Location type

Names and dates

Note: text in square brackets is added for clarity and was not part of the location's name.

Description

This station was a terminus. It was close, but not actually at, Greenock Harbour. It was above street level (described as a 'considerable height') and a set of steps ran from the entrance down to the street. Offices were on the ground level and the platforms were above street level. There was a colonnaded front with an archway on either side. It was close to the harbour but not on a railway pier. The terminus was a short distance south of the West Harbour and a little west of the East Harbour. East Quay Lane ran northwards to Customs House at the West Harbour (later name Brimner Street, now Brymner).

This was a three platform station - two main platforms on either side of a double track line which terminated close to Cathcart Street and a shorter bay platform on the west side. A wooden trainshed covered the north, buffer, end of the station.

To the south, at Regent Street, was the goods yard with a stone built goods shed. The locomotive shed and works was further east at St John Street (now John Street) see Greenock Works and Shed. A mineral depot was added on the north side by Chapel Street with a link (the Dellingburn Branch) to the docks down Dellingburn Street to Greenock East Harbour and Greenock Victoria Harbour. A plan to extend a goods line through one of the station arches down East Quay Lane to the Steamboat Quay at the Customs House did not come to fruition.

When the railway was extended west to Gourock the line was cut back, realigned and Greenock Central built where the new line extended the route west. This took the station slightly further south of the harbour. The former station and cut back line became the approach road to the new station.

A note on the name. Originally simply 'Greenock' and referred to as this in contemporary guides, street directories etc. Renamed Cathcart Street around the time the competing Greenock and Ayrshire Railway station took the name Greenock Princes Pier [1st]. The name 'Bridge Street' is mentioned in many modern secondary sources, probably a confusion with the Glasgow terminus Bridge Street.

A long paint shop existed directly to the east of the station by Bogle Street. This appears to have been the paint shop of the railway works used to maintain carriages. It was demolished with the construction of Greenock Central. Possibily misidentified as the steps leading up to the Bogle Street footbridge crossed the south end of the building.

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