Listed Building: CHESTER RAILWAY STATION (1375937)

CHESTER CITY (EM) SJ4166 STATION ROAD 1932-1/6/266 (North side) 31/07/70 Chester Railway Station (Formerly Listed as: CITY ROAD Chester General Station Entrance (including Mold Wing)) GV II* Railway station, offices and shop. 1847-8. By CH Wild and Francis Thompson, with some involvement by Robert Stephenson; the contractor Thomas Brassey. Stone-dressed pale brown brick; slate and glazed roofs. Italianate style. PLAN/EXTERIOR: 2 storeys to front; a long, symmetrical central block with end pavilions plus a 10-window right wing, a shorter left wing and the Mold Wing set forward with a 2-storey 6-window section then a 12-bay train-shed. The very long overall facade is architecturally homogeneous, punctuated with projecting pavilions. 4 cast-iron columns support glazed entrance-canopy with trusses on ornate arched brackets. A shallower canopy of 4 bays right and 3 bays left on cantilevered wrought-iron brackets. A plastered groin-vaulted loggia under the left pavilion; the right pavilion contains offices. The ground-floor windows are round-arched with large margin-paned sashes in moulded stone cases. Margined 12-pane sashes to first floor have pedimented cases. The pavilions have emphasised detail including balconies, and corner turrets with paired round-arched openings. The central sashes are tripartite. The wings are expressed similarly to the central range; all have friezes and cornices. The Mold wing, far left, expressed similarly to the other facades, its 3-window right end facing the main station forecourt and the long side of the offices plus the former train-shed parallel with the main frontage. It has boldly corniced chimneys. INTERIOR: the entrance and former public rooms, including refreshment room where in 1859 "the utmost wish of your soul" could "be incontinently gratified" (T Hughes - The Stranger's Guide) are stripped or covered. The concourse has round-arched doorways and windows to former public rooms and offices and brick basket arches and round arch to platforms; glazed roof. A grand stone-dressed brick stair to each end of the iron lattice-girdered footbridge linking near and far platforms. Platforms 4 and 7 form an island between tracks with accommodation in two pavilions, of 11 and 13 bays respectively, of stone-dressed brick with doors and margin-paned sashes in round-arched openings. The main canopy has twin ridges running parallel with the tracks. The inner edge is carried on a brick arcade running between the second and third track of the main line. The valley between the ridges is on 5 cast-iron columns between the pavilions. The outer edge is on a lattice girder and stanchions. The north bay platforms have a C20 canopy. HISTORICAL NOTE: at first the station served several railway companies and until closure of Chester Northgate Station c1969 was named Chester General. (The Buildings of England: Pevsner N & Hubbard E: Cheshire: Harmondsworth: 1971-: 159; Bartholomew City Guides: Harris B: Edinburgh: 1979-: 166-7). Listing NGR: SJ4122667008