St Enoch Station was a former mainline railway station in Glasgow.
Located on St Enoch Square in the city centre, it was opened by the City of Glasgow Union Railway, in 1876. The first passenger train stopping there on 1 May 1876, with the official opening taking place on 17 October 1876. The St Enoch Hotel at the front of the station opened on July 3rd 1879. With 200 bedrooms and 20 public rooms, it was the largest of the city's three railway hotels. The imposing frontage facing St Enoch Square was 360ft long and 120ft high and the North wing, extending to Dunlop Street was 500ft long.
In 1883 it was taken over by the Glasgow and South Western Railway and it became their head quarters. St Enoch Station was the first major public building in Glasgow lit by electricity. The original six platforms were covered by an arched roof measuring 83ft high, 204ft wide and 525ft long, modelled on St Pancras Station in London.Such was the success of the station, that extra platforms and a second roof, 70ft high by 143ft wide were added in 1901. In the 1923 grouping it was taken over and then operated by the London Midland and Scottish Railway. After the nationalisation of the United Kingdom rail network, the station was run by British Railways.
It was a large station (the second largest in the city) with 12 platforms and two impressive semi-cylindrical glass/iron overall roofs. The station was closed in 1966 as part of the rationalisation of the railway system undertaken by Dr Richard Beeching. In an act that can be described as nothing more than architectural vandalism, the roofs of the structure were demolished, despite protests, in 1976. The St Enoch Hotel which fronted the station and the brick-arch viaducts which supported the station were then
demolisheddemolished, beginning in 1977, with the city council claiming the site was earmarked for a building for use by the Ministry of Defence - this never materialised.
1978 was Architectural Heritage Year. The site is now occupied by another glass structure, the St Enoch Centre, a large and rather hideous shopping centre which opened in 1988. The remains of the station and hotel were used to help in fill the Queen's Dock on the banks of the River Clyde, today the home of the SECC.
The small red sandstone ticket hall which stands in St Enoch Square immediately west of the shopping centre is not part of the former rail station, but in fact the former ticket hall for the adjacent St Enoch subway station on the Glasgow Subway. Though the mainline station is gone, parts of the arcaded approach embankments (now containing shops and restaurants) can be seen to the east of the shopping centre's carpark. Though these currently go nowhere they once connected with the Glasgow City Union Railway and the City Union Bridge of 1899 which still spans the River Clyde to destinations in the south. The much spoken of Glasgow Crossrail scheme hopes to use this section of track and incorporate it into the SPT network.