It replaced the cramped LNW terminus at Wellington Street, which had opened in 1848 with the line to Dewsbury.

After closure, part of the station site became a Royal Mail sorting office, later partially redeveloped as the West Point residential development; the remaining half of the former sorting office site was to have been used for Lumiere, a 170-metre (560 ft) high skyscraper, but eventually became the site of the Central Square office development.

A goods lift and a viaduct that approached the station remain extant.

The last train was an early evening service to Harrogate filled by the usual Birmingham RC&W DMU.

Detonators were placed on the track by railway staff which exploded as the train rolled away from the platform and past the signal box on its final departure.