The History...
Opened on 8 August 1910 by the London & North Western Railway, Manchester Mayfield was built alongside Manchester London Road station (later Piccadilly) to handle the increased number of trains and passengers following the opening of the Styal Line in 1909. It was connected to London Road via a high-level footbridge. It was mainly used by suburban services to the south of Manchester, but a number of main line services used it during busy periods.
Mayfield suffered the effects of bombing during World War II, when it was hit by a parachute mine. During the 1950s, the sole passenger usage consisted of the arrival of the Pines Express from Bournemouth West at about 5pm. It came into its own for a brief period during the electrification and modernisation of what was to become Piccadilly Station in the late 1950s, when many services were diverted to it after a restoration of sorts. It was closed to passengers on 28 August 1960.
Use as a goods station:
The site was converted into a parcels depot which opened on 6 July 1970. Royal Mail constructed a sorting office on the opposite side of the main line and connected it to Mayfield with an overhead conveyor bridge which crosses the throat of Piccadilly Station. The depot closed in 1986 following the decision by Parcelforce, Royal Mail's parcels division, to abandon rail transport in favour of road haulage. The building has remained disused ever since, with the tracks into Mayfield removed in 1989 as part of the remodelling of the Piccadilly Station layout. The sorting office was briefly reused as an indoor karting track, but has now been rebuilt as the Square One development, prestige offices used by Network Rail; the parcel conveyor bridge was removed in 2003.
Disuse:
The site is currently owned by BRB Residuary. The interior of the station was used in Prime Suspect as a drug dealer's haunt. It was also used as a double for Sheffield railway station in The Last Train. The roadside building was gutted by a fire in 2005.
