Beeston Railway Station, including the canopy to platform one and shelters on platforms one and two, Beeston Rylands, Nottinghamshire

Summary

Railway station building of 1847, restored in 1986, with late-C19 canopy to platform 1. Adjacent late-C19 shelter to platform 1 and a similar shelter to platform 2.

Description

Main railway station building of 1847, restored in 1986, with late-C19 canopy to platform 1. Adjacent late-C19 shelter on platform 1 and a similar shelter on platform 2.

MATERIALS: The main station building of 1847 is of white brick, part-rendered, with ashlar stone dressings, under a slate roof with timber barge-boards and finials. The attached ridge-and-furrow canopy to platform 1 is iron- (and possibly steel-) framed with wired-glass sheeting. The platform shelters are timber boarding on an iron or steel frame.

PLAN: The 1847 main station building is orientated north-east to south-west and runs parallel to the track, on the north side of the line. It is of one-storey-plus-attic with a pitched roof. The plan is symmetrical: a central block, with gables at each end and lower gabled wings. To the north-east end there is a small, flat-roofed C20 projection and to the south-west end there is an open courtyard. A hipped ridge-and-furrow canopy extends from the platform elevation and there are wooden platform shelters to the south of the station.

EXTERIOR: The main station building is part-rendered, with ashlar quoins. The fenestration comprises timber doors set in timber frames with transom lights and blocked surrounds, and cross-windows with stone mullions and transoms and lozenge glazing. At the gable ends are barge-boards with finials: those to the central link block are plain, while those to the lower wings have pierced decoration.

The north-west (forecourt) elevation of the main station building is of five bays. These comprise from north-east to south-west: a blank bay to the side wing; a gabled bay with a double doorway with a transom light, and above a shield inscribed ‘MR’; a blank central bay; another gabled bay with a doorway which has side lights and a transom light, and a shield inscribed ‘1847’ in the gable; and a final bay with a cross-window. Beyond this is an entrance to a walled open courtyard, with white brick piers, corbels supporting the lintel, and a metal gate. At the north-east end of the main station building is a shallow, projecting C20 extension with a timber doorway flanked by two-light windows, which have pre-cast concrete cills and lintels, and a flat roof.

The platform elevation has from north-east to south-west: a wing with a cross-window; a blank gabled bay; a central bay with a doorway flanked by C20 windows that have pre-cast concrete cills and lintels; a projecting gabled bay with a door surrounded by lights in a tall opening; and another wing with a cross-window. In the gables of the second and fourth bay are similar shields to the forecourt elevation.

Attached to the platform elevation is a four-bay ridge-and-furrow canopy on enriched square iron columns with corbels that spring to decorative pierced spandrels. Beyond that to the south-west there is a platform shelter braced and divided into eight bays by wooden partitions on iron or steel trusses against a back wall. These have rising rafter I-beams which support the angled, single-pitch roof. The back wall and roof are sheeted in tongued-and-grooved timber boards. Attached to the roof is a plain valence except for quarter-round drops covering the end of the rafters. The northernmost bay of the shelter has a door to the walled courtyard area whilst three of the bays house wooden benches with baluster legs. Another bench is situated in the fifth bay of the main station building. Platform 2 has a similar shelter, divided into twelve bays with six wooden benches with baluster legs within each bay.

INTERIOR: Only the booking hall, toilets and café in the main station building were available for inspection. The booking hall and café have been altered but retain some fixtures and fittings, including cornices, dado rails, wide skirting boards, four-panelled doors, and door and window surrounds. In the café there is a simple round-headed stone chimney-piece behind the counter.

Pursuant to s.1 (5A) of the Planning (Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas) Act 1990 (‘the Act’) it is declared that the following are excluded from the listing: the C20 reinforced concrete stepways to the adjacent overbridge; the C20 lamp posts; the C21 disabled access ramp to the station car park; the ticket machine next to the north-west wall and late-C20 and C21 signage are not of special architectural or historic interest. Internally the late-C20 or C21 metal seating, the toilets and modern services are also declared not to be of special architectural or historic interest.

History

The first Beeston Railway Station was built as part of the Midland Counties Railway, which opened from Derby to Nottingham on 4 June 1839. It is illustrated in the Midland Counties Railway Companion (1840) as a small gabled cottage with a T-plan with Tudor features; it housed ‘an office, retiring room, kitchen, bedrooms, &c.’ The station was replaced with a larger building in 1847 by the Midland Railway, which had been formed in 1844 by the merging of three railway companies which met at Derby: the North Midland Railway, the Birmingham & Derby Junction Railway and the Midland Counties Railway. Beeston is the earliest known example of what would become the Midland Railway’s signature style for small station buildings.

The most substantial later additions to the station are the platform canopies and shelters, and the access arrangement across its north-east end. The ridge-and-furrow canopy to platform 1 and the shelters to platforms 1 and 2 were added in the late-C19, probably in the 1890s; they share details with a surviving 1894 Midland Railway platform building at Wellingborough Station.

In the late-C19 an arched footbridge with latticework parapets was also built on the north-east side of the station. Immediately beyond this Station Road (also called Meadow Road) intersected the railway line on a level-crossing. However, this arrangement changed in the 1960s when a concrete overbridge was built to carry the road over the line. The footbridge was demolished and access to the platforms was provided by stepways to the overbridge.

A major refurbishment programme was carried out on the main station building in 1986, which is shown in a surviving set of drawings. Earlier in the C20 extensive additions had been made, including flat-roofed single-storey extensions across the entire forecourt elevation, with altered openings to the external wall. These were demolished in 1986 apart from the extension to the north-east. The openings were restored, new timber doors and surrounds were provided to match the originals that survived to the platform elevation, and the interior was reorganised to accommodate a new booking hall and ticket office.

Reasons for Listing

Beeston Railway Station, built in 1847 for the Midland Railway, is listed at Grade II for the following principal reasons:
* Architectural interest: as a distinctive early railway station formed of gabled pavilions, featuring shields of the Midland Railway company, and a link block with intricately decorated bargeboards and lozenge patterned windows, which became the signature style for the company’s small stations;
* Historic interest: as a station built for the Midland Railway company, one of the most important and ambitious companies of the era of railway development in England;
* Rarity: as the earliest surviving Midland Railway station, which includes rare late-C19 wooden platform shelters.

External Links

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