History

The Chester to Holyhead railway was proposed to improve links between London and Dublin. The bill was passed in July 1844 with Robert Stephenson as engineer and Francis Thompson of Derby as architect. Rhyl was amongst the initial 14 stations provided for in the Act of Parliament and the line was officially opened in 1848. It was increasingly run by the LNWR and by the 1880s they were carrying out improvements. After 1887 Rhyl Station was enlarged because of the greatly increased traffic resulting from the town’s boom as a holiday resort. The shape of the original Thompson building with its projecting corner blocks to the front was changed, creating a longer main building with an enormous porte-cochere (now removed) and footbridge, together with enlargement of the goods yard and erection of new signal boxes. Rhyl was also the terminus for the Vale of Clwyd Railway (incorporated 1856).

Exterior

Station Front: The character of the station is largely that of the later C19 remodelling, but does retain the core of Francis Thompson’s mid C19 station building in the remodelled main block. Two storeys; brown brick with yellow and red brick banded dressings; hipped slate roofs. Five-bay main block has an ashlar cornice punctuated by circular bosses, and a canted central entrance porch to booking hall. Horned sash windows with horizontal marginal glazing bars; cambered and shouldered heads to ground floor windows and doorways. Old photographs show a grant porte-cochere across the whole frontage of this main block. Single storey linking ranges to either side. That to left is longer and adjoins the set back office and waiting-room range which is similarly detailed, but with canted bay window (altered) to right and paired central windows to first floor. Gabled cross range to extreme left-hand side. Beyond that is a 5-bay partially opened fronted range, arcaded with cast iron columns, foliate capitals and pierced spandrels. It includes a loading bay for parcels and luggage, and the 2-bay Station Master’s Office. At extreme right-hand end is the continuation of the main platform canopy, wrapping around a boarded store at the SW end of the platform.

Up Platform: Broad platform covered by a deep pitched roof, the canopy then cantilevered outwards to the platform edge, retaining a deep fretted valence. Roof and canopy are carried on square-section cast-iron columns and steel girders, braced longitudinally by lattitude girders. Flat boarded ceilings to either side of glazed central gable. The platform elevation of the main building has rendered panelled frieze and repeats the brick detail of the front; similar cambered and shouldered openings and sash glazing including canted bay to Tea Room.

Footbridge and Down-platform: Cast-iron columns carry steel-framed footbridge, with pitched roof, and continuous glazing in wood-panelled superstructure. Low red-brick lift towers to either end, with pyramidal roofs. Twin flights of stairs rise from the SW end of the up platform, retaining original cast-iron balustrades with pointed heads to uprights and brass knobs to handrails, the central one of which continues across the bridge, to separate the flow of passengers. Similar paired staircases to NE end of down-platform canopy, which is shorter than that of up-platform, but similar in style and construction, with cast-iron columns and steel girders carrying roof and canopy with deep fretted valence.

Reasons for Listing

Listed for its special interest as one of the original stations on the Chester to Holyhead Railway line and for its major remodelling which stands as remarkable testimony to the rapid expansion of Rhyl as a national holiday resort, an expansion itself owing in large part to the presence of the railway.

Group value with the No 1 and No 2 Signal boxes.

External Links

• Cadwr Listing

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

• 
  Department for Communities Listed Historic Buildings of Northern Ireland: Information Guide for the 2nd Survey of Historic Buildings
• 
  Staffordshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Listed Buildings and Other Heritage Assets
• 
  This Old House: Restoring, Rehabilitating, and Renovating an Older House
• 
  Hampshire: South (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Lancashire: Liverpool and the South-West (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)