Description

This list entry was subject to a Minor Amendment on 19/05/2014

SD5329
941-1/6/108

PRESTON
FISHERGATE (South side)
Preston Railway Station

15/03/90

GV II

Railway station. 1880, by Cooper and Tullis of Preston, for the London and North Western and the Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway Companies; altered at various dates, and renovations in progress at time of survey (1989). Booking hall and offices of buff brick with sandstone dressings, granite plinths and slate roofs; train sheds of cast-iron and steel with roofs of glass and corrugated sheet. Three island platforms, the centre much wider than the others, its north end covered by a descending approach road to the entrance block (the booking hall) and its centre occupied by 3 brick ranges on the same axis, containing other offices; with a 4th platform on the east side (now the entrance front from Butler Street). The entrance block has a tripartite rectangular plan, presenting a symmetrical facade with a 5-bay centre of 2 storeys and attic flanked by single-storey 3-bay offices (the centre embraced, and the side offices protected, by the glazed gable-ends of the 2 principal train sheds); the ground floor of the centre is open-arcaded, the front arcade faced with Tuscan columns of punched granite, the 1st floor has 5 sashed windows with moulded architraves framed by a sill-band, banded corner pilasters and a prominent bracketed cornice, and above this is a mansard roof treated as an attic, with 3 pedimented dormers (the larger one in the centre containing a clock), wrought-iron cresting with scrolls and anthemions, and tall side-wall chimneys. The flanking side offices have sandstone plinths, channelled corner pilasters, and stilted-arched openings with moulded architraves linked by imposts bands (including a doorway in the centre to the left). To the left are the gables of 2 wide aisled train sheds, both slightly bowed and with vertical-paned glazing (but the outer smaller), and to the right the gable of the 3rd train shed with altered glazing. The east side wall (to Butler Street), altered at various dates (principally by removal of former booking office) and recently renovated, is mostly a continuous arcade of stilted arched windows matching those of the office blocks on the main platform (see below).

INTERIOR: three brick ranges on main platform, 3 bays wide and respectively 15, 18 and 12 bays long, and of uniform design: tall ground floors treated as stilted arcades, the piers on moulded plinths of grey granite but otherwise of buff brick with moulded sandstone frames, capitals and architraves, and the openings mostly filled with tripartite wooden and glazed screens with dentilled cornices at impost level and radiating glazing bars in the overlights; between the arches, small carved corbels to cast-iron roof brackets with foliated open-work; a string course above the arches, and a moulded frieze and cornice. All these blocks (including the entrance) linked by sections matching the structure of the main sheds (but the one-bay gap between the centre and south ranges reduced to a tunnel by modern brick infilling). The train shed has a 4-span roof carried on cast-iron columns which have fern-leaf enrichment to the feet, stiff-leaf and lily decoration to the caps, and are linked by arched longitudinal latticed girders with rosette and tendril decoration; steel arch-braces with cast-iron foliated open-work, steel roof trusses with webs of tension rods, linked by latticed clasped purlins; and foliated arch-braced trusses to the central smoke-louvres. Ramp down from booking office to main platform protected by cast-iron railings with large rosette open-work panels, and top rail with star-and-spike cresting; footbridges at entrance end, of cast and wrought-iron, with latticed sides to the deck and straight steps with half-landings and decorated iron balustrading; subways linking centres of platforms, entered from central platform by a U-ramp and from east island by straight ramp, both protected by twisted bar railings, and from west island by steps protected by panelled railings.

History: built as compound station to replace former complex of separate platforms and offices built by different railway companies since 1838. A First World War memorial plaque dedicated to The Preston Pals ‘D’ Company the 7th (Service) Battalion of the Loyal North Lancashire Regiment (19th West Division), designed by John Shaw, was installed between Platforms 3 and 4 in 2012.

Listing NGR: SD5347029083

This List entry has been amended to add sources for War Memorials Online and the War Memorials Register. These sources were not used in the compilation of this List entry but are added here as a guide for further reading, 21 August 2017.

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Preston railway station at Wikipedia
• Wikidata Q2441793

External links are from the relevant listing authority and, where applicable, Wikidata. Wikidata IDs may be related buildings as well as this specific building. If you want to add or update a link, you will need to do so by editing the Wikidata entry.

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