On the inner side of the building is the General Departure Platform, extending 1010 feet in length by twenty feet in width; this and three lines of rails are covered with an exceedingly chaste and elegant iron roof of sixty feet span, designed and carried out by Mr. Wild, C.E. Behind this shed again, but visible from the general platform through the arches, is the spare carriage shed, 600 feet long by fifty-two feet broad. The whole arrangements of the buildings are admirably adapted to carry on with comfort to the public and with facility to the employés, the immense business that has so suddenly been brought to the city by the convergence of so many railways at this point. Some idea may be formed of the extent of the business here transacted, when it is stated that of passenger trains only, there now arrive and depart upwards of ninety-eight, averaging 3500 passengers daily, or one and a quarter millions annually. The full extent of the passengers’ station from the carriage landing at the east end to the one at the west end, is 1160 feet. This noble building is an object of considerable attraction: it occupies a space of ground a quarter of a mile in length;—only half the building appears in our illustration. Great expedition was displayed by Mr. Brassey in its erection, for although the first stone was only laid in August 1847, on the 1st of August 1848 it was publicly opened for traffic. The centre of the building, which is two stories in height, contains in the upper compartments, offices for the General Station Committee for the Chester and Holyhead, and the Great Western Railways; while on the ground floor, besides the usual offices and waiting rooms, we find the noble range of REFRESHMENT ROOMS, presided over with efficient zeal and attention by MR. HOBDAY, and his select corps of experienced assistants. If after your late journey, you feel any of the cravings of the inner man,—if dinner _à-la-mode_ lie uppermost in your thoughts—if you would enjoy an invigorating cup of coffee, unimpeachable pastry, a good glass of ale, or a fragrant cigar, take a turn in the REFRESHMENT ROOMS, and the utmost wish of your soul will be incontinently gratified. The entire number of hands employed upon the passenger station is 109, and in the goods department 130, including clerks, porters, pointsmen, &c. Between seventy and eighty goods trains arrive and depart every twenty-four hours, averaging 1600 wagons daily. In 1855, somewhere about 684,000 tons of goods, minerals and livestock passed under the manipulation of Mr. H. Parker, general goods manager. The Station Committee manufacture their own gas, the consumption of which upon this station is about 6,500,000 feet per annum. The present gas and waterworks now need to be removed more to the south-east in order to afford additional station room—the _smallness_ of the present immense building being a source of _continual and growing_ inconvenience. {13}