalmen from 32s to 35s per week, with a bonus at the end of the year; the shunters being paid at a rate that gives them a maximum of 32s per week.

The Great Eastern Railway has a big continental traffic, that to Holland having enormously increased, particularly by the new "Hook" Royal Mail route, often in the season as many as three hundred travellers speeding nightly to the Low Countries.

Cheap excursions to "Poppy Land" abound during the summer; it is the trippers' great line.

On a Bank Holiday, the sight at Liverpool Street is one not to be forgotten, and he who has never witnessed it should do so from the iron foot-bridge that spans its platforms.

Thousands of people throughout the day throng the booking-offices, and flow in ceaseless streams towards the various starting-points.

Next: Locomotive London in 1900: The London and South-Western Railway: Waterloo Station