Source/Archive record SCH8561 - Heritage Assessment: The Railway Club, Warrington, Cheshire

A heritage statement and photographic record was compiled in November 2015 for the Railway Club, Warrington (SJ 606 885), in advance of proposed re-development into a surface level car park. Historic mapping shows that by the mid-19th century Winwick Street had developed into a mixture of residential properties and industry with a tannery located just to the north of the site. The first Ordnance Survey map of 1849 shows the site adjacent to Newton Street and divided into residential plots, to the north is a large house set within its own grounds, with the partial remains of a formal garden. It appears that some of the garden had been sold off to the nearby Pin factory. The entrance to the property was through a road from Winwick Street. To the east of the site were the formal gardens to the Education Society School. By 1890 the landscape had dramatically altered due to the building of the Central Railway Station in 1874. The houses, as well as Newton Street, had gone as had the Education Society Building and gardens. The large house site has been replaced by a Tannery factory and associated building. The site of the railway club was vacant and remained so until the 1960’s when the 1963 OS map shows the railway club built, its architectural style of hard lined and an austere geometrical shape suggests Modernism, the typical style of the post-war years. It was subsequently extended to the rear. The site visit (07/07/2015) confirmed that the building was derelict and in a poor state of repair. The drains were clogged with vegetation and litter, most windows were smashed and boarded up, and the metal rebar within the concrete window lintels and sills had swollen, breaking the concrete. It was clear that the area had been terraced for the construction of the club and the building had a cellar. No internal survey of the building was undertaken due to health and safety concerns.