You may have noticed the paint shop by the railway bridge in Smithdown Road – but did you know it was once a railway station named after a world-famous city park?
The white-painted C&G Finishes buildings sits squashed between the railway track and a sandwich shop next door.
But the unassuming building was once Sefton Park Station, serving customers heading from Liverpool to Manchester, Crewe and Chester. It was closed in May 1960.
The ECHO went to C&G Finishes to look at what survives from railway days.
The frontage onto Smithdown Road has been rebuilt and has long lost its distinctive wooden canopy.
But from the narrow yard outside the building is still recognisable as a station thanks to its brick arches.
Inside the building and through the reception area is a paint room with a brick arch that would once have been familiar to passengers.
And up on the mezzanine level is a blocked-up brick arch where a tunnel once led to the tracks.
C&G Finishes today specialises in painting metalwork from bike frames to radiators and even parts of planes.
Its owner Gerry Williams is planning to refurbish the building he works in.
He said: “I didn’t know there was a station there til I was half way through buying it. Then an old feller said to me that this used to be Sefton Park station.
“When I was a kid I’d always wanted to own a station. For some people it was an Aston Martin, I wanted a railway station.
“And when I bought this, it turned out I’d inadvertently bought a railway station.”
Why Sefton Park station closed
The Sefton Park station sits in what remains a popular residential area, with many private homes and many shared student homes in Smithdown Road.
It feels as though any station there now would probably be busy – so it’s perhaps surprising to learn that the station was closed because it was too quiet.
The station opened in 1892 and was shut in 1960, three years before the first Beeching report that led to the closure of thousands of miles of railways.
The closure of Sefton Park station was agreed in March 1960. A Liverpool newspaper report from the time said the station was losing £2,000 a year and that it would have cost British Railways £35,000 to rebuild and modernise it.
The report said: “A spokesman for British Railways said that only 80 passenger tickets were issued on a week day and an average of 109 people per day made use of the station.
“The station staff consists of a junior clerk and two porters and the station comes under the supervision of the station-master at Mossley Hill.”
