Former Railway Station

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

A two-storey gabled building with rendered walls and slated roofs, comprised of two parts, a former station building and an attached house. Main entrance or road elevation faces north.

North elevation: roof of Bangor blue slates in regular courses with overhanging eaves carried on shaped exposed rafter ends. Walls smooth rendered, lined and blocked with rusticated quoins to extremities and a projecting two-step plinth. Three chimneys, smooth rendered, with off-set base, moulded cornices; no pots.

Station portion, to right, has a central ground floor doorway leading into a storage cellar, segmental arched with raised surround and keystone; sheeted timber door. To left of door is a small circular opening but timber window now incomplete. First floor has three sets of coupled semi-circular arched windows with raised surrounds to heads continuous with a projecting stringcourse; windows round headed timber sliding sash, vertically hung, 2 over 2 with horns; projecting stone cills. To left-hand end of station portion is a pair of rectangular windows, timber fixed lights, originally to light the station toilets.

Domestic premises to left of entrance front: rectangular coupled timber sash windows, 2 over 2 with horns, to each floor at left-hand side; to right on ground floor is a cellar doorway as previous; three-light timber fixed light window above doorway, with dormer above that, small timber sashed 2 over 2 with horns. Cast iron gutters and downpipes. At left-hand extremity is a lean-to porch projecting from end gable, with a rectangular doorway leading to domestic quarters; a low red brick wall encloses a small front yard. To left of that is a short screen wall linked to a single storey loading bay at the extreme left containing a timber sheeted sliding door; derelict lean-to iron and timber shelter attached to front.

West gable: rendered as entrance front; contains a central semi-circular arched recessed doorway reached by a flight of granite steps up from entrance front; rectangular timber panelled double doors, original, in poor condition, surmounted by a round headed 3-pane fanlight; raised block surrounds to doorway with projecting stringcourse at impost level. Overhanging eaves supported on shaped timber brackets.

Rear elevation: single storey overlooking the former platform; slated roof as previous; walling rendered as previous, incorporating a four-bay arched concourse now partly filled in; cast iron rainwater goods, in poor condition. Windows are round headed and rectangular, some original sashed similar to entrance front, but others boarded up or modern replacements. Open recessed concourse area supported on square chamfered timber posts resting on chamfered squared iron posts with splayed stone bases; timber arched corners to rectangular openings, containing vertical timber tongued and grooved sheeted panels with shaped ends to the bottom; fourth bay to right is later filled in with horizontal timber boarding containing a doorway and window. Tarmac surface to concourse and platform, with concrete nosings to platform.
To the right is a short screen wall with an entrance leading to a small open toilet yard, with a single storey gabled former loading bay with sheeted timber sliding door to the right-hand extremity.

SETTING: The building stands within the built-up area of the town, facing the main road but set back from it within its own grounds; approached by a gateway comprising a pair of large rusticated rhyolite piers, now missing their caps, and mounted with modern iron gates; front boundary walling is of basalt rubble with rhyolite copings; walling later ramped at left-hand extremity with an original portion to east long removed to provide an access road to housing behind station; at the right-hand extremity the front boundary wall terminates with a single rusticated pier which retains its moulded cap, but corresponding pier and gates long removed. Set back to rear of single pier is a modern gateway with rendered piers and tubular metal gate. Area within gateways contains a driveway and a hard standing area, with a garden next to the road. Single storey modern shop adjacent to west gable of station. In front of station house just inside the main entrance gateway is a small gabled building, the former weigh-room: red brick plinth walls supporting horizontal timber boarded sides with timber fascias and barge boards to felted roof; red brick chimney; rectangular timber windows.

Historical information

Built as a railway station in 1855-6 for the Belfast and Ballymena Railway Company to the designs of their engineer and architect Charles Lanyon; contractor, William Dargan. The branch line from Drumsough Junction to Randalstown opened in 1848; this station was built when the extension from Randalstown to Cookstown was added; closed when the branch line and extension ceased in 1959.

References – Primary Sources
1. OS Map 1858, Co Antrim 43.

Secondary Sources
1. J.R.L. Currie, The Northern Counties Railway, Vol I (Newton Abbot, 1973), pp 31-2, 44, 53-57.
2. W.A. McCutcheon, The Industrial Archaeology of Northern Ireland (HMSO, Belfast, 1980), pp 122 and 172.
3. IHR 2195:61:2.

Criteria for listing: architectural interest

A. Style
B. Proportion
C. Ornamentation
D. Plan Form
H-. Alterations detracting from building
I. Quality and survival of Interior

Criteria for listing: historic interest

V. Authorship
W. Northern Ireland/International Interest

Evaluation

This is an example of a former railway station designed by an important Irish architect, Charles Lanyon. Despite a nuber of alterations, its original character and architectural value remain in tact..