Archaeology Notes
Event ID 714178
Category Descriptive Accounts
Type Archaeology Notes
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/714178
NT27SE 221.00 25791 73853
Waverley Station [NAT]
OS 1:1250 map, 1970.
NT27SE 221.01 NT 25526 73749 West Signal Box
NT27SE 221.02 NT 262 738 Watching Brief (borehole coring works, 2002)
NT27SE 221.03 NT 26007 73814 Signalling Centre (East Market St)
NT27SE 221.04 NT 26167 73831 Goods Station (East Market Strret and New Street)
NT27SE 221.05 NT 26015 73870 Footbridge (Jeffrey Street to Calton Road)
NT27SE 221.06 NT c. 2582 7382 War Memorial Plaque (North British Rly war memorial)
NT27SE 221.07 NT 25694 73830 Original Booking Office (Waverley Bridge: Waverley Parcels Office)
See also:
NT27SW 90 NT 2397 7315 Edinburgh, Haymarket Station
NT27SE 1294 NT 2588 7379 Fruitmarket (railway goods platform beneath)
NT27SE 460 NT 25884 73737 North Bridge Scotsman Building (newspaper platform beneath)
For associated North British (railway) hotel (now Balmoral Hotel: NT 2582 7395), see NT27SE 241.
For associated (former) General Post Office (NS 25914 73960), see NT27SE 485.
For over-arching North Bridge, see NT27SE 1278.
For Scotland Street Tunnel (associated with the former General Station), see NT27SE 1279.
Not to be confused with (Caledonian Rly.) Princes Street Station (NT 2470 7355), for which see NT27SW 189.
For Waverley Bridge, Station and Market, see NMRS Historical File under 'North Bridge (new) and Street'.
Engineers: Blyth & Westland 1897
Roof and main structure of station rebuilt 1892 - 1900
REFERENCE - Scottish Record Office
North Tunnel. Four photographs relative to its construction and the widening of the approach lines to Waverley Station from the West.
1893 GD 1/531/1
REFERENCE - Edinburgh Public Library
J C Tunny's Photographs of Edinburgh (1855)
(Undated) information in NMRS.
Rebuilt by the North British Railway, 1892-1902, engineers Blyth and Westland. A 19-platform through and terminal station. The main part consists of a large island platform, with bays at both ends, and there is a subsidiary island for suburban trains, outside the main station wall. The roof of the main station is overall, of the ridge type, and there is a 2-storey office block with a large booking hall in the centre of the island.
J R Hume 1976
Although the earlier railway buildings have virtually disappeared there were originally three termini, operated by three companies. The North British and Edinburgh and Glasgow railways, which lay end-to-end along the S side of Canal Street (its line that of the present entrance ramp) were started in 1844. The third terminus, with a station to the N of Canal Street, was that of the Edinburgh, Perth and Dundee Railway which was opened in 1847 at right-angles to the others; its lines disappeared under Princes Street and the New Town to link with the Edinburgh, Leith and Newhaven terminus (opened in 1842) at Scotland Street.
In 1866, the North British, having absorbed the other two companies, held a competition to rationalise the layout which led to the closure the Scotland Street tunnel, demolished most of the old station buildings, and substituted twelve lines of through track with three wide platforms, covering the whole area with transverse valley roofs, fully glazed.
The opening of suburban links in 1884 and the Forth Bridge in 1892 necessitated further work. The surviving wings of the old station building were removed, but the salvaged front of one of them was used by Robert Morham for the N front of what is now (1984) the information office on the corner of Waverly Bridge and Market Street. The 1866 plan also displaced the Vegetable Market which lay to the S of the railway lines in the shadow of the North Bridge.
J Gifford, C McWilliam and D Walker 1984
1846 North British Rly. constructs (E-facing) General station on site of the former Physic Garden (NT27SE 247). Edinburgh and Glasgow Rly. brings traffic in from the W (through tunnels) in the same year. 1847 Canal Street station opened (at right-angles, to the N) by the Edinburgh, Perth and Dundee Rly and pre-1854 Name 'General' station superseded by 'Waverley'.
As configured after the rebuilding, the station comprises two termini back-to-back around a massive island platform, each of the outer platform-faces being capable of accommodating two full-length trains. The 'suburban' platforms on the S side essentially duplicate this concept and the whole station covers 23 acres (9.3ha) with 14,000 ft (4268m) of platform length (on 21 platforms) being capable of accommodating 358 contemporary coaches, signalled from four boxes.
Several of the platforms constructed in 1892-7 (nos. 2-6 and 8-9) have been removed, generally to be covered by buildings and car parking spaces.
A J Mullay 1991.
Edinburgh Canal Street Station (also known as Edinburgh Prince's Street Station): this station was opened on 17 May 1847 by the Edinburgh, Leith and Granton Rly. It closed to regular passenger traffic on 2 March 1868.
Edinburgh North Bridge Station: this station was opened on 17 May 1847 by the Edinburgh and Glasgow Rly. It was amalgamated with Edinburgh Waverley and renamed in April 1866.
(Name cited as Edinburgh Waverley). This major through and terminal station of the former North British Rly was opened (by the Edinburgh and Glasgow Rly) as Edinburgh North Bridge station on 22 June 1846. It was successively renamed Edinburgh Waverley station (by the North British Rly) in April 1886, and Edinburgh station (by British Rail) on 18 April 1966, and remains in regular passenger use.
Information from RCAHMS (RJCM), 2 February 1999.
R V J Butt 1995.
Waverley Railway Station [NAT] (at NT 2583 7387)
OS (GIS) AIB, May 2006.
