Description

BRISTOL

ST5972 TEMPLE WAY
901-1/42/291 (North East side)
01/11/66 Bristol Old Station, Temple Meads
(Formerly Listed as:
TEMPLE WAY
Temple Meads Station)

GV I

Railway station. 1839-41. By IK Brunel. For the Great Western
Railway Company. Limestone ashlar, squared Pennant rubble with
a hipped slate roof.
Axially-planned with offices across the end facing the road,
the engine shed behind and the passenger shed to the SE now
linked with Temple Meads Station (qv). Tudor Revival style.
Offices are 3 storeys; 7-window range. A symmetrical front
missing the balancing right-hand Departures gateway is
articulated by diagonal buttresses, octagonal turrets with
blind panels and lozenges flanking a raised, crenellated
central section with panelled buttresses and a central
2-storey oriel window; ground and first floors have 2- and
3-light mullion and transom windows with label moulds and a
Tudor-arched doorway set within a half-blind 4-light window;
c1985 shop fronts between the inner buttresses and the
turrets; above a drip mould runs a long scroll inscribed GREAT
WESTERN RAILWAY COMPANY INCORPORATED BY ACT OF PARLIAMENT
MDCCCXXXV; the oriel base has quatrefoil panels, trefoil
panels with shields over the lower windows and an open work
crenellated parapet; above the upper windows is a drip with
heads and flowers, to a raised parapet with blind panels and a
central stepped gable containing scrolls and shields; a range
of linked round chimney shafts to the left gable.
To left, the 2-storey Arrivals gateway has flanking turrets, a
wide Tudor arch under round panel in square frame for a clock,
shields and a worn scroll, with Pennant wheel stops and
wrought-iron double gates; a lower connecting block has a
smaller gateway and blind lancet above. The Pennant rubble
engine shed behind has a turreted screen wall and crenellated
parapet, and a tunnel crossing beneath it at the end;
passenger shed has a central projecting Arrivals entrance
facing N with corner turrets and a gabled parapet and
4-centred doorways.
INTERIOR: the Director's doorway gives to a large open-well
staircase with crenellated octagonal newels and barleysugar
banisters, and a panelled ceiling with openwork vine-leaf
cornice and a central pendant of openwork mouchettes; the
Board Room is panelled with a large fireplace. The sheds are
built above a semicircular-vaulted undercroft: the engine shed
has cast-iron stanchions below the top-lit drawing office; the
fine aisled passenger shed has a cantilevered timber roof with
false hammer beams above an arcade of Tudor arches on
cast-iron columns.
HISTORICAL NOTE: the GWR line to London was completed in 1841
when the Bristol terminus opened. Arrivals and Departures were
on opposite sides, passengers passing through the undercroft
which held the waiting rooms. The engines were turned around
on turntables and moved from line to line in the engine shed.
The functional space of the station as designed by Brunel is
almost entirely intact, 'easily the most complete survivor of
the early provincial termini, and an exceptionally important
one.' (Gomme).
(Gomme A, Jenner M and Little B: Bristol, An Architectural
History: Bristol: 1979-: 346; The Buildings of England:
Pevsner N: North Somerset and Bristol: London: 1958-: 421).

Listing NGR: ST5959272419

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• British Empire and Commonwealth Museum at Wikipedia
• British Empire and Commonwealth Museum official website
• Wikidata Q4969927

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.

Recommended Books

• 
  Devon (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Specifications for Building Conservation: Volume 1: External Structure: Practical Examples v. 2
• 
  Surrey (The Buildings of England) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Bedfordshire, Huntingdonshire, and Peterborough (Pevsner Architectural Guides): Written by Charles O'Brien, 2014 Edition, Publisher: Yale University Press [Hardcover]
• 
  Somerset: South and West (Pevsner Architectural Guides) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Somerset: North and Bristol: The Buildings of England (Pevsner Architectural Guides) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)