392 History of Inland Transport 



wool- warehouse which can accommodate from 50,000 to 

 60,000 bales, and another that has a storage capacity of 

 150,000 bales ; and that an exceptionally large goods depot 

 and warehouse in Manchester, with floor space equal to one 

 and a quarter acres, cost the Great Northern Railway Company 

 no less a sum than ^1,000,000. 



To illustrate the nature of the accommodation offered by, 

 and the work carried on, in these great goods stations and ware- 

 houses, I offer a few details respecting the Bishopsgate Goods 

 Station of the Great Eastern Railway Company. 



Situate in the midst of one of the busiest of London's com- 

 mercial centres and in the immediate proximity of docks, 

 wharves, markets and warehouses carrying on, in the aggregate, 

 an enormous business, the Bishopsgate Goods Station is a hive 

 of activity of so extensive and varied a type that the working 

 bees employed form a staff of no fewer than 2000 persons. 



The premises, which have nine exits and entrances, are 

 divided into three levels, known as the basement level, the 

 rail level and the warehouse level. The total area covered by 

 the goods station, including railway lines, yard and buildings, 

 is twenty-one acres. 



The basement level consists of a series of arches on which 

 the lines leading into the goods station have been built. 

 Originally the arches were designed by the railway company 

 to serve the purposes of a general fruit, vegetable and fish 

 market, and this market was opened in 1882 ; but the lessee 

 of the Spitalfields market claimed certain monopoly rights 

 under an ancient charter, and the Bishopsgate market had to 

 be closed ; though the railway company continued to carry on 

 a market they had previously opened at Stratford, E., subject 

 to the payment of certain tolls to the aforesaid lessee in respect 

 to his rights. The Stratford market, located immediately 

 alongside lines of railway bringing produce from the most 

 important agricultural districts of the Eastern Counties, has 

 conferred great advantages alike on traders and on residents 

 in the East of London. The basement arches at Bishopsgate 

 are to-day let mainly to potato salesmen and others, who 

 find them of the greatest convenience because loaded trucks 

 arriving on the rail level can be lowered into the basement, 

 there to be moved by hydraulic power to the particular arch 

 for which the consignment is destined. 



