page_title: Wakefield Kirkgate railway station
section_title: History
hierarchical_section_title: Wakefield Kirkgate railway station / History
caption_attribution_description: English: Photo taken at Wakefield Kirkgate railway station, West Yorkshire, England.
context_page_description: Wakefield Kirkgate railway station is a railway station in Wakefield, West Yorkshire, England. Unlike the nearby Wakefield Westgate railway station, Kirkgate is unstaffed. The station is managed by Northern but also served by Grand Central. It is on the Hallam, Pontefract and Huddersfield lines. It has a limited number of services to London King's Cross.
context_section_description: The original Kirkgate station opened by the Manchester and Leeds Railway in 1840 was the only station in Wakefield until Westgate was opened in 1867. The railway station building dates from 1854.
  Some demolition work took place in 1972, removing buildings on the island platform and the roof with its original ironwork canopy which covered the whole station. A wall remains as evidence of these buildings. After this, Kirkgate was listed in 1979.
  Since Westgate developed as Wakefield's main railway station, Kirkgate was neglected for many years and deteriorated until it was in a poor state of repair. In January 2008 the former goods warehouse was demolished to make way for a depot for Network Rail. In October 2008, part of the station wall collapsed, destroying a parked car.
  The station is unstaffed and, despite the presence of CCTV, it suffered from crime. A rape, a serious assault and several robberies took place there. In July 2009, Kirkgate station was visited by Secretary of State for Transport Lord Adonis who dubbed it "the worst medium-large station in Britain". Local consensus was that the state of its facilities discouraged its use.
caption: Wakefield Kirkgate platform, 2013
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