Manchester – Liverpool railway originally terminated at Edge Hill in Liverpool because the land flattened out at that point. In 1836 the Lime Street tunnel was bored under Liverpool to connect the railway to the city centre. The 1,811-meter twin track tunnel was fully enclosed. In the 1880s it was converted into a deep cutting to increase the capacity to four tracks.
The tunnel passed directly under what is now the University of Liverpool campus, with a major opening right in place of the University Square.
You can still see the railway cutting next to the Crown Place accommodation and behind the Engineering Building and Brodie Tower in the North Campus. Although barely visible, the sound of passing trains is what gives the tunnel away.
However, when the tunnel first opened it would have been impossible not to notice it, with the noise and constant billowing of smoke around buildings and rooms of the University.
In 1929 the Vice-Chancellor initiated talks with the L.M.S. Railway company to achieve permission to cover the cutting. In his letter he described the conditions on campus as insufferable:
In some rooms lectures have to be suspended while the trains thunder beneath: but that is tolerable. The dirt and sulphur, which are quite inevitable, are not tolerable if there is any possible means of escaping from them.
The original proposal that the company agreed to was considered ineffective and the idea was put away for another 30 years. It was revisited in 1960, as the smoke affected the appearance of the University buildings, while very high walls along the edge of the cutting broke the appearance of open areas and made the planning of a cohesive University incredibly difficult.
This time the railway company finally allowed the university to fully cover the opening between Mount Pleasant and Bedford Street.
The new plan meant the area was zoned out for University development and could be included in the redevelopment scheme. The University Square was planned out by Blades & Partners as a paved pedestrian area with sitting and vegetation to make it a part of the public realm accessible to both students and general public. A bus enclosure was also considered due to development of the new Metropolitan Cathedral nearby.
An unexpected problem arose when the railway company demanded an annual rental of £500 for the newly enclosed area.
The University saw no justification to that and pointed out "the 'site' can scarcely be said to exist until we ourselves have roofed over the railway cutting at our own expense at a cost of £30,000". That price was also much higher than the rent of vacant land nearby and no account was given by the company that this enclosure would provide protection against hooliganism for electrical equipment.
To avoid abandonment of the scheme the University's Assistant Estate Officer proposed a more reasonable rental of £50 per annum. The company, however, considered the land to be of high interest and insisted to submit an offer of £200 per annum. Due to the lack of further correspondence it is unclear how this issue got resolved.
P755/12 - University Square sketch plan.
The University communicated to the City Council that members of public will be afforded access to the new paved area at all times and overall regarded the project as beneficial to Liverpool's improvement.
As a result, the Finance and General Purposes Committee agreed to contribute £5,000 to the University on behalf of the City Council towards the cost involved in covering the railway cutting.
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