Moorish Arch

This structure was designed by John Foster Jnr and served as a signature gateway to Liverpool on the 1830 Liverpool & Manchester Railway. It bridged the tracks in a 70 ft deep sandstone cutting at Edge Hill which then was just outside the town limits. Besides its iconic status, it also housed the stationary steam engines that powered the winding engines that hauled trains into Crown Street station and up from the Wapping goods terminus down by the docks. Originally intended to be stone built, it was a relatively late addition by which time stone was in short supply and accordingly replaced by brick. Demolished in the 1840s to permit widening of the permanent way, only the staircases on the north side remain visible along with the cavities excavated in the cutting wall and the three equally iconic tunnels.