Cultra Station House

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

Single-storey railway station with attached two-storey stationmaster’s house, in typical decorative red brick late Victorian fashion, built in 1897, possibly to designs by G.P. Culverwell. Built to serve the Cultra halt of the Belfast & County Down Railway, the stationmaster’s house has been a private dwelling since at least 1937, with the whole building in private ownership since 1957. The property was vacated in c.1970s and has remained largely unused.

The building is located on the northern side of the line parallel with the platform, with a road bridge of c.1861-65 a short distance to the west, and a late 1900s metal footbridge to the east. Until recently the immediately surrounding area was covered in dense tree growth; however the ground to the north and west has been completely denuded. To the south, separating the building from the (still operational) platform, there are modern style metal railings.

Set on an east-west axis, the building is basically rectangular in plan, reducing in stepped fashion to the north-eastern corner. The eastern third of the plan is taken up with the two-storey former stationmaster’s house. Taken alone, the house is a roughly L-shaped, asymmetrical structure, with large gables to each end of the ‘L’ and the main entrance to the north. To the east-facing gable there is a narrow single-storey projection with a small walled yard area to its immediate north. The former station is wholly single-storey with a gabled west end. To the south, platform-facing, side of the station there is a long recessed ‘passenger shelter’ / entrance section.

The walls of the entire structure are red brick with unevenly-spaced strata of blue (‘engineering’) brick, a bevelled brick plinth, two decorative terracotta stringcourses (one to each floor sandwiched between two of the blue brick strata), and a terracotta eaves course. The brickwork to the south-western corner of the station section has been damaged. The roof is slated with decorative clay ridge tiles and square brick chimneystacks with plinths and cornices, the latter in blue brick. The gable ends of the roof overhang and each end has timber bargeboards with decorative ties. There is a decorative carved fascia over the recessed section of the station.

The window openings are mainly Georgian ratio with stone sills and segmental heads and reveals edged with moulded brick. The doorways are finished in a similar manner and all openings have label moulding with decorative stops. Most of the openings have been boarded up, with several to the station completely blocked with brick; however, many of the windows to the house have the remains of one over one timber sash frames. There is a small roundel opening to the gable of the station.

Historical information

The section of track along which this station is situated was constructed by the Belfast, Holywood & Bangor Railway Company between 1861 and 1865, to join Bangor with the Belfast & County Down Railway Company’s line from Belfast to Holywood, itself dating from 1847-48.

The new line cut across the demesne surrounding Cultra House and largely because of this the original station at Cultra was built under the clear instruction that it must be ‘…of ornamental character…constructed and for ever thereafter subsequently maintained by the Company to the satisfaction of the owner for the time being of Cultra demesne…’. Charles Lanyon was commissioned to design the building and the genteel inhabitants of the vicinity were also supplied with a covered footbridge over the track, the only example on the entire system.

In 1884 after having run into financial difficulties, the BH&BR was wound up by Act of Parliament and its assets transferred to the B&CDR. Twelve years after this the original station at Cultra was destroyed in a malicious fire. The present station was built in 1897, and is contemporary with the station further along the Bangor branch at Carnalea, and Tullymurry (between Downpatrick and Dundrum) on the main line. As such it is likely to have been designed by the B&CDR’s engineer, G.P. Culverwell. A new covered footbridge was incorporated into the east end of the building.

According to information supplied by the present owner, the stationmaster’s house was sold into private hands in 1956, the same purchaser acquiring the station section the following year. Historical notes prepared by The Belfast & County Down Railway Museum Trust (based on actual B&CDR company minutes), show that the stationmaster’s house was rented to a private tenant from at least 1937, and that plans for converting the station to a dwelling were drawn up in the same year. But these do not appear to have been carried through, later minutes from the war years indicating that the waiting room, at least, was still in use; moreover recent plans show that its layout has not been altered. Documentary (and physical) evidence suggests that internal work was carried out to the stationmaster’s house in c.1938, however, with an extra bedroom and bathroom created on the upper floor.

The whole building was vacated c.1970s and has remained largely unused ever since.

The covered footbridge was removed in the late 1940s. The building was vacated c.1970s.

References- Secondary sources
1 McCutcheon, W.A., 'The industrial archaeology of Northern Ireland' (Belfast, HMSO, 1980)
2 Johnson, Stephen, ‘Johnson’s atlas & gazetteer of the railways of Ireland’, (Midland Publishing Ltd., 1997)
3 Historical notes supplied by The Belfast & County Down Railway Museum Trust, May 2005 [On file within EHS. These notes contain information taken from B&CDR company minutes .]
4 Information supplied by the owner, May 2007

Criteria for listing: architectural interest

A. Style
B. Proportion
C. Ornamentation
D. Plan Form
J. Setting

Criteria for listing: historic interest

Y. Social, Cultural or Economic Importance
X. Local Interest

Evaluation

This building is a fine, externally largely original, piece of late Victorian railway architecture, with stratified brickwork, decorative terracotta detailing and ‘tied’ bargeboards, all typical of the period and genre. It is also has rarity value, for not only does it represent the almost complete survival of a 19th century suburban station ensemble in its own right, but is also a relatively scarce example of a combined station and stationmaster’s residence. In addition, it possesses an interesting history, the whole building having been in private hands since the 1950s, whilst the line itself continued in operation. The fact the railway context remains is also important.

Most suburban /rural stations such as this were abandoned with the rationalisation of the network in the mid 1900s, and, devoid of their raison d’etre, and frequently left ‘landlocked’, were either allowed to decay, demolished to make way for development, or unsympathetically altered for other purposes. Cultra is one of a very small handful of exceptions.